1942 P Jefferson Nickel

Looking at the last two pictures above it struck me that it sure looks like the coin was at one time graded by a TPG. It also seems that the edges are suffering from a build up of dirt.

I'm not an expert, but this is was it appears to be in my opinion. If the coin was struck on a penny plancet I would expect to not see any rolled edges as the whole piece would be taken up by the Jefferson die.

At this point I would probably send the piece to a TPG for authentication. Coloration and weight appears right for what you propose but the edges for me are problematic to your theory.

it looks like dirt in the pictures. but it is actually metal burns. looks like it got partially melted almost. it just isn't dirt, if my camera didn't suck you would see what looks like gunpowder burns in a way. hot metal blasted copper look. very odd. but it looks like it all was in the minting process. strangest specimen I've come across in many year. guy I got it from wanted to buy it back and told me to send it to pcgs immedietly.

What will the meat under the metal look like if held to an open flame?

Same effect.

Open area exposed to flame will look one way and covered area will look differently.

In the one image the edge looks silver-ish. grey whatever you want to call it. could this be a case where someone tried to plate a nickel with copper, or maybe that plate a nail with a penny experiment to get a copper nail, then plate the nail with a nickel to give it that sacrificial nickel coating, but someone used a silver nickel instead of a cupro nickel one, and the copper nail plated the silver nickel instead? that is the only thing I can see to be the reason the spot on the rim/edge of the coin is grey where the "square" reaches the edge.

That or someone tried to make a silver-battery using the nickel with small copper plates stuck to it and in the end ended up with a plated and corroded coin? too early for chemistry type things this morning, but those are my guesses if it is a real coin.

Again, being above 5 grams makes this a non-starter for a cent planchette error. Being over 5 grams, even of slightly thicker, makes it unlikely to be solid copper as the laws of chemistry say that silver by volume has more mass than copper. By that measure this coin should weigh less than 5 grams if made completely of copper. Based on the "weld marks" along the rim, the dirtiness, and pattern, my guess sits with this being a copper plated nickel that lived a large part of its life in a piece of jewelry.

Well Ill find out today. I'm getting it looked at. Don't want to get too exited especially since it was free. But I have a feeling it wasn't copper plated after minting process. The burn marks are probably after it was minted but the coin itself looks to be pure copper. where the marks are on the edge of the coin it melted 4 points on the edge and indented enough to notice that its copper more than surface thick throughout the coin. Its hard to see in the pictures. Also the burn marks looks like residual copper dust got melted onto the surface like gunpowder to metal.

You can't strip the thing of silver and them have it bigger and weigh more without the silver. you would end up with microscopic o larger swiss-cheese holes and pathways where the silver was taken out.

The only way I could figure that to work would be like I said earlier if it was used as the cathode or anode of a battery that maybe had 4 posts that coins fit into to stabilize them and little plast4es placed on them then filled with some form of acid, but then the details shouldn't be so clear.

tis a mystery.