1998 Brass Plated Penny

They look the same, brass is more yellow.

Sorry, couldn't help myself. Linda, the brass pennies look almost a golden color. But check the reverse of the 98 and make sure the A and M in america are touching. If not, then you have a keeper. WOLF

Here is an image of one I found along with a normal one:

a brass plated cent is -and always will be- worth 1 cent

Joes it is mint error when they used a wrong material to make these coins just like they minted some of the 1943 penny in copper when they were suppose to be still (war pennies ) but a 1943 Cooper penny worth thousands 100s of thousands on ms
The brass is just not that appreciated yet , I don't think it ll be thousands but I'm sure ll be worth some because is ammint error just like the 1943 LWC ,many have a different opinion but sooner then later they ll assume the mistake and ll start to list the 1993,1997,1997d and 1998 brass cent as a mint error that is what I think even because took the treasure decades to recognize the 1943 LWC in copper as genuin but that is just my op !

When they make the cent planchets the zinc blanks are put into the solution and are electroplated with pure copper. The solution is slightly acidic and every time more zinc blanks are dumped in some of the zinc dissolves and the amount of zinc in solution increases. Then as the electroplating is done some zinc plates back onto the planchets along with the copper ( a brass plating with very little zinc). As the amount of zinc in solution increase the amount of zinc in the plating increases and the plating becomes more and more yellow (Brass with a higher and high percentage of zinc). Finally the planchets are coming out too yellow and the solution is dumped and replaced with fresh solution. So in reality EVERY plated cent is a brass plated cent, just with different percentages of zinc in the plating. When you find one that has a high percentage of zinc everyone gets excited over their "Brass plated cent".

I think a brass planchet existed for 41-42
the usa mint was minted a coin for ecuador dont quote me and the wrong planchet was used and a usa penny struck on it , then it happened agian in the 50's if I remeber correct

I remember seeing a early 40's cent struck on a brass forgien planchet
That would be a big error with lots of money.

To some metalurgists, only the shell casing cents of the post WWII era would qualify as brass. The low percentage of zinc and/or tin in the vast majority of cents makes them copper that is not quite pure as opposed to the true brasses that contain anywhere from 15% to 50% zinc. The same holds for bronze cents, which because of their zinc content are more like brass than bronze anyway (although phosphor bronze can be as low as 3.5% tin, it has phophorous instead of zinc). Clearly for the cents that are 95% copper, copper itself is a more appropriate term than either brass or bronze. In the end, there is no fixed percentage of zinc or tin where the alloy becomes brass or bronze, especially when both are present. Whatever they are made of, if it is what the mint intended them to be made of (meeting their specs or at least being accepted by them as usable) they are not errors, just varieties. When coins like the 1943 copper cents are made a true error has occurred.