What happened with these pennies 1 1

[Tuck1787]

Edited July 29 by Tuck1787

[J P M]

It looks like the zinc is showing through or they have gray paint on them. The pictures are too far away to make a reasonable assessment.

[Tuck1787]

On 7/29/2024 at 4:14 PM, J P M said:

It looks like the zinc is showing through or they have gray paint on them. The pictures are too far away to make a reasonable assessment.

I uploaded new pictures. Thanks for your response I haven’t seen these before

[Sandon]

      Welcome to the NGC chat board.

      After leaving the mint, these cents of at least two different dates (1991-D and 1993-D) were clearly exposed to some chemical, environmental or otherwise, that caused their copper plating to become discolored. This discoloration would destroy any value they might have had for collectors.

[Coinbuf]

Simple environmental damage, as mentioned perhaps a chemical of some kind, some paint or dye, maybe even someone playing with a low level heat source like a Bic lighter.   We have no way of knowing for sure, but for sure they are not errors.

[Greenstang]

Some sort of environmental damage. They didn’t look like that when they left the mint.

[RWB]

Damaged and worthless. A blowtorch can do a lot of interesting things to copper coated zinc.

[VKurtB]

On 7/29/2024 at 6:58 PM, RWB said:

Damaged and worthless. A blowtorch can do a lot of interesting things to copper coated zinc.

Correct.

[powermad5000]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

How many of these cents (not pennies) do you have? Just the two? If so, where did you get them?

Depending on the answers to these questions, I would only recommend trying one thing to either prove or disprove if these are painted or not. If you give them a short soak (2 minutes) in some acetone, if that is paint on the surface it will crack and bubble up and some of it will come off. Only use this in a glass jar and in a well ventilated area as it is a flammable solvent, and also use a rubber glove when retrieving the coin from the acetone. You don't need a ton. Just enough to cover the coin completely. If you leave the container open it will dissipate by the next morning.

Off hand, I see some bubbling on the surface of the 1991 D, so it could also have been heated up as suggested. Either way, I think this was some form of intentional damage.

[Henri Charriere]

🐓  :  I would have suggested spray paint.

Q.A.:  Ultimately, it wouldn't matter. The query is timed-barred by the Statute of Limitations.  Why the concept hasn't caught on is simple:

•  The coins featured do not sport Wheaties on their reverse sides.. Translation: they have little or no intrinsic value; Q.A. does not consider them to be "real."  Bad enough they have never, do not, and will not ever contain a single grain of precious metal

•  Being "new," and unreal is the least of their problems. Worse, tens of millions and eventually billions were made. Big Macs aren't real either but they taste better.

•  The legal concept, which no one accepts is rejected for two reasons: a). Members enjoy banging their collective heads over nonsense which gives them an unprecedented, socislly-accepted way to agree to disagree -- endlessly, and b).  The authors are universally disliked and Moderation's got their back. This time next year anyone who still remembers them will be besieged by a bumper crop of Newbies innocently inquiring, "Who were they?"  In light of @Coinbuf 's, @The Neophyte Numismatist 's, and @zadok 's past remarks, I would hope they would respond, "Quintus Who?"  

Man, I love this place!  🤣 

[VKurtB]

On 7/30/2024 at 6:27 PM, Henri Charriere said:

Big Macs aren't real either but they taste better.

Debatable. It all depends on your opinion of the “special sauce”. I am not a big fan.