1983D No Copper? 1 1

[Penny4YourThoughts]

Hello Everyone,

Just joined today, so be gentle!     I've been collecting very passively for ~50 years by just inspecting all coins that pass through my hands.  This week I found this penny.  It appears to be missing the copper.  I know from a cursory google search that people have been altering pennies for years by somehow dissolving the copper, etc.  I wanted to post this here to get some honest opinions.  Is it authentic?  The coin is in extremely good shape, so I'm thinking it's not fake/altered?  Also, the obverse seems to show a double die around the top edge?  I've never photographed coins before, so I tried different lighting and angles. I included a wheat penny just as a comparison between a normal coin and this one.  I also included a picture of the side of the coin in question.  Why?  I don't know...maybe someone will find that to be useful?  Okay, fire away with your honest comments and witticisms! 

-Michael

P.S. Do I need to be so formal in signing my posts?

[Henri Charriere]

Welcome to the Forum!  

As I am eminently UNqualified to offer even an opinion on matters relating to authenticity, I shall offer you a compliment on your '53-S Wheatie instead.  It is a fine example and appears to have retained a good deal of its original mint luster.  I am certain other members will drop by to answer your questions shortly.

Nicely cropped photos...  

[Greenstang]

Welcome to the Forum
Looks like it may have been in a bezel. Probably been plated for a piece of jewellery. 
That ring on the obverse is known as a Ridge Ring caused by a deteriorating die.

Edited yesterday at 01:46 PM by Greenstang

[Fenntucky Mike]

On 9/29/2024 at 8:09 AM, Penny4YourThoughts said:

Hello Everyone,

Just joined today, so be gentle!     I've been collecting very passively for ~50 years by just inspecting all coins that pass through my hands.  This week I found this penny.  It appears to be missing the copper.  I know from a cursory google search that people have been altering pennies for years by somehow dissolving the copper, etc.  I wanted to post this here to get some honest opinions.  Is it authentic?  The coin is in extremely good shape, so I'm thinking it's not fake/altered?  Also, the obverse seems to show a double die around the top edge?  I've never photographed coins before, so I tried different lighting and angles. I included a wheat penny just as a comparison between a normal coin and this one.  I also included a picture of the side of the coin in question.  Why?  I don't know...maybe someone will find that to be useful?  Okay, fire away with your honest comments and witticisms! 

-Michael

P.S. Do I need to be so formal in signing my posts?

Welcome to the forum.

Looks like the cent maybe plated. 

[Penny4YourThoughts]

On 9/29/2024 at 9:45 AM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Welcome to the forum.

Looks like the cent maybe plated. 

Thanks for the comment.  Is there any way to confirm if someone added plating to make it look 'silver', other than destructively scratching it to see if there's copper underneath?

[Greenstang]

You could weigh it on an accurate scale to two decimal points, silver would be heavier.  
You could also ask yourself where a silver planchet the size of a cent would come from,
 there were no silver coins that size produced by the mint.

Edited yesterday at 03:27 PM by Greenstang
Changed wording

[powermad5000]

Hello and welcome to the forum!
 

You do not need to be formal in leaving your name at the end of your posts. Unless you are on here a great deal, or have met many of the numismatists here, nobody will call out your name but will just use your member name here. They might call you Penny4 or something like that. On that, they are cents, not pennies, but we all know the saying.

Well, let's rewind back to when this was minted. This being post 1982 started it's life as a copper plated zinc cent if it was struck normally, and if it was struck normally, it would weigh somewhere around 2.5g (+/- 0.12g mint tolerance). If it was struck without the copper plating, it would be slightly underweight, probably a little closer to 2.3g. If this cent was copper plated zinc struck as normal and then plating was added, it should be slightly overweight, probably a little closer to 2.7g. Understand I am giving these weights in tenths of a gram, but when we weigh coins, it needs to be done with a scale that weighs to the hundredth of a gram (0.01g). You could weigh the coin and it might give a clue as to what is happening with the surface.

