2000 Off-Center Lincoln Memorial Cent

Yeh, uploaded front twice by mistake

Time for a Coin Minting 101 lesson-

Each coin starts as a blank punched from a sheet of metal. The blank then goes through an upsetting mill which forms a proto-rim on the blank. The result of this process is known as a planchet. The planchet is then fed into the coining press to ultimately become a coin. When a coin is struck off center like yours, the rims are not fully formed but the initial formation of a rim is present from the upsetting process.

Here are images of the three types of Lincoln blanks/planchets and the two on the left are the most relevant to the discussion. The first one is a zinc blank and its edges are quite rough and sharp. the next one is a zinc planchet after it has gone through the upsetting mill- notice the proto-rims. Of course, following two are the planchet after copper plating and then the resulting struck coin.

smartelf! Thats is a nice offcenter you have!

Biokemist6
So Lincoln doesn't get stuck until after the copper plating? I didnt realize that. B.c you have seen coins that are missing the copper I just figured it missed the dipping process after it was struck! Good info thanks

They are plated before they are struck, unplated cents miss the plating process and then are struck. That's why a lot of plated cents develop zinc rot when the plating around the devices cracks during striking. The cracks lets moisture and other contaminates come into contact with the zinc and then starts the zinc rot that plagues a lot of zincolns.