1984 Lincoln Cents gold & silver plated

[jesjon]

Ok, I know the mint didn't plate the Lincoln Cent in 1984 either with gold or silver and it's probably some metallurgist students experiment but if the normal Cent from that year was plated with anything wouldn't it weigh more than 2.5 grams? I suppose someone could strip the copper off the zinc, then coat it in the exact same weight of a different metal. I checked online for any others from the same year that might tell me something about a COMMEMORATIVE or novelty coin that was produced but I came up empty. These two coins weigh 2.5 grams each and are the same diameter and thickness of its normal counterpart, any ideas?? Oh yeah, there is some adhesive on the reverse of the gold colored one that tells me it was attached to some novelty item, kind of like the Lincoln/Kennedy heads Cent.

[mhonzell]

Copper plating makes up 0.0625 grams of copper on a modern cent. The chemical reaction needed to make the outer layer of copper molecules to look like brass (yellow) or silver is phenomenally smaller and is essentially no change in weight.

[jesjon]

Ahh ok thank you Mhonzell that is one fact that I did not find. It's amazing how well of a job they did on these two coins, photos do not give them justice as they are very shiny and will make a great stocking stuffer for the kids this Christmas.