kannerjo Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 Greetings, when I came across this 1944 wheat cent it felt "off" weight-wise. Using a scale, I determined that it weighed in at 2.8 grams which is below the expected 3.11 grams. Is the lighter weight due to parts of the coin wearing off over time? Or could there be another explanation for the lighter weight? All attached images are of the same coin. Thanks in advance for any insights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenstang Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 First of all if you are going to weigh coins, a scale to at least two decimal points is required. One decimal point is not accurate enough. The +- variation for that copper cent is 1.13g. which would bring the minimum weight to 2.98g. The rest could probably be attributed to wear and corrosion kannerjo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Bob Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 (edited) First of all, welcome to The forum, if I haven't already welcomed you. Tolerance on the brass/bronze Lincoln cents is .13 g so a normal cent could be as light as 2.98 g and still be within tolerance. Your scale only reading to one decimal place means that your coin could actually weigh as much as 2.84 g. That leaves us just over a tenth of a gram underweight, possibly. The wear could account for that, I suppose, or the planchet could have been slightly under weight to begin with. Keep in mind that planchets were not weighed individually, so 3.11 is the average weight of a normal cent. And, this was during the war, so a slightly underweight Lincoln cent was probably way down the list of priorities for the government at that time. Edited May 14 by Just Bob kannerjo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kannerjo Posted May 14 Author Share Posted May 14 Thank you @Greenstang and @Just Bob for your insights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
