Silver Colored Penny

It is damaged. It was plated and it still has a piece of metal surrounding it. Most likely part of a piece of jewelry.
John1

to the CCF!

to the CCF, moment911

Odds are, I'd guess, that your 1956-D Lincoln was plated and used as a jewelry item. While there's some evidence to suggest this possibility, I personally don't see any conclusive evidence, so far, that such is the case.

Here are pics of a silver 1956 Lincoln Cent that I own. These DO exist. It obviously experienced a fair degree of circulation. It was struck on a dime planchet, and the weight evidenced that. Sadly, a previous owner(s) scratched the obverse surface; likely, to see if it was plated.




There are a few simple steps you can take with this piece. Silver isn't magnetic, and the magnet test will not rule out that possibility. Gauge the weight and compare it to that of a copper Wheat cent. Gently file or scrape the coin's edge to see if plating is evident.

Recently, I took two tokens to a major show. I knew that an attending dealer had one of the new "ray guns" that breaks down a coin's metal content into percentage points! Both of my pieces, a Civil War and a Conder token, proved to have high silver content. The silver content of my aforementioned 1956 cent was long ago determined by a specific gravity test.

Beyond the initial actions that our OP can take, my ultimate suggestion is to see if there's a local jeweler or coin/bullion dealer who possesses one of those expensive guns (I was told they presently cost about $17,000).

There remains the strong possibility that they could be electroplated, in a high school lab type of experiment.
This coin was scratched before it was plated.

Even the official ancient Roman mints occasionally made silver washed 'silver' denarii with poorer, cheap metal cores, that had serrated edges before they were given a thin silver wash.

Easy enough to do.

99.9999999% chance it is plated. Keep it as a conversation piece.

to the CCF!

Your coin was uncased in a bezel. It was a form of cheap jewelry for kids. Some were plated a silver color & some a gold color. I guess it depended on how well you did at the county fair in those days. Look on the reverse at the bottom of your coin and you can see were the eyelet was that a chain would have gone through. It has since broken off.
Here's one I found metal detecting a few years ago at an old school yard

Exo, was yours verified by a TPG?

If it was my coin, I'd want to verify it my a third party in case I ever wanted to sell it. Generally, I am not in favour of slabs, but in the case of a special error coin where a verified opinion could solidify a value, I'd certainly do it. Just MY opinion.