# Counterfeit penny? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486 "2009-08-15T02:57:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/21 "2009-08-19T00:00:07Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Naw, that penny ain’t worth two bits. Not even a red cent. ---
**Author:** ![DagNation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@DagNation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DagNation)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/22 "2009-08-19T09:33:05Z")
I once saw a counterfeit $1 - yes one dallar bill, and it was bad. I told the clerk that it was counterfeit and that he should not take it, and he said he did not believe me. I’m sure he gave it out as change ASAP (and broke a federal law). (Knowingly passing a counterfeit bill is just as illegal as printing it in the first place) It was a photocopy on white paper - the worst counterfeit I ever saw. Have I ever mentioned that my super hero power is that I can spot counterfeit bills from further away than I can tell what denomination it is? (not really, But I once did it from over 10 feet away, and I did not touch the $1 bill at all and saw it from a few feet away. In both cases the receiver was looking closely at the bill already so I only confirmed their suspicions) I have never seen a counterfeit coin. (former) superteller Dag (dollar sign on chest, big $3 bill for a cape, faster than a currency counting machine, can roll coins in a single hand, yadda yadda yadda) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/23 "2009-08-19T17:41:43Z")
> [@](#): > > I have never seen a counterfeit coin. _…that you know of_ ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/24 "2009-08-19T18:41:52Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > Actually, I’m not so sure the Secret Service would be too eagle to look into counterfeit one-cent pieces. > > (Now if we can work in a joke involving “trimes”, we can have the full set.) Does Bubba then give you a pound when you’re in jail? ---
**Author:** ![vertizontal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@vertizontal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vertizontal)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/25 "2009-08-19T23:13:04Z")
After all the ignorance I’ve seen lately, someone is finally making cents. ---
**Author:** ![Never\_Say\_Dice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee59a6/32.png) [@Never\_Say\_Dice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_Say_Dice)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/26 "2009-08-19T23:18:31Z")
Yes, my pennies always get lighter when I drop them in cyanide. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/27 "2009-08-20T04:27:17Z")
Counterfeit a penny? What a loonie idea! \ ---
**Author:** ![Yoyodyne\_Propulsion\_Systems](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/82dd89/32.png) [@Yoyodyne\_Propulsion\_Systems](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yoyodyne_Propulsion_Systems)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/28 "2009-08-21T11:33:15Z")
Not entirely relevant, but about thirty years ago the cops in San Antonio, Tx apprehended a gang of teens who were meticulously filing and sanding pennies down to the size of dimes and using them in vending machines…one of the perps told officers that it took about six hours or so to get one right. not the brightest counterfeit syndicate… ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/29 "2009-08-21T13:25:25Z")
It isn’t exactly counterfeiting, but I used to know a guy who made and sold slugs. I’m not to clear, after all these years, on what alloy the sheet metal he used was or where he got it. As I recall, it was a gold or bronze color. He used a die he’d made himself and a press to punch out quarter sized discs. The vending machines, video games, and payphones of the era ( mid-80’s) would accept them without problems. He’d sell you a big sack of them for a few bucks. He never did get caught, but the people who owned the vending machines and payphones locally really took an economic asskicking til he was finally unable to score any more of the sheet metal he used. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/30 "2009-08-21T17:32:20Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Man, you folks don’t do things by halves, do you? I found out a while back that the zinc cents will easily snap in half. I tried to bend one, but it broke instead. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/31 "2009-08-21T17:40:48Z")
> [@DagNation](#): > > I once saw a counterfeit $1 - yes one dallar bill, and it was bad. I told the clerk that it was counterfeit and that he should not take it, and he said he did not believe me. I’m sure he gave it out as change ASAP (and broke a federal law). (Knowingly passing a counterfeit bill is just as illegal as printing it in the first place) > > It was a photocopy on white paper - the worst counterfeit I ever saw. My husband and I went to a funeral last summer in a very rural area where we felt like big-city sophisticates. We stopped for lunch at a little cafe where they were all agog because somebody had just passed them a bogus $20. They really didn’t know what to do; we advised them of whom to call, but when we told them the bill would be confiscated, they decided not to report it because they wanted to keep it as a reference in case it ever happened again, they’d have something to compare it to. I know – you’re thinking they were just going to pass it along to the next person. But they were talking about where they could take it to have it \*laminated \*so as to preserve it. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/32 "2009-08-21T20:56:26Z")
I’m still trying to figure exactly what purpose a “spy coin” might serve. Better yet what exactly is a “spy coin”? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/33 "2009-08-21T22:22:52Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I’m still trying to figure exactly what purpose a “spy coin” might serve. > Better yet what exactly is a “spy coin”? Like [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Nickel_Case). ---
**Author:** ![unclegeorge271](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/848f3c/32.png) [@unclegeorge271](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclegeorge271)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/34 "2009-08-25T03:46:38Z")
The thing you have to remember is that it costs the US government somewhere around three cents to make one penny (and we wonder where this national debt came from). So if the gov’t spends three cents making a single penny using a fine tuned, mass-production process I doubt the best counterfeiters in the world could turn a profit from making pennies. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/35 "2009-08-25T03:57:39Z")
More on the merits of the penny (the second article on this page): [Why doesn’t wood melt? Plus: Does it still cost less than one cent to mint a penny? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2767/why-doesnt-wood-melt) ---
**Author:** ![onderbaadjie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a183cd/32.png) [@onderbaadjie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/onderbaadjie)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/36 "2010-08-05T13:12:15Z")
I have a penny with a VERY pronounced flare around the rim / edge, BUT, it is exactly the same diameter of other pennies? and under close examination under a microscope, it does not have any kind of “band” crimped to it, it is a single unit. Any ideas? > [@Manlob](#): > > I one had a handful of coins retrieved from inside a washer or dryer that had been tumbling around in there for a long time. I don’t mean in the the tub with the clothes, but the coins had fallen between the tub and the casing, possibly near the motor shaft (forgot the details). All those coins had rounded edges like the penny in the OP. The most extreme was a penny with a very flared edge and had been reduced to the diameter of a dime. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/37 "2010-08-05T15:38:44Z")
> [@Never\_Say\_Dice](#): > > Yes, my pennies always get lighter when I drop them in cyanide. What the deuce? ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/38 "2010-08-06T04:22:41Z")
> [@Manlob](#): > > Looks like a penny that has tumbled around inside a washer or dryer for a long time. When it bounces around while tumbling it keeps impacting on edges and the rim becomes rounded and flared. This exposes the zinc inside the coin. YES! ---
**Author:** ![yahoogle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/848f3c/32.png) [@yahoogle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yahoogle)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/39 "2012-04-15T14:17:02Z")
my penny doesnt have rounded edges, but the “penny color” (copper?) hes seemed to rub off in patches… not gradually, like normal, but from “shiny penny” to “old penny” colors like the outside layer pealed off. what do you think? ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486/40 "2012-04-15T15:31:00Z")
I think you need to link to a clear picture. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-penny/506486.md?page=3)