My Mother saves all of her odd coins for me. She recently gave me a 1999 D Penny that is yellow in color. The color is almost identical to the new dollar coin. Could this coin be made from the wrong metal or are such variations in color normal? The coin is in the lower left of the photo.
Howdy Geeze - Welcome to the Forum !! Well no it's not normal - at least they don't come from the mint that way. But copper is a highly reactive metal and will turn all sorts of colors when it comes in contact with various substances. I'd guess that's what happened here.
Hello Geeze Your penny maybe struck on a Brass plated planchet,there were Pennies struck in the late 90's ,I think the last were in 98 but dont quote me on that, it is possible that a planchet was left in the machinery and was struck in 99. It is at least worth a trip to your local dealer for an opinion with coin in hand.
Because the US Mint no longer produces coins for other countries the likelihood of it being a wrong metal error is rather remote. Here are three things it could be. Today’s zinc planchets are copper coated, and when the copper solution in the vat gets low an odd thing can sometimes happen to it. The combination of copper and the thousands of zinc planchets that have been run through it plus a few that stay behind can change the copper solution to a brass-like solution. If blank planchets are plated with this solution before it is replaced, the result is a yellowish-green color plating. These are highly collectible. However, if your coin is a bright yellow instead of a yellowish-green brassy color then this is not what happened to your coin. I suggest that your cent has been exposed to extreme heat, which has basically combined the copper plating with the zinc. This is a common experiment in high school chemistry classes. Another thing that could make your cent bright yellow is someone plated it with gold.
I recently came across one of these coins myself. it is a yellowish-green, but I am still skeptical. Here's what the one looks like next to the same year. I do not believe it has been plated.
A copper plated zinc cent will turn golden when heated in an oven. I don't know that there's any way to distinguish it from one that came that way from the mint unless it's still sealed in a mint set.
