Expert: Jim Lawniczak - 8/9/2007

Question
Mr. Lawniczak-I have a 1987 D penny that is the same metal color as a nickel.  Do you have any information on this type of coin?
Thank you,
Jean

Answer
Jean, I have been getting a lot of questions like this one.  So there must be quite a few cents out there with a silver color.  U.S. cents (pennies) since 1982 are zinc with a thin copper coating.  Zinc is a bluish white metal, so might look silver colored all by itself.  So, I think there are three possibilities: 1. the cent did not get coated at the mint 2. it did get coated and someone removed the copper coating (with some kind of chemical) after minting or 3. someone put a thin silver colored coating on top of your coin.  Only errors that occur at the mint in the minting process have collector, "error" value.  I don't know how you could tell 1. from 2.  I did a search at ebay.com for uncoated cent and variations and saw nothing selling.  Jim Lawniczak