Expert: PAPAJACK - 6/16/2008

Question
Dear Mr. Blake, today I found a very strange coin.  It is a 1989 penny that is yellow.  I am not sure if it is actually gold, but is is defiantly not copper.  I tried to find some info about it I can not find anything online mentioning it.  Do you know if this is worth anything, I am very interested to find out.  Thanks, Christy

Answer
Hello Christy,                      

It is likely just a novelty item. The US Mint buys the coin blanks for the One Cent coin from outside vendors rather than punching the billions of blank slugs themselves and saving money.
But it is possible that you have a brass plated blank made into a cent at the mint. This would have to be seen and authenticated, and is the only way the coin is considered valuable to an error coin collector.

For testing, first check the specifications on the coin. 2.5 grams and 19mm round diameter. If it is anything else and we don’t have a cent blank used here.

If the coin is the correct size and within the weight tolerances of a normal cent there are a few things that make it look yellow.

It may be polished or cleaned after the coin left the mint. With certain polishing mediums a silver, gold or brass look can be achieved. I have even seen cents cleaned in silver cleaners that change their color to silver-ish hues.

Or it was more probably plated or contaminated with another metal. Copper takes plating well but if you magnify the (fillet) area where the raised lettering is you will find a build-up of the plating material.  

Things like this are worthless to collectors. Most coin shops and all coin Shows Large or small will have people knowledgeable enough to identify this piece for you at no charge.

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Thank You and Good Luck