2007-08-18 15:51:34 · 16 answers · asked by Love It To Death 2 in Games & Recreation ➔ Hobbies & Crafts
You're getting a lot of back answers here. The people who are telling you that your coin is likely dipped, listen to them. Pennies were never made of silver. During the war they used a steel alloy but that has nothing to do with a 1981 coin.
A lot of high school chemistry classes will play around with coloring coins. Some are gold others (like yours) silver. Being that your coin is a 1981 it is pure copper (not a zinc/copper mixture that starts in 1982).
It's not really worth more than a penny. You might get lucky and find a collector who is willing to pay slightly over face value for it (or you could put it on ebay...people will buy anything). Personally, I would just keep it as a nifty little oddity, but then again I'm a collector.
2007-08-18 18:27:16 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most likely the penny has been coated with mercury and
has had the mercury rubbed into the metal. This will
cause the penny to shine like silver. It is still worth a
penny, but not much more than that.
2007-08-18 16:08:30 · answer #2 · answered by John L 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To my knowldge no 1975 penny was ever stamped in silver. Take it to a good jewler and he should be able to cofirm what it is made of (don't sell it to him if he trys to buy it on site. Because if it is silver it could be worth something.) Then look up coin collecting on the web and go from there. Good Luck
2016-05-17 05:03:14 · answer #3 · answered by selena 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One of two things happened to the penny, either it lost the copper over the zinc center, or it was dipped in mercury to change its color. Either way, it is worth....one penny!
The only silver colored Lincoln head pennies in the 20th century, (1900-1999) were the 1943 steel pennies. They were made of steel during WWII because of a shortage of copper.
2007-08-22 04:49:19 · answer #4 · answered by Stealth555 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes it would be because in a certain time they stopped making pennys out of silver thats why it is silver i dont remember why they stopped but thats what my relatives always told me. I would go to some where, where u can see if it is worth anything like a jewlery store a good one though. keep it if it isn't worth that much cause it might be as u get older there aren't a lot of those around any more. hope this helps! good luck!
2007-08-18 15:59:29 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Blue T got it right and the guy with the 1981 date that they change the cent is wrong it was 1982. That was when the coin became copper coated zinc. Some one fooled around with the cent and it is not a mint item. This does happen a lot.
2007-08-19 09:39:25 · answer #6 · answered by Taiping 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1981 was the first year that material other than copper was to be used in the production of the penny. That's when Uncle Sam started saving up copper(bullets) for Iraq.
2007-08-18 19:45:52 · answer #7 · answered by superbad 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It is probably a special minting. There should be several sites on the internet you can use to find the value. 1981 is too recent for it to be worth anything to extravagant, but I'm sure it's worth more than a penny.
2007-08-18 16:00:23 · answer #8 · answered by Low Key 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I don't think that is its original color. In my high school the best chemistry game is dipping pennies in liquid mercury to get that kind of coloring on them.
It is not permanent and I would not advise licking that penny.
2007-08-18 15:58:33 · answer #9 · answered by Rich Z 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You could maybe try and find someone who collects coins and contact them and find out if your penny is worth anything. To me it sounds like it could be worth something.
2007-08-18 16:00:25 · answer #10 · answered by Katherine S 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