1901 1C Indian Head Variety ?

[Mi§ål's]

1901 1C Indian Head Variety ?

ok what the heck is this thing on the right? has the look and feel of Nickel ?

Anyone have an opinion on this coin on the right ?

[JKK]

Most likely explanation is it's plated. Notice the bronze peeking through at 9:00, and the little dark spots here and there at the edges of raised parts. (Could be dirt, could be plating giving way.)

[Mi§ål's]

that might be a bad picture - it does in the picture look as if there is bronze/copper - but not in my hand. see what you think of these images. There are some dings on the rim and nothing indicating underneath. 

[Mohawk]

I'm thinking plated too.  Plating cents is a pretty common thing.....many chemistry classes do it.  My 11th grade chemistry class did it.  We plated them with zinc and it was pretty cool.....you got a silver colored cent like that when it was all done.  Though my cents were Lincoln Memorials from the 1980's and 1990's.  It looks like someone used a high grade Indian for such a thing.  It could have been done to simulate a mint error as well, or to put in one of those pre-assembled sets that are often sold to people who don't really know about coins.  Think gold-plated State Quarters.  Those things were everywhere in the last decade.

[Mi§ål's]

well bummer. thank you all for commenting.

[Mokiechan]

When we were kids, we took steel cents, wrapped them in aluminum foil with a bath of Mercurochrome and then heated the whole thing on a hot plate.  We would then have manufactured our own very poorly plated copper 1943 cents.  Science is wonderful.

[Mohawk]

6 hours ago, Mokiechan said:

When we were kids, we took steel cents, wrapped them in aluminum foil with a bath of Mercurochrome and then heated the whole thing on a hot plate.  We would then have manufactured our own very poorly plated copper 1943 cents.  Science is wonderful.

Indeed it is!  Wow....I never knew of that method for making fake copper 1943 cents. 

[Mokiechan]

42 minutes ago, Mohawk said:

Indeed it is!  Wow....I never knew of that method for making fake copper 1943 cents. 

LOL, they would not have fooled anyone but it was still kind of fun.