Red Cent Help!!

That's not true Archraz, because there's RB and even brown cents have luster on them so it has nothing to do with luster. Noah, search in the grading area because around fall/winter of last year there was a post on red lincoln cents and examples were posted there.

So what do you call the pennies that actually have turned red?

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Thats Brown or B. If it was shiny it would be RB red brown.

The many numismatic terms we use can be confusing. I think Archraz is on the right track with this one. Red is a designation used with uncirculated copper coins. You can especially see this in older coins such as large cents. There are MS63 large cents that are lustrous with no wear but are chocolate brown and may even have some blue or purple areas from toning. This is designated as MS63 Brown. Then you have large cents that are MS63 and have luster with no wear but they are toned brown with the orangish-red untoned color mixed in areas around the coin. These are MS63 Red-Brown. Finally you have the MS63 coins that are lustrous with no wear and are as bright red as the day they were struck. These are the MS 63 Red coins. So all three of these large cents could be of the same date and all could be MS 63 but their values are vastly different. The Red designation is used to help distinguish between the different price levels for this toning difference in copper coins. The Red is not a coin that is litterally red in color but a designation for unc copper coins.