Penny 1969D Silver, something other than copper

I have a 1969D penny that has a silver appearance, like a nickel or dime. Does anyone know if this was accidentally minted? I thought that someone might have plated it, so I carefully scraped the side with an x-acto knife and the metel type remained the same (I did not reach copper). See there pictures

http://yfrog.com/mspenny014aj
http://yfrog.com/0spenny0024aj

 

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Can you weight the coin?

 

NEVER a good idea!

 

No I can not. Any other suggestions?

 

Simple science experiment. This comes up often here.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/428318/make_gold_and_silver_pennies/

 

Even if you can't weigh the coin, you can check it's weight against regular coins.

All wheat cents (except the 1943 steel ones) and Memorial cents dated earlier than 1982 weigh 3.11g. Get a pencil, a popsicle stick or similar short, flat piece of wood, and 2 3.11g cents.

• Center the wood on the pencil with a known weight cent on each end.
• Carefully adjust the position of the wood until the cents balance.
• Remove one of the cents without changing the position of the wood, and replace it with your coin.

If yours goes down, it is heavier than normal, if the other one goes down, your coin is lighter than normal, and if it balances yours is right on.

jallengomez is almost certainly correct - I just wasn't going to mention that probability until you verified the weight of your coin.

 

Using the balancing method, the silverish penny is quite a bit heaver. Should I just give it a good scraping and see what happens? I'm nervous to do that if it might ruin a coin that might be of some value.

 

never scrape a coin, it will damage it and it will lower the value.

 

Any other thoughts? What should I do with the penny? Any way to determine if someone plated it, or that it is really stamped from the wrong metal?

 

1969d Silver Cent

I too have a 1969d silver cent and my first intuition was that it was electroplated somehow, as the other posters have speculated on this issue. However, a quick search on the internet turns up A LOT of folks finding this particular date in silver. That raises the question.... why so many of this specific date and mint are turning up? Is there something that is being missed? Respectfully, Rightbrainer.

 

Well if it did turn out to be something special you have already reduced it's potential value by 50% or more.

Well there are two thing first an ACCURATE weight, and the really important test would be a specific gravity test. And the first step in the specific gravity test is an ACCURATE weight. So as you can see no matter what the weight is a key factor.

 

Can you provide a couple of links to these folks that are finding silver cents? I think if you look into them that they are plated and not minted in silver. Unscrupulous sellers may be trying to pass these plated coins off as silver.

 

This is an old thread, but please... just how could a cent be minted in silver? That is so silly. Were there any cent size silver planchets being run through the mint in 1969? Of course not. But... there are thousands of silver plated Lincoln cents.

 

Most likely plated post mint - post pictures to help members assess what you have.

 

Check the weight again. 1.5 grams is WAY under the correct weight. A normal cent should weigh 3.11 grams. Make sure the scale in in grams. There is no way a normal, plated cent can weigh over 50% less than a normal, non plated cent.

 

In the past the United States has struck coins for Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Belgian Congo, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, French Indo-China, Greenland, Guatemala, Hawaii, Honduras, Israel, Liberia, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands East Indies, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Surinam, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand and Venezuela, so it is quite possible a coin could be struck on a foreign planchet. But you will have to find which one and confirm the weight and materials.

 

I found a 1969 D silver penny in a roll of pennies yesterday and it weighs 3.1 grams

 

So, from the weight, it must be a regular penny and the appearance must be from plating/coating.

 

I found a silver 1969d penny yesterday, in mint condition.it weighs 3.11 grams..where can I find out a value of it

 

Right here. It's worth 1 cent.