Help!! With 1979 P Gold-Toned SBA Coin

I don't think that I could get a good picture of what I want to describe here so hopefully my words won't fail me...here gos:

There are a few scratches on the face of the coin. The areas around the scratches have a very faint almost frosted texture (I hope that makes sense) but the scratches are smooth and mirrored and in the same gold tone. Either the coin isn't plated or it was plated after the scratches were made on the surface.

I don't know if that helps at all but it was just an observation that I made that made me wonder if it was plated or not. This coin was being actively circulated-the parking lots in the area give out dollar coins for change so it, no doubt, has been through a machine at least once and who knows how many hands...I would think that if it were plated that a surface scratch like that would show the material underneath the plating...? Correct me if I'm wrong. Also, the pennies that I plated in school seemed to have lost their luster very quickly as the plating wore off...but, needless to say, a high school kid plating a penny over a bunsen burner hardly qualifies as professional work.

I would spend it. I am one of the very few who find toning undesirable.

It is more orange in color than gold typically is. Of course it is difficult to compare metal tones through pictures and I do not wear any gold jewelry to compare to in "real life". Is there any other way to test if its gold (other than some complex chemistry experiment)? If not, I may just have to wait until the next time that I visit my folks...my mom has a wide array of gold jewelry to compare to and, if I'm not mistaken, my dad has some gold-plated coins in his collection.

I disagree. As I said earlier, I have a number of golden toned coins.


Plating will not affect relief.


To be clear, we are talking about the reeded edge of the coin. Can you get a picture of it?

Here it is...

That's my plan! I like the novelty stuff...I'm not in it to make a profit....although being in a money handling position, I do come across items of value occasionally. This one is just a head-scratcher. It doesn't look to be gold plate though...maybe someone just plated it for grins.

It looks gold plated to me.
John1