Probably happened because copper is slightly more reactive than silver, so a single replacement reaction took place, putting a little bit of copper into solution and removing silver from the solution, depositing it on your coin. Just some basic chemistry. Type in "single replacement chart chemistry" into your search engine and a chart should come up, the metals at the bottom are least reactive, while the metals are the most reactive. The chemicals want to become as inert as possible, so they take the more reactive metals, and dump the less reactive metals.
Thank you, silviosi - it's wonderful to have a resident chemist here in the forum. I'll dip a penny in the solution to see if I can replicate OP's coin.
Inordinately fascinated by bits of metal with strange markings and figures
I am not a chemist but I remembered something from chemistry! This is probably the cause, or someone electroplated the cent coin. This is my opinion based off of what I have learned/ somewhat experimented with.
@ Hondo: it is three step procedure. I say three because is use three ingredients, plus water and heating. If you deep before silver in the cleaning solution (for jewelry, silver), yes you has silver molecules in that solution. In general those solutions are base on cyanide of potassium.
Update: Went to a higher end jeweler today. not reputable coin shops in my area It is silver Weight is 2 penny weight which converts to 3.11 grams Working on better photos
3.11 grams is the exact target weight for a 1959 copper Lincoln Cent. If it were struck on a silver dime planchet, the weight would be 2.5 g. Electroplating one with silver would add only a few milligrams of weight.
Inordinately fascinated by bits of metal with strange markings and figures
It's not silver. It's a high school experiment that's been around for decades. There are hundreds of videos online if you want see how it's made. Your coin is plated .nothing more. Here is one way of many ways to do it.
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Posted 04/11/2023 3:33 pm
