Part X. Wastebasket/Composite Categories:

Ghost Images:

Slide Zone Ghost Elements

Description: Outlines and silhouettes of peripheral letters (and occasionally the last digit of the date) located in the slide zone of off-center zinc cents.  The ghost elements consist of exposed zinc surrounded by intact copper plating.  Plating of just the right thickness, combined with just the right striking pressure, produces slight disruption of the copper plating.  The ghost elements record the point of initial contact between the dies and the planchet.

The reverse face of this off-center copper-plated zinc cent shows ghost letters in the slide zone.  The letters of UNITED STATES take the form of outlines and silhouettes of exposed zinc.  There are no slide zone ghost elements on the obverse face.