I know its a penny but what happened to it???????

[xmarks73]

I gave my son an old bounty hunter children's metal detector a while back. He takes it out every once in a while and brings over some cool things sometimes. About a month ago he hands me this copper looking slug thing. My eyes are not that great and I did not see anything very special about it. I told him that was pretty cool and it was a great find. He said he thought it was a penny and I assured him it wasn't. I was wrong. I decided to take a photo of it and blow it up and I seen it was a 76 penny. I corrected myself and told my boy he either found an error coin or some sort of commemorative collectable coin. He asked me to post on here and see what all of you had to say. Were there known errors for that year? Sorry for the simple what is it post but we are both currious as to what is really is. thanks in advance!

 

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[creskol]

Looks like somebody was bored and hammered the rim of the coin while turning it. I think coin rings are started off that way, too, but a penny is small for that purpose.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I agree looks like post mint damage. One other possibility is the penny was caught in a revolving drum or water pump. It also looks to be possibly cupped from heat damage.

 

[Silver Searcher]

Yea looks like somebody started to make a coin ring, and got bored

SS

 

[dirty digger dude]

may have been stuck in a dryer for a long time.

 

[mh1gs]

I have seen something like this before. A while back people would replace a screw in fuse with a penny because the fuse would keep burning out. That is probably why your penny looks cupped out and burnt. Many older homes caught fire because of this dangerous practice.