Yellow penny

I have a very shiny, looks brand new, yellow penny, with the date 1978 on it. Is it worth more than 1 cent? I will attempt to take a picture of it and post it.

 

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I have moved this post to it's own thread. Without pictures it will be hard to give you any advice.

Best Regards

Darryl

 

I have a yellow penny. It is very shiny and appears to be in 'new' condition. It is dated 1978. There is a letter underneath the date. It doesn't to be a 'D' though. It appears to be an 'R' or an 'S'. I will attempt to upload some pictures.

 

I cannot seem to upload a picture. I can email one to someone who would know.
We do have a local coin shop I could take it to.

 

Ok it appears to have uploaded!
The one on the right is a 2014 penny (shiny) with a 'D' clearly under the date. The one on the left is a shiny penny with 2014 and no letter under the date. The one in the middle is 'yellow', the date is 1978 and there is a letter under the date. However, looking under a magnifying glass it appears as a 'D' or an 'R' at some angles. It appears as an 'S' witht he naked eye.

 

Thanks Darryl! Can you see my other messages? And picture?

 

No problem I can see the pictures you posted. I have seen cents that have turned yellow like yours and there was no added value for the color specifically. Yours is as you described - very shiny yellow. Will be interesting to see if others think there is any added value based on the condition and overall appearance.

 

There's a video on youtube that explains how to turn a copper coin into a yellow.

 

Your coin has been plated. Spend it or keep it as a novelty piece.

 

Kind of what I was thinking - a little too shinny to be natural toning.

 

looks gold plated

 

Its been plated I found one like that before and what I found that was helpful was looking at VDB it was filled in. BUT keep a look out for "brass" cents I don't remember the years but I have a 1997 Lincoln "brass" cent they are not worth much maybe a $1 or 2 but cool to have! Keep looking and you will find something cool

 

i have a golden yellow penny from 1978 also - is this confirmed not an error?

 

Yes, it's been plated.

 

I have a copy of a letter from Jerry Yellin, Chief-Assay Division, Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Mint, dated June 27, 1985. Which states;

“This is in response to your letter dated June 17, 1985 in which you enclosed three 1985 Denver one cent coins.

The difference in color is due to the amount of zinc in the copper plate. In a proper plated cent there would be no zinc in the outer layer. However it is not a rarity to find zinc present.

In the plating process it is not uncommon for several zinc blanks to be retained in the plating tanks. After a period of time the blanks begin dissolving and contaminate the plating solution. This a brass plate rather than a copper plate is formed on the subsequent blanks to be plated.”

I hope this helps resolve the dilemma.