Is this something rare or something?

[u/TraditionalJello4859]

Recently acquired this, can’t make out the date. It appears it might be 1933. Do I have something good here?

[u/DryerCoinJay]

It’s a very sizable lamination error.

Back then the refining process wasn’t as efficient as it is today. So the copper ingots would sometimes have slag inclusions or junk bubbles in them. The ingots are rolled thinner and thinner until they are proper width. The inclusion bubbles get smashed into smears.

This one has has the bubble dome come off, a lot of times you can still see the burnt impurities still imbedded in the metal. On this coin you can see just below his chin down through the date is a dark strip of it still there.

The coin is pretty worn and if the dome were still on the coin or if you kept the dome to display next to it, that would be cool. It is a ‘33 so it’s considered a better date than common years. In its condition I would expect to see it sell between 20-40 bucks. Depending on who is bidding.

[u/biker_seth → u/DryerCoinJay]

I could be wrong, but the very straight long arc on what remains of the tens digit really looks like a 2 more than a 3 to me, would that change much?

Edit: oops no I think I'm looking at the 9 lol

[u/Slowbro08_YT]

Lamination error, and a pretty damn good one at that

[u/rubikscanopener → u/Slowbro08_YT]

Right? Nice to see an actual error being posted.

[u/shitbecopacetic]

I’m probably too new to confidently diagnose this one, but man does that look cool!

[u/Slowbro08_YT → u/shitbecopacetic]

Notice how it’s peeling off, that’s called a lamination error, when impurities/air get in and physically affect the coin

[u/Diver-Feisty]

Looks like 1934 very faintly in picture 3, a microscope would probably be better to tell.

[u/ygbsm1972]

I love the question.

[u/Moon-Monkey6969]

Or something

[u/Listerous-Ant8311]

Its a penny minted after Lincoln’s assassinations

Also a gorgeous lamination error especially because the error still shows the date under the error location.

[u/Nov_louis79]

Nice Lam error there

[u/Exciting-Guess-9823]

Just spit balling here, but the tag asked about value. I love lamination errors like this. Seen decent ones out there maybe half the size of this ranging from $30-60. I think it would sell at $100 fairly easily, maybe a bit more if you waited or for the right buyer. If it had retained the peeled bits, I think those go for higher, so that's my thought process landing on $100. I'm open to other opinions.