Possible 1995 'wide-AM' cent turns out to be an alteration..

[coppercoins]

I just examined a possible 1995 wide-AM cent and have written the following about it...thought you would enjoy reading it here first..

The following is an article I will be publishing in the next Society of Lincoln Cent Collectors quarterly journal. You are welcome to use this article or excerpt from it for your needs. Please feel free to disseminate this information as widely as possible.

A post on the ‘US Variety and Error Coins' section of the Coin Community Forum (http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/...?FORUM_ID=5) on 03 February, 2009, sparked a lot of collector interest in what ‘could' be the next BIG find in wide-AM/close-AM cents. Ernest Bouyoucas of Florida found the coin and posted images of it on the board for other collectors to see and reply with comments. I noticed the incorrect reverse and posted to the effect, stating that I was nearly certain the coin was not struck as-is. Mr. Bouyoucas sent the coin to me for closer examination. The following is my comment upon study and photography of this piece.

On immediate observation it was very clear that this coin was an altered piece constructed from a 1995 Philadelphia mint cent and a reverse from a brass composition cent. The coin sounds hollow when it settles, and has no ‘ring' at all. Even the expected sound of a zinc cent and its normal ‘thud' has more life than the sound of this piece. The piece weighs 2.75 grams, which is a quarter gram more than a normal 1995 cent, and has different toning on each side of the coin. The obverse is a medium lightly circulated natural brown color, and the reverse has more the appearance of a brassy cleaned coin that has had a chemical application, probably to remove glue or other evidence of its manufacture.

The conclusion that the piece is a coupling between a zinc and brass cent comes from many supporting facts. First, the weight of the piece is more than a normal zinc cent. If this had been two zinc cents hollowed and shaved to fit together, the minute air pockets and glue used to hold them together would reduce the weight of the piece making it weigh less than 2.5 grams. Second, there are digs in various areas of the design that would show zinc if this were a zinc reverse, and the digs on this coin are copper colored throughout. Another supporting piece of evidence that the reverse is a pre-1983 brass cent is that this design was abandoned in the mid-1980s and a vast majority of zinc cents from the 1980s show plating bubbles and other evidence of copper plating. This cent has the smooth appearance and color of a circulated pre-1983 brass cent.

The obverse of this piece is complete, and the reverse shows a seam around the inside of the rim. The reverse of the 1995 cent was ‘dug-out' with a machine lathe, then the rim and obverse of the brass cent were removed so the remaining piece would fit inside the hollowed-out 1995 cent. The two pieces were likely attached to one another with super glue, because there is no sign of heat damage to either side as may be the case with solder.

The purpose for this coin can only truly be know to the maker. In my opinion it is rather unlikely that the creator of this piece did so to fool a collector into thinking they had found a wide-AM reverse cent. If that had been the case I would think the creator of this piece would have been much more careful in reverse design selection. It is much more likely that the creator of this piece did so to fool collectors into thinking they had found a rotated reverse coin, and was not concerned about the type of reverse used. The reverse of this coin is rotated about 80 degrees clockwise, which would be a valuable collectible if it were real.

The fact that this coin took a substantial amount of effort to create yet was found in pocket change raises as many questions as it answers. Obviously this is a ‘reject' coin from a rather common method of matching two coins together in a way that makes them appear as a minted error coin. The most common use of this method is to attach two obverse or two reverse together (most commonly on quarters) to be used as a gag ‘flip' coin where the owner of the coin never loses. This coin, however, to the unaided eye appears to be a normal coin. The casual observer would never notice the incorrect reverse design and would spend the coin as a normal cent.

So why create this piece? Could it be a ‘fools' wide-AM cent? Perhaps a faux rotated reverse error coin? Unfortunately the person who created this piece is the only one who holds the answer to this mystery. The best thing we can do is use the knowledge we have from this piece to keep from being fooled by possible similar pieces that could be much harder to spot.

[coppercoins]

The photos of the coin with comments:

The obverse:



The reverse (rotated here as it appears on the coin) :



The obverse around the date. Note that the rim on this side is normal:



Aside from the light machine doubling on UNITED, a crease is visible along the rim in this area that looks like it may have received some work to either fit the reverse into the hole or to hide the seam:



Other images of the reverse show the seam, which is wider at the bottom of the design than at the top. The two pieces seem to fit best from about nine o'clock through one o'clock:

[eagames]

A lot like this one. I'm sure they never use the same coin coin to make both sections since they lathe them out or grind them away.

[coop]

Ed: You can see the lathe marks on the reverse even though darkened. Probably the heat did it to the reverse.

[coppercoins]

If I'm not mistaken the other side of the insert is a dime. Correct? If so, the lines on the cent reverse could just be from storage with the cent reverse facing in.

[eagames]

CD, Your'e right that the lines on the rev are from storage facing in.

When I found it the reverse was facing in and it was stuck.
The other side of the reverse is smooth(no dime), it's paper thin so there's a hollow space when you close it. It's hard to get open again if I close it.