Today's Coin Find 1 1

[J P M]

I was roll hunting tonight and this brass looking cent caught my eye. So just out of curiosity I put it on the scale, and it is the heaviest cent I have ever seen. Oh I did recalibrate the scale just to be sure. I very rarely see a cent at 3.11 most are around 3.00 to 3.09. So to see it hit 3.14 I thought it was maybe a bit different mix in the stew.

[ThePhiladelphiaPenny]

Interesting find. Might not be anything, but the color is off. Could it be plated with something? 

[J P M]

On 6/3/2024 at 6:16 PM, ThePhiladelphiaPenny said:

Interesting find. Might not be anything, but the color is off. Could it be plated with something? 

It is not plated it is just a bit more of a brass color. Perhaps the planchets came from a sheet with more copper and less zinc  

[Henri Charriere]

The Pi-Guy would definitely be interested in this.  I cannot recall his user name. He publically announced an ultimatum to all on the Forum:  Either you get rid of him (me) or I'm gone.  I'll say this mjch for him: he is man of his word. He fled the premises and ventured back once in the past three years.  He's blocked me.  His User handle was physics3.14 something or other. It's a shame he left for nothing. Nice find!

[powermad5000]

Do you think this could be one of those "brassy" cents that was being discussed in a different thread not too long ago?

[Henri Charriere]

On 6/3/2024 at 7:45 PM, J P M said:

....Perhaps the planchets came from a sheet with more copper and less zinc  

Hold-on-wait-a-minute...

You want to run that by me again?  The only analogy that comes to mind is the diluent (yes, correctly spelled) chosen to make a controlled substance less so.  Example: How come A overdosed on X and B,  his girlfriend, said X "fell off," that is had no effect on her?

"More copper and less zinc?"  I don't know.  You're going to have to do a lot better than that if you want to get my vote.

 Coca-Cola, is a brand-name, trademarked product produced to exacting specifications. You are perilously close to suggesting a government agency produced a generic product with little or no quality control. Oh, we still Kool 'n' the Gang, but I ain't buyin' it.       

[J P M]

On 6/5/2024 at 6:11 PM, powermad5000 said:

Do you think this could be one of those "brassy" cents that was being discussed in a different thread not too long ago?

It could be I never thought about it until that thread was brought up.

 

On 6/5/2024 at 8:18 PM, Henri Charriere said:

Hold-on-wait-a-minute...

You want to run that by me again?  The only analogy that comes to mind is the diluent (yes, correctly spelled) chosen to make a controlled substance less so.  Example: How come A overdosed on X and B,  his girlfriend, said X "fell off," that is had no effect on her?

"More copper and less zinc?"  I don't know.  You're going to have to do a lot better than that if you want to get my vote.

 Coca-Cola, is a brand-name, trademarked product produced to exacting specifications. You are perilously close to suggesting a government agency produced a generic product with little or no quality control. Oh, we still Kool 'n' the Gang, but I ain't buyin' it.       

Brass is made from 67% copper and 33%zinc also, just like a 1982 or earlier cent is 95% copper and 5% zinc just a different percentage of the mix was my point.

[Mike Meenderink]

Hey that is a 1979 no mint mark copper cent. That coin was most likely minted at the West Point Mint or the San Francisco Mint. If you can attribute it to any of those die pairs used, you have a pretty special coin.

In 1979, the US Mint made 6,018,515,000 Pennies without mint marks. Most people assume these coins were all from Philadelphia. In truth, 1,705,850,000 were made in West Point and 751,725,000 in San Francisco. Also, the coins were regular strikes aka business strikes, which means they were circulating coins used in everyday transactions. And they’re not expensive.

In February 2007, an MS 61 BN sold for $207. Red Pennies do a lot better though. An MS 68 RD sold for $5,463 in 2012. But with a dozen submitted to PCGS so far, their August 2023 value is $2,000. In 2023, an MS 66+ RD is just $46 with only five coins received. But an MS 67 RD is $120 with over 200 coins submitted, and MS 67+ RD is $425 with 12 known coins

[J P M]

On 6/5/2024 at 8:58 PM, Mike Meenderink said:

Hey that is a 1979 no mint mark copper cent. That coin was most likely minted at the West Point Mint or the San Francisco Mint. If you can attribute it to any of those die pairs used, you have a pretty special coin.

In 1979, the US Mint made 6,018,515,000 Pennies without mint marks. Most people assume these coins were all from Philadelphia. In truth, 1,705,850,000 were made in West Point and 751,725,000 in San Francisco. Also, the coins were regular strikes aka business strikes, which means they were circulating coins used in everyday transactions. And they’re not expensive.

In February 2007, an MS 61 BN sold for $207. Red Pennies do a lot better though. An MS 68 RD sold for $5,463 in 2012. But with a dozen submitted to PCGS so far, their August 2023 value is $2,000. In 2023, an MS 66+ RD is just $46 with only five coins received. But an MS 67 RD is $120 with over 200 coins submitted, and MS 67+ RD is $425 with 12 known coins

It is a 1979 but I think it would hard to prove its origin.

[Henri Charriere]

On 6/5/2024 at 8:55 PM, J P M said:

It could be I never thought about it until that thread was brought up.

 

Brass is made from 67% copper and 33%zinc also, just like a 1982 or earlier cent is 95% copper and 5% zinc just a different percentage of the mix was my point.

Absolutely right, J P M!  I should have known better after stumbling across an item which included the precise percentages of gold in the F20F GR series.  I could never figure out why the older ones differed from the restrikes until I saw those percentages -- which, while insisting both were 90%, actually differed enough to give one group a more coppery color. You got me there; my apologies!