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Found Something at Work today......

I work at my local McDonald's and today, in my cash drawer, I found something that I thought was rather odd

A silver penny

Does anyone know anything about this? Its not like it was made like a normal penny and scraped or made silver, it looks like a dime with penny ingravings

Does anybody know how rare this or, or if its worth anything? (more than a penny that is)

That's probably a penny from WWII (they used the copper to make cartidges) Check the date, it's probably wartime. Also, that's probably the only US currency made in recent times that is magnetic. It's pretty rare in circulation nowadays, but I don't think it's worth all that much to collectors

Its only silver in color - mostly steel

googled and founf this
http://pub80.ezboard.com/fhobbyofkin...icID=204.topic

Nope, thats not it. It was made in 1975, and it doesn't fit the description in the link. Also, I just confirmed that it is not magnetic

Its probably zinc, what pennys are made off, before they get coated with copper.

is it at all possible that some joker just painted a penny silver? scrape it with something sharp and pointy... does the colouring peel?

Veddy interesting... I think krwlz has it right... If so, its probably not worth anything, its just a minting error.

I've seen them flashed with solder also,just to look different.Probably something leftover from the bicentennial.

I'm with krwlz on this one. However, if it IS a minting error then I'm sure it probably is worth money.

Quote:

Originally posted by SecretMethod70
I'm with krwlz on this one. However, if it IS a minting error then I'm sure it probably is worth money.

Yeah, that's worth looking into. I have a proof dime from 1964 that's worth twice as much as normal because there's a slight flaw in the tip of the "9." Who cares? Coin collectors.

Quote:

Originally posted by Rodney
Yeah, that's worth looking into. I have a proof dime from 1964 that's worth twice as much as normal because there's a slight flaw in the tip of the "9." Who cares? Coin collectors.

so now its 20 cents? wow nice profit? :)

Hmmm- I was going to post about hearing something of them changing the material of the penny, but check this out:
http://coins.about.com/library/weekly/aa073001a.htm

Quote:

According to the U.S. Mint, the cost to produce a copper-plated zinc penny is about 0.81 cent. The Mint produced a total of 14,277,420,000 pennies last year.

Legislation that would end production of the penny for general circulation has been recently introduced in Congress. The bill, known as the Legal Tender Modernization Act, was introduced July 17 by Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Arizona. In introducing the proposed legislation, Kolbe commented as follows:

"The U.S. lags far behind other countries when it comes to the structure of our coinage. My bill will bring about a rounding system on any cash sales transaction which will be applied to the total cost of all goods purchased including tax. It favors neither the consumer nor the retailer because the probability of rounding up or down is 50 percent either way - it would all come out even in the end. Pennies have virtually no value. Most people stash away or toss aside pennies instead of reusing them thereby forcing the federal government to produce billions more every year at little, if any, profit. If we reduce the use of the penny, we will save businesses money and decrease the time we spend at the store."

As suggested above, proponents of the bill argue that the elimination of pennies from cash transactions would save consumers and retailers time and money. In this regard, the National Association of Convenience Stores estimates that between 2 and 2.5 seconds are spent handling pennies during each cash transaction. In addition, many stores are charged up to 10¢ per roll over face value when purchasing pennies from banks. All of these costs must be passed on to consumers.

While the bill would eliminate any further production of pennies for general circulation, it would permit the cent denomination to be struck by the U.S. Mint for inclusion in Uncirculated Mint and Proof collector sets.

If you dont want it, can I have it? :D

if its a minting error it could be worth something.

Quote:

Originally posted by sadistikdreams
Veddy interesting... I think krwlz has it right... If so, its probably not worth anything, its just a minting error.

Minting errors are worth a lot. Coin collectors drool over that.

Could be an aluminum penny...article here

http://www.pcgs.com/articles/article1821.chtml

Quote:

Originally posted by Boruki
so now its 20 cents? wow nice profit? :)

I couldn't give you the price exactly, but if you could find a proof '64 dime without the rest of the proof set, it'd probably be 5-10 bucks, and the variant would be twice as much.

Proof coins, BTW, are special, flawless coins with a brilliant finish that are sold in sets to collectors. Each year the mint produces a new proof set for the coins of that year. I'm not a collector, but I somehow ended up with a mediocre stash of old coins, including several proof sets.

Hmm.... Not minting errors... Coooking errors are worthless.

Yeah, minting errors are totally worthful(?!?!?)

I'd stick it in a drawer.

Don't know where you live, but a coin shop or pawn shop might give the answer.

Quote:

Originally posted by mingusfingers
I'd stick it in a drawer.

Smart! Put it somewhere safe where it won't be thrown out/used, Forget about it, come back 50-60 years later and bingo! Worth a lot more!

I came across a silver penny a few years ago and it had a post WWII date so I took it to a local coin collectoe to see what was up. He said that someone had put mercury on it to give it the silver color and it was worth a penny. And, no, he didn't "take it off my hands." I didn't mess around with it after that, don't want to become a mad hatter.

Quote:

Originally posted by sadistikdreams
Veddy interesting... I think krwlz has it right... If so, its probably not worth anything, its just a minting error.

Minting errors are extrely rare and valuable. One of the most expensive colletable stamps is an airplane that was printed upside-down.

Or someone could have put the penny in sodium hydroxide solution with granular zinc, heated it, and voila! If they would have heated it out of the sodium hydroxide a second time it would have become golden. What happened was the first heating the penny was coated in zinc, the second heating the zinc and original copper coating combine to form the alloy brass. Simple high school chemistry :P

Quote:

Originally posted by Chupes
Or someone could have put the penny in sodium hydroxide solution with granular zinc, heated it, and voila! If they would have heated it out of the sodium hydroxide a second time it would have become golden. What happened was the first heating the penny was coated in zinc, the second heating the zinc and original copper coating combine to form the alloy brass. Simple high school chemistry :P

Exactly, we did this in an experiment in high school. :)

the date is correct for aluminum pennies though. I'd find a coin collector that you can trust and ask them about it.

I can tell you that every once in a while I come across a penny (Canadian though) like you described. Looks just like a normal one in every way but is silver in colour. I was told by a coin collector that its just a penny thats had most or all of its copper worn or cleaned off with some kind of abrasive. He said that pennies are stamped before they are plated with copper so when the copper wears off normally or by other means it leaves a zinc (silver coloured) penny. He told me people bring him these kind of pennies all the time thinking they have a minting error

not sure about Canadian coins, but on a US penny, it is EXTREMELY rare for all of the copper to wear off leaving only silver-colored metal behind. It's even rarer to find one, since the penny is removed from circulation long before it can get to that state.

If anything it's cool to stumble accross something different. It makes the day a little interesting.