1995 LMC Missing Copper Plate?

I thought the excess looked like wire welding splash. Perhaps some arcing? Looks burnt at the FG.

A lightning strike would not only vaporize the entire cent, but everything around it as well. I have seen three foot diameter craters, eighteen inches deep blown in creek beds (six inch river rocks, gravel, and sand) from a lightning storm in northern CA (we had over 20 strikes within 300 feet of our campsite). I once helped reapir an EBS radio that had been struck and over 100 feet of copper wire from the antenna to the transmitter was nowhere to be found. a coin lying on the ground well away from the point of entry might get some stray current that could cause damage but I don't think it would look like this cent (too "clean").

So sounds like your coin isn't plated either then if its rough and no luster. Never got plated or someone removed it. Curiouser. Was there some special science project in 1995 messing with the newest pennies minted to experiment I wonder, then released, like a message in a bottle and then watched out for any news about any being found? The great mystery of the Penny MIA Plating.

It weighs too much to have had the copper removed or never plated unless there is something replacing it. A copper plated zinc cent should weigh 2.50 grams, which is what you said this one weighs. Without the copper (2.5% of the total weight) it should be 2.4375 grams, which a good coin scale should be able to differentiate.

With that being true, what non-damaging test can we use to tell if a cent is missing its copper? If someone overplates a normal copper cent with an extra 1% of zinc, can we tell that it was done without doing any damage to the coin? Can you turn a normal coin into one that looks like it is missing its plating without being detected? The Heritage auction archives only have a few unplated cents but they sold for $23 (ANACS 1993 MS62 partial plate, some copper showing) to $70 (ANACS 1989-D MS64, no visible copper). Might be a cheap way to make some money!