Any error experts that can lend an opinion?

[jtryka]

I got these three pennies in a resent roll search, and they appear to be errors, though some more pronounced than others. The first appears to be a 1990 zinc cent struck through something, as the details are all washed out, but it has exceedingly high rims that are not coated in copper at all, so a very odd one.

 

The other two are earler, one appears to be struck really close to the edge not a big deal I think, but I also wanted it for comparison to the other, since that one appears to be a different composition, almost like brass. Now I've heard of cents that were struck in brass, but it could also be struck on a foreign planchet as well.

 

Any thoughts or opinions on these would be appreciated!

 

[Coindude]

Top one looks like it got spooned, the yellow one is a brass plated cent most likely. There are many years out there with yellow / brass plated cents.

[Dcoin]

The first coin gives me the impression of a grease filled die.

[richbeat]

The '81 is a slightly misaligned obverse die.

[jtryka]

You'll forgive my ignorance, but what is spooning a coin?

[Coindude]

When you tap the edge with a spoon to make it flat, but I have to agree, looks like the dies were grease filled.

[coinman_23885]

Top one looks like it got spooned, the yellow one is a brass plated cent most likely. There are many years out there with yellow / brass plated cents.

 

I disagree about the coin looking "spooned." I think the coin was struck with grease filled dies. I actually like it (even with the wear). (thumbs u

[Conder101]

It's not a grease filled die. While it is sometimes called being spooned, a common cause for coins like this is getting caught inside the fins of commercial clothes dryers where they get tumbled hundreds of thousands of times. All the hits on the edges cause them to broaden. If there is a lot of fine grit and dust inside the fins as well it acts as an abrasive and wears the features down while it tumbles giving you a coin like in the OP. If the things trapped in the fins are larger (sand other coins etc) the faces of the coins can come out covered with thousands of small nicks. If the fins are clean then the faces are normal and closely resemble in appearance the quarters and half dollars that sailors used to beat down with spoons to create rings during WWII. Hence the term "spooned"

 

If left in the fins long enough, the broadened rims will tend to curl back in toward the center.