A Couple Steely Questions Etc. (Pics. Posted)

Wow! If it is a genuine 46 steel, the it is a true rarity!

I will be eager to see the pictures!

Also, steel is supposed to have very strong attraction to a magnet. From what you're saying, the only way I can think that it wouldn't have that strong of an attraction is that maybe a intricate counterfeit from steel and aluminum alloys, but I don't think anyone would counterfeit a penny, and especially make it that different from the rest.

Yes, that is correct neither is known to exist
at least up to possibly now ?
The haze on both sides is slight wear on the plating.
That gouge I mentioned is on the lower obverse rim area (V notch)
Close examination of the notch shows underlying steel with the regular plating. Owners observation.

I will send him a note to accurately weigh it.
I have a jewelers scale myself but not the coin in hand. :)
My weights are: 43 steel 2.6 up to 2.8 on average.
46 copper 3.0 - 3.2 avg.
Some of each will go 2.9 though. pretty close as far as the spread.
Meaning that you could have a steel and a 46 copper that are exactly the same weight. Will post when I get the exact weight of the coin.

Both of those scenarios as well as a few others like it are
possible. Back then the housekeeping was not as good as it is today at the mint. A planchet could of been stuck in a bin for 3 years
and not even noticed. Got filled one day in 46 and was emptied and jarred loose. Many coins are out there or owned now that even minted longer than 3 yrs. after they were collared. Some foreign coin planchets that were used in the 80's by the U.S. mint got mixed up years later and were punched as u.s. coins. And even the worker theory
could hold water. A very fat chance on any of the above but possible.
That would still make it a very rare error coin.

Note from the owner:

Well, the way I look at it. They notched the rim to see what it was like under the plating. Don't forget, that is not a 43, but a 46. Also, since I don't know what the planchet is made of, I can't be sure what the weight should be since it is a foreign planchet. It is less magnetic than a 43 steel, so the mix of alloys could be different. Don't know what they used for 46 foreign planchets.

I do have a very accurate scale that is accurate to 1/10th of a gram. The actual weight on this penny is closer to 3.5. Won't ever know the content until I get it checked out. Then there is the 42 which had a weird hue to it. Steel shiny with a tint of copper and ever so slightly magnetic.

Then the 43S that looks charcoal in color that weighs in at 4.4 grams. So there is some weird stuff out there.

It has the look of plating to me.

If you look at the reverse, the wear signs are such that there should be separation between the wheat lines but there isn't as much as I think there should be.

I'm also thinking the color is off as well... It just looks plated. Probably plated post a little circulation.

Of course this is JMO. If the collector is truly interested I'd have him send it to ANACS.

Hi

I appreciate all the help. Just talked with the owner.
Those pics. I have posted are 200 dpi scans of a printed out copy
from a regular camera pic not a digital. I asked him about the wheat lines:
"This 46 steely has full unbroken deep perfect lines"
This was in reply to the thread about what was seen in the pic.
He got the coin with the nick in it. Never said it was there before or after. I think a reasonable assumption on his part that maybe someone cut that in to try to identify the core etc. at one time after it was minted naturally. Either one of us
are stating it is a genuine 46 steely. Just wanted some onfo on what
foreign coins, if any were minted that year. That would help narrow down what it may be. Why would anyone go to all that trouble and work to make a perfectly plated 1946 cent. A 44 maybe ?
The 42 he has he agrees is most likely just plated as it is a botch job. The 43-S is strange especially that heavy weight. I was just trying to help him out. Seems like if there is a possibility of having something possibly original the old - it does not exist rings out all the time. You'll never find anything new if you think like that.
Not looking to set the world on fire or anything but it raises possibilities that may exist out there. I do not know if any of you out there own every Wheat cent and variety / error that has been known. This man of 64 yrs. of age does.(not me) Just because one is not savy with the computer or dig. cameras etc. does not mean they are uninformed about
their hobby. The moderator can put this post to sleep now if he wishes. I'd be happy to find a 42,43-S,46 and a few more steel cents
plated or not.

End of story. This thing is a couple tenths of a gram over spec for a COPPER cent and a full gram overweight for a steel cent, plus it isn't STRONGLY attracted to a magnet. Heavy weight copper cent with a heavy nickel plating. Accounts for the weight, the color, and the weak to mild magnetic attraction. (And steel cent blanks wouldn't have to be in the machinery for three years, just two at the most because they used the same planchets for 1944 Belgium 2 Francs coins struck at the Philadelphia mint and I think they struck some of the 1944 coins in 1945 as well.)

The only coin the US Mint struck in 1946 with a magnetic composition was the Ecuador 1 Sucre. It weighed 7 grams, was 26 mm in diameter and was made of pure nickel so it would be STRONGLY magnetic.