One thing to note, many copper (or bronze) cents and even some of these copper plated zinc cents were plated as part of school projects, others in experiments, and some by companies looking to make a cent appear as "just minted" . It is not uncommon to encounter plated cents going all the way back to 1943 steel wheat cents that were plated by companies to sell as items to get interest in their other inventory available for sale.

From the photos, which are great for a first time poster by the way, the look of your cent appears to be either plated or polished in my opinion. These zinc cents when they are truly an error because the planchet somehow got missed for copper plating do not have the look your cent has, but the exposed zinc is typically rather dull in appearance, "silver" looking but dull. I am including a pic in my response of a cent I was not able to win at auction, that somehow only got partially plated. Note the dullness to the exposed zinc. This is why I say I think your cent may simply be plated, but weighing the coin would give a good indication if that theory is correct or if there is actually something else happening on the surface.

 

[Fenntucky Mike]

On 9/29/2024 at 11:13 AM, Penny4YourThoughts said:

Thanks for the comment.  Is there any way to confirm if someone added plating to make it look 'silver', other than destructively scratching it to see if there's copper underneath?

As Greenstang wrote you can weigh it but any type of additional plating is typically extremely thin and the coin may still weigh within tolerance, especially so if it was underweight to begin with, same goes for if the copper plating was missing or removed. I also agree with Powermad5000's assessment that your cent looks shiny and that if the actual zinc core was exposed it would be duller looking in appearance. Also, I'm assuming you found this coin in circulation and if that's the case and the zinc core was exposed since leaving the mint there would probably be little left of this coin. This is one of those times where you have to take several factors into account to make a determination but typically, once you've seen a cent that was plated after it left the mint you'll not get tripped up by one again. 

[Penny4YourThoughts]

On 9/29/2024 at 11:08 PM, powermad5000 said:

Hello and welcome to the forum!
 

You do not need to be formal in leaving your name at the end of your posts. Unless you are on here a great deal, or have met many of the numismatists here, nobody will call out your name but will just use your member name here. They might call you Penny4 or something like that. On that, they are cents, not pennies, but we all know the saying.

Well, let's rewind back to when this was minted. This being post 1982 started it's life as a copper plated zinc cent if it was struck normally, and if it was struck normally, it would weigh somewhere around 2.5g (+/- 0.12g mint tolerance). If it was struck without the copper plating, it would be slightly underweight, probably a little closer to 2.3g. If this cent was copper plated zinc struck as normal and then plating was added, it should be slightly overweight, probably a little closer to 2.7g. Understand I am giving these weights in tenths of a gram, but when we weigh coins, it needs to be done with a scale that weighs to the hundredth of a gram (0.01g). You could weigh the coin and it might give a clue as to what is happening with the surface.

One thing to note, many copper (or bronze) cents and even some of these copper plated zinc cents were plated as part of school projects, others in experiments, and some by companies looking to make a cent appear as "just minted" . It is not uncommon to encounter plated cents going all the way back to 1943 steel wheat cents that were plated by companies to sell as items to get interest in their other inventory available for sale.

From the photos, which are great for a first time poster by the way, the look of your cent appears to be either plated or polished in my opinion. These zinc cents when they are truly an error because the planchet somehow got missed for copper plating do not have the look your cent has, but the exposed zinc is typically rather dull in appearance, "silver" looking but dull. I am including a pic in my response of a cent I was not able to win at auction, that somehow only got partially plated. Note the dullness to the exposed zinc. This is why I say I think your cent may simply be plated, but weighing the coin would give a good indication if that theory is correct or if there is actually something else happening on the surface.

 

Thank you, this was very informative.  I hate to admit it, but I'm now leaning toward my coin having been plated post-mint for some reason.  I'll see if I can weight it as an extra data point.  Either way, I'm still keeping it as an interesting curiosity.