Funny color penny

Fishing through my wife's change jar looking for wheat pennies when I came across this one with a gold tone.

Is this common?

In the grading/price guides I see Red, Red/Brown, and Brown - but never Gold.

What would cause it to go this color?

I have included a couple others just as a comparison. I also kept the flash off to try to capture the color the best (reason for being a little out of focus). The coin in question is the one in the top right.

Thanks

Darryl

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I presume that you mean the 1976 piece.
probably brass in the metal bixture.
If copper fall into the mix, (I'm not a chemist, but I remember this description, parts could be off) the extra copper %'age causes brass to mix and changes the color.
Not rare, not scarce, not valuable, just unusual.

 

Yes I do mean the 1976.

It is really odd looking.

Thanks Frank.

 

i too have 1 or 2 pieces like that. i would think their not that rare but you never know!:hammer:

 

I have a penny that's blue-purple and one that's orange. I just don't know how they got that way.

 

I've seen a few like that.

 

Let's face it.There are no end to ways of changing the color of cents.As long as there are kids (of all ages) with chemicals and electroplating kits,these things will turn up.
Check out this one I found.

 

Has any one seen the adds for the brass cents. According to the add... They were the first to offer the 1985 D brass cents after having them confirmed by the US Mint as genuine brass plated strikes. They offer a new discovery THE 1998 BRASS CENT. The price starts at MS 63 for 14.95 and ends with MS 68 for 85.00. I saw the add back in 1998 and kept it as a reference.

Lou

 

Lou:
Yes, I have seen the ads, (personally) a waste of money.

 

in honors chem we did a lab on making funny colorer pennies

you can make them silver or gold if you want to

basically you just heat a solution of potassiumhydroxide with some zinc and you put a penny in it
it'll turn silver pretty fast then you just dunk it in some water to seal in the color

if you want it gold then you take the silver penny and heat it and it'll turn gold in a second of two and then you put it in water to seal in the color

i just really had to urge to sign up for an account just so that i could tell you that if anyone tells you that you should buy gold or silver pennies you shouldn't because any highschool honors chem student can make you one in a minute

 

Already discussed

http://www.cointalk.org/showthread.php?t=43699&highlight=gold+cent