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1939 zinc Lincoln cent?

P

pinecreekkid

New member
I found a 1939 zinc Lincoln cent. Does anyone know how this could be since they did not make steel pennies in 1939? The coin is in very good condition and has no mint mark.
 
weight 3.1 grams composition .950 copper .050 tin and zinc
 
Thanks for the reply Elton. The coin does weight at 3.1 grams so one would think that it was a copper penny, but it is magnetic and has a nice bright shiny silver color to it. The only thing I can think of is that someone coated it with something, but I am not sure. It has very sharp detail and looks new. I was not sure if anyone had ever seen or knew something about a zinc 1939 cent. So I thought I would put it on the forum and see what others thought.
 
n/t
 
BUT something is fishy. They had NO idea WW2 would hit the USA in 1939 and the pennies were only made in WW2 to save copper. The zinc cents were plated zinc over steel. I have NO idea what you have and maybe it is a novelty. STRANGE and maybe you need to research it a lot more. Good Luck. I am baffled!!
 
Thanks for all the replies. No I did not dig it, I actually got it as change a few years back and thought that it looked unusual, so I placed it in a container with some other old coins that I had. I really did not think anything about it until I started metal detecting and actually started to do a little research on coins. Then I saw that they only made steel cents in 1943 and I remembered the 1939 penny. So I did some checking and could find nothing on a 1939 steel cent. I took it to a local coin dealer who weighed it and it was 3.1g, he said it was copper, I asked him why it was silver in color and magnetic, he could not figure that out, so the mystery still remains. I will try to post a picture if I can get it to work, I am not sure how to do it. I really appreciate everyone taking time out to answer my post. Thank you.
 
Most likely it is a plated coin. Some companies "process" aged 1943 cents with a steel coating, and some other dates can get mixed in. Another possibility is that it was struck on a foreign planchet (but with that weight.....). Still another option is getting it in the hands of someone in a coin shop that specializes in this type of thing. I work in one of these and if you have some good pics....I'd do my best with that. (The fact that it is shiny, says that it is most likely a processed cent and a pic would reveal that...if it is.)
 
As a kid when a thermometer broke we would gather up the mercury on paper and coat pennies with it, makes them shiny. Don't think mercury is magnetic though.
 
come up with. Can't be just colored since it is magnetic. Steel plating, FAKE from China, or a novelty. ONLY explanations I can think of. Good luck trying to figure it out!! Maybe some alien dropped it? How about an Obama conspiracy?
 
Still working on getting a decent picture. Will post pics as soon as I get a good one. Thank you for all the replies so far.
 
I used to nickel plate guns parts years ago, Just for "Gigs" I would plate pennies also! your post made me think about this and I found a few that I had done twenty years ago. still pretty! not magnetic
though. My guess is that it was plated.:shrug: HH...C-Dog
 
Did you ever find an answer to the 1939 zinc penny? I also have one with a double die impression on its face and back. Have shown it to a few coin dealers and they just scratch there heads..
 
Steve O said:
As a kid when a thermometer broke we would gather up the mercury on paper and coat pennies with it, makes them shiny. Don't think mercury is magnetic though.
Click to expand...
we did too. Hadnt thought of that in alot of years.
 
When you say it's magnetic do you mean it's attracted to a magnet or that it will attract a piece of ferrous metal? If it's attracted by a magnet, it's steel and it wouldn't have to be plated to be shiney. Sound like maybe a mint worker was playing around with the penny maker.
 
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