Weird USA cent... Is it a planchet error?

I found this 2017-P cent.  It is about the same weight as a standard copper-plated zinc cent (2.51g) but it is slightly more than 20mm in diameter, more than 5% larger than standard.  The coin appears to be completely zinc with no trace that there ever was copper on it.  The designs are free of any distortion or stretching, and the coin does not have any signs of tooling or machining on it that would suggest post-mint damage.  The edge is plain and smooth.

Before somebody asks, I do not think this is a normal penny that lost its copper coating somehow.  If it did, it should be underweight, undersized, and show less surface detail.  This coin is somehow larger in all respects.

Shown with a normal 2017 cent for comparison.

Have a look at this post.  Looks like another one. If it’s not the same then they made the die too large also.  
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic141702.html#p1270778

Interesting thread.  I agree that this is not an error from the US mint.  But I also do not agree with the theory that merely heating a copper plated zinc penny to several hundred degrees can do this.  I think these pennies might be the work of a foreign counterfeiter, perhaps as practice for faking coins of meaningful value, or perhaps done in a place where even USD$0.01 still has buying power.

I believe that these are referred to as “Texas Cents”

Look at this:

"Texas Cent" is a common, post-mint novelty item created by hammering a standard U.S. penny between two pieces of leather, which causes the coin to become thinner and wider, often mimicking the diameter of a nickel. These are not official mint errors but are handmade, often dubbed "Texas Cents" due to the phrase "everything's bigger in Texas". 

Key Details About Texas Cents:

• Creation: Made by placing a penny between leather pieces and striking with a hammer or using a vice.
• Appearance:

The coin appears flattened, slightly larger in diameter, and often has a distorted, "stretched" image of Abraham Lincoln."

DSC07625

I believe that these are referred to as “Texas Cents”

Look at this:

"Texas Cent" is a common, post-mint novelty item created by hammering a standard U.S. penny between two pieces of leather, which causes the coin to become thinner and wider, often mimicking the diameter of a nickel. These are not official mint errors but are handmade, often dubbed "Texas Cents" due to the phrase "everything's bigger in Texas". 

Key Details About Texas Cents:

• Creation: Made by placing a penny between leather pieces and striking with a hammer or using a vice.
• Appearance:

The coin appears flattened, slightly larger in diameter, and often has a distorted, "stretched" image of Abraham Lincoln."

This sounds like AI crap! 
 

Where did you get this information, sources, images please?

I remembered reading about oversized Lincoln  cents somewhere but couldn't remember exactly where.

So I asked Google.

Several results came back.

For example, look at this:

https://www.treasurenet.com/threads/texas-cent.631373/

DSC07625

I remembered reading about oversized Lincoln  cents somewhere but couldn't remember exactly where.

So I asked Google.

Several results came back.

For example, look at this:

https://www.treasurenet.com/threads/texas-cent.631373/

Google is now AI trash. It just takes peoples opinions and spits it back at them! I have a friend who posted about being in heavy traffic on a quite rural road, some months later he googled to find out if there was traffic in that direction and Google AI quoted his post as if 6 months prior applied in real time to today… 

Back on topic though, where some people might be calling them Texas Cent, the hammering between leather part is ridiculous, how does that remove the copper coating and make them dark, and how is it possible to have them evenly expand with unpredictable hammering? I am going to go out on a limb and say that it won’t, and the result of hammering a US cent between leather will result in a obviously beat up uneven hammered shinny copper coloured coin that looks nothing like the ones we are discussing.

Yes, please explain why the hammering makes them go from bright copper to very dark burnt look?  Also, please explain why every one in the thread I posted are zinc pennies only.

From the posted article:

I think I read that the copper plating doesn't stretch and flakes off leaving the unprotected Zinc.

Zinc reacts with everything unfortunately.

Look at all the Zinc WW II issues that wind up looking like that.

This is one I hammered and the copper plating stretched and didn't flake off so I inclined to believe that's not why.

Oh okay.

I've been searching but can't find where I read  that.

But I did find this:

https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?topic_id=400834

That's close to what mine looks like but I didn't use leather so much more smeared details.  I'm going to try with leather now.  But, on all the ones on the other post, including the ones I made, the details were not smeared and distorted, just larger.  I'm not 100% sure I have the answer but it's the best I have seen so far.  I still want to see a pre-1982 one.

Oh okay.

Good luck.

There is always the option to send the original in for grading in order to get a final determination.

Copying from the earlier thread linked above:

"Researching solid state metal diffusion led me to this science paper by Prof. Theodore Greene at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.  His paper describes the process exactly on copper-plated zinc pennies:

https://materialseducation.org/educators/matedu-modules/docs/Solid_State_Diffusion_of_Metals.pdf

However, while his paper mentions having the students measure the diameter and note any changes, it doesn't explain why the coins are increasing in size."

In my opinion, this is case closed.

I agree.