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 Replies: 9 / Views: 4,638 |
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Valued Member
United States
323 Posts |
I have a 43 s here that looks to be in mint condition. It came from my grandfather's collection. I looked at it under 22x and can't seem to find anything indicative of cleaning but don't know if it's worth grade. Any info would be appreciated. Tried to take the best pics I could but still not as good as in hand. Thanks as always community!   |
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Valued Member
 United States
323 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
18662 Posts |
based on the pics, this coin looks like it was polished which is very typical for the steelies. since its difficult to be sure, compare yours to these. not polished  Polished  |
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Valued Member
United States
395 Posts |
Based on my ever growing collection of reprocessed steelies in my efforts to obtain an original, by comparison I would say yours could be plated or reprocessed due to the shine and the looks of the mint mark. If that's the case, then not a candidate for slabbing.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1812 Posts |
 This was my first impression also when viewing your coin. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1959 Posts |
It is definitely a reconditioned, or re-zinked cent. The zink is thin. To polish the original zink would likely rub portions of the zink off allowing steel underneath to oxidize/rust. So, millions of these cents are beginning to rust from the zink being removed from circulation... making them near worthless. So, they dip them in acid to dissolve the iron oxide rust and dirt and re-plate them with zink. This also makes them near worthless IMO. Maybe a nickel. But, since it was your Grandfathers, it isn't all about the monatary value. I inherited many like this from my uncle. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1048 Posts |
Honestly speaking, there are gazillions of steel pennies out there in pristine condition available at very low cost. The Red Book value for them is meaningless, and you can pick them up by the bag full at shows. After all, they minted more than a billion of them in total. If only 1% survived in MS condition -- and that's probably a huge under-estimate, as virtually everyone alive at the time stashed a few away in dry drawers with the zinc plating intact -- that's 10 million coins. About 20% of those are SF mint. Re-zincing these pennies wasn't done to turn a profit. It was a standard exercise in high-school chemistry classes in the 50s & 60s. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4897 Posts |
Quote:
Re-zincing these pennies wasn't done to turn a profit. It was a standard exercise in high-school chemistry classes in the 50s & 60s. While partially true, there is no way to confirm or deny this statement. Many have been reprocessed for profit as well. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1048 Posts |
Hard to imagine anyone earning a profit by re-plating these ultra-common coins, though I suppose anything is possible.
My high school chemistry lab must have cranked out thousands of re-zinced pennies over the years, and mine was not the only school that did it. I can still remember the blue mimeographed instruction sheet for the AP chemistry electroplating set up. We not only coated steelies in zinc, but in copper as well. I always wondered whether any were passed off as "copper 43s", although they were quite obviously fake.
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Valued Member
United States
373 Posts |
Keep in mind, also, that one can buy a PCGS or NGC slabbed, MS64 or 65 example on ebay for around twenty bucks including shipping. That's less than the cost of submitting a raw coin for grading, and there's no risk that it comes back with a low grade or details. I'm not saying you shouldn't keep and love your grandfather's coin. I'm just saying it doesn't make any sense to send a steelie in for grading unless you're darn certain it will come back MS67 or higher. I presume that dealers must pay lower grading fees than I do, considering that there are plenty of certified steelies available on ebay selling for less than what I'd have to pay to slab 'em. |
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Replies: 9 / Views: 4,638 |
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Posted 07/06/2013 07:59 am
