Another. Opinions?

[Travis Hale]

1958-d steel cent

[Mohawk]

What you have there is not a 1958-D Steel Cent....such a coin would be impossible as far as I know.  You have a 1958-D cent that was plated, likely with nickel or zinc to give it a silver color.  It's something that is done as a novelty or in chemistry classes.  When I was in high school (mid to late 1990's) we actually plated cents with zinc in my 11th grade chemistry class....it was cool, you got silver colored pennies just like that once the plating was done.  Everyone in the class got to do two or three of them.  It's an altered coin, worth no premium.

[coinsandmedals]

6 hours ago, Mohawk said:

It's something that is done as a novelty or in chemistry classes.  When I was in high school (mid to late 1990's) we actually plated cents with zinc in my 11th grade chemistry class....it was cool, you got silver colored pennies just like that once the plating was done.  Everyone in the class got to do two or three of them.  It's an altered coin, worth no premium.

I remember doing this in my 10th grade biochem course in high school ( maybe in 2009?). I’ll post pictures of the ones I did if I can find them when I get back home from the holidays. 

[JKK]

OP, this is also one way that tarnished 1943 zinc-clad steel cents get a colorful clown suit for sale to the completely uninitiated. Anything that looks odd, it's worth first assuming that there is post-mint alteration or damage. The burden of proof is on the need to find compelling evidence that a coin is an error.

[Numismatic, A.A.S.]

There are books, one in particular I think by Ron Guth (I'm not sure) that talks about what people do to coins to change the appearance and which coins are highly susceptible to this practice...I guess Doctors will do anything though...Thanks for sharing OP'...I used to throw I'll my weird looking coins in one place till I progressed along...now the weight is the only thing I really have to check...sometimes composition. Cool...

[TomT59]

Simple solution - steel is magnetic, copper, zinc, and nickel are not. Use a magnet to see if it grabs it.

 

[JKK]

5 hours ago, Tom Toner said:

Simple solution - steel is magnetic, copper, zinc, and nickel are not. Use a magnet to see if it grabs it.

 

If you ever dunk a magnet into a pile of pre-1982 Canadian nickels, you may learn that there's a slight inaccuracy there. I mentioned it to my coin dealer in Boise, who did just what I described. He pulled out a magnet covered in old nickels. Cu/Ni doesn't seem to contain enough Ni, but 99% Ni sure does.

[Conder101]

Nickel loses its magnetic properties if it is alloyed with over about 12% of another metal.  Our copper nickel coinage has 75% of another metal.