1944 Zinc/Steel cent, Nope, but what is it?

[carterhaines-migration]

Hi, I recently was looking through a random pile of wheat cents, and I came across what first looked like an ordinary 1943 Zinc coated steel cent. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a wide variety of strange things. I saw that the date was not 1943, but 1944; something that could, but most probably not, indicate a rare 1944 cent on a 1943 cent planchet. I also noticed the following weird things: The rim was copper colored, the color looked a little duller than a 1943 cent, its details were no better than EF-40, but its light shine seemed more like the shine of an AU-55 or better coin. I then went to weight the coin, it weighed in at 3.15 grams. 3.11 grams is the normal weight of a copper cent from this time, and 2.70 is the weight of the 1943 Zinc coated steel penny. The strangest thing about this coin, is its weak attraction to magnets, it easily stuck to some small NdFeB magnets, but its attraction to magnets is much weaker than that of a 1943 cent. All this evidence leade me to believe that this is a 1944 copper penny that someone coated in steel, but I wanted to make sure. Please post your opinions of what this coin is, thanks!

[TomB]

Sure seems like you have it nailed pretty well. The only other thing that might be at first thought possible, even if unlikely, is that it is coated in mercury.

[satootoko]

The only other thing that might be at first thought possible, even if unlikely, is that it is coated in mercury.

 

Two problems with that.

 

1. As a kid in the '40s I used to coat coins with mercury. Shined up the dimes real well, the nickles pretty well, and the pennies just looked dirty. (Quarters were not something a grammar school kid had very often in those days, and halves were waaaaaaaaaaaay out of reach!)

 

2. Mercury is non-magnetic.

[TomB]

I know mercury is non-magnetic; I hadn't meant that they were mutually exclusive possibilities.