1999-Lincoln Cent...no Copper Appearance

LOL. Spell check doesn't work on Photoshop. 'accumulation of' was the correct words. Brain must have been a quart low that day. LOL

Fixed it.

I missed the part about it being magnetic. It cannot be an unplated cent if it sticks to a magnet.

The plating weighs .05 grams or a little less, and the Weight Tolerance on the cent is +/- .1 grams. So the tolerance range is four times the weight of the plating.

Aside from iron and most steels, the next most magnetic metal is nickel but I doubt that a plating would be enough to allow it to stick to a magnet. It looks to be in great shape with maybe a little softness of strike on the reverse top. There is a very remote possibility that it is a test metal strike that escaped the mint but I would exhaust all other possible explanations first.

This is an intriguing idea. However, I think that it is not a likely possibility. My reason for thinking this is that the Mint Commissioned an Alternative Metals Study. This was authorized by Public Law 111-302 (the Coin Modernization, Oversight, and Continuity Act of 2010), in which the Secretary of the Treasury was given "authority to conduct research and development on all circulating coins." The final report on this study was submitted to the mint in August 2012.

For an experimental metal planchet to be struck in 1999 would be just a bit premature.

I thought 1999 might be little early for alternative metals. Public Law 111-302 actually requires biennial research into new coin programs and another report was issued in December 2014 and another one should be published this year.

Both the 2012 and 2014 reports are available at https://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mi...ecialreports

Also, every mint annual report since 2001 can be obtained at https://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mi...nnual_report

I don't even understand why it is so important to attempt to reduce the cost of the cent and nickel. The overall cost of circulating coin production is well below the total face value. So what if a couple line items are in the red. It is like a corporation trying to make each department show a profit when some of them just can't (HR, IT, Marketing, etc,). If the overall cost ever approaches the total face value then rethink the entire product line. Until then stop wasting time and money. Last year the cent & nickel lost $75M and the dime & quarter profited $624M and they lost another $8.5M on damaged and other unsold coins, for a net seigniorage of $541M. The mint had its most profitable year (for circulating coinage) in at least five years making $0.49 on every dollar shipped.