When looking at the zinc cents I often see diagonal lines on both sides. My question is about those lines. First they are not polishing lines correct? They are called roller lines (I believe). Did the mint purposely do that for the copper to have something to stick to? I was always curious.
I believe those are roller lines from when the zinc was rolled out. Similar process to the roller marks seen on later copper cents (the faux woodies). Here, the copper plating is thin enough to let them show through.
These lines are present on all the copper plated zinc planchets (you have it backwards in the title). Look at this example or any other and you have your answer.
When the lines are not fully smoothed during striking (they are supposed to be) you have extreme example when a coin is lightly or poorly struck. Check out what happened to this Greaser I found:
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