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One of the more curious error coins we recently purchased at the Portland ANA National Money Show is a PCGS 1943-S steel cent with it’s reverse zinc coating having detached from the steel cent’s reverse. The zinc detached coating is a solid piece of metal, and weighs an incredible 0.0005 grains. It is struck normally on one side, and the other is an incuse mirror brockage of the reverse design. I discussed this coin with others, and it is apparently the only example of it’s type know, with not even a similar example existing. Is another out there? Probably somewhere, but there can’t be more than a few since we’ve never even heard a rumor of one existing until this coin came on the market.

Zinc planchets are made of steel and have a platting of zinc added to protect them from rusting (which obviously only helped a little since rusty steel cents are common.) What caused that zinc platting to not bond properly is impossible to determine, but guessing, it could’ve been a thin layer of grease or some similar product. A lot of time, when I come across a coin like this I just have to wait until something else appears on the market which will help explain this coin’s story. Perhaps a steel cent planchet with a missing zinc layer on one side (that would be neat!), or a coin struck on a partially unplanted zinc planchet. This coin is intriguing, and I am looking forward to seeing if anymore similar pieces exist. Do you have something similar? E-mail me at jon@sullivannumismatics.com