1918 silver penny?

So I bought a roll of pennies looking for Indian heads for a project I came across what I thought was a steel penny that had a mason stamp in it, I didn't pay it much attention and set it aside when I decided to look at the date it is 1918 I know steel was used in ww2 so I got a magnet and a couple steel pennies they stick really well to the magnet this penny doesn't. My question is what is it I haven't found any 1918 Penny's listed as other than copper/bronze.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

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Most likely, silver plated.

 

thank you i think you are right into the oddity jar it goes

 

There are many many ways to plate a cent with silver. Photo lab rats have been doing it with used Fixer for many decades, for just one example. Been known to plate a few meself, I 'ave. When done well, they look just like BU 1943's.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

The Forum? Is Sinatra here? Oh, wait, never mind.

 

It could be mercury. I wouldn't handle it too much.

 

I used to literally play with flasks of mercury for hours as a kid and my dain is hardly bramaged at all. Bounced around in cars before they even had seat belts too. It's amazing I haven't self-immolated with all the no-no's we engaged in as kids in the 1960's. Oh, there were atmospheric nuclear bomb tests, too, in those days. How did we ever survive?!?!?

Let's get serious, shall we? Mercury vapor lamps, broken ones, are all over the place in landfills. Flourescent tubes with mercury, too. And we're going to worry about a plated cent? Not this guy.

 

This explains a lot about you

 

I just assume it can be absorbed through the skin, and it's highly toxic.
There are many cents that were plated this way and it would be dangerous to handle it too much if it indeed was mercury and not silver plate.

 

You've seen the "assume" bit, I don't need to repeat it here.

 

Yeah, I've played with mercury many years while a kid and it never bothered meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

Google the gold penny experiment and it shows how to plate copper cents (or other copper coins) with a thin layer of zinc and then heat them to cause them to form a thin brass alloy plate. The zinc coated cents can be polished so they look like silver.

 

It can't be absorbed through the skin, and in it's metallic form it really isn't that bad. Many chemical compounds of mercury, especially organic mercury compounds, can be very poisonous but they aren't that easy to form. Now I wouldn't CHEW on a mercury covered piece of metal, or heat it up and breathe the fumes that come off of it, but other than that mercury really isn't anywhere near as dangerous as people make it out to be.

 

I don't know about other people, but I have considerable amounts of mercury in my mouth intentionally put there by dentists over the years. Makes it kinda hard to scare me with it. Jus' sayin'.

 

Back in the early 60's when they suddenly started getting scared of lead in paint they removed the lead and switched from oil based paints to latex based. But latex paints can have a problem with mold and mildew so they added something to kill off the mold. Mercury. Yes they replaced the lead that would only hurt you if you ate the paint chips or sanded it and breathed in the dust, with mercury that would outgas from the paint over time and you would breathe in in the air in the room.

 

You remind me of my dad. He used to joke around and say dain bramage all the time!

 

Welcome, Mr. Spooner.

 

And how sure are we that I am not he? LOL.

 

Oh Lord, perish the thought........