What is a Penny Made Of?
A penny is the lowest form of American currency, worth only one cent, and is popularly believed to be made solely of copper. However, the common penny has been made of a variety of materials over the years, with copper even being removed completely in 1943. Today, a penny is made of 97.5 percent zinc, and 2.5 percent copper. The first penny was minted in the United States in 1787. Benjamin Franklin, one of the United States’ founding fathers, suggested its original design. The composition of the first minted penny was 100 percent pure copper. This continued until the mid 1800s, when the penny underwent its first change in composition. The bronze penny was introduced in 1837, made of 95 percent copper and five percent zinc and tin. These pennies were minted for another 20 years before the next change was made. In 1857, the common penny received a further degradation in its copper content, and was made of 88 percent copper and 12 percent nickel. This gave the penny a lighter, almost whit
How do they make pennies now days? JIMIE P [name deleted for privacy] – Chamblee, GA, U.S.A. + Hi, Jimie. Pennies today are made of zinc blanks (circles of zinc are punched out of sheets of zinc, like cookies are cut out of a sheet of dough with a cookie cutter). The zinc blanks are then electroplated with copper in plating barrels (we have an article with pictures on line about barrel plating), so the core of the penny is zinc but the skin is copper. After the copper plating, they are stamped with the familiar head of Lincoln and the date, etc. Coins such as pennies have a raised rim (the lip around the penny is thicker than the body of the penny); this is created by rolling the coin through a passage that is slightly smaller than the original size of the blank so the extra material must mush up as this fatter edge. Good luck with your project. Ted Mooney, P.E. finishing.com Brick, New Jersey ++++ Hi guys I really need to know how are pennies are made because I’m looking up how are co
Depends on the penny. When and when the penny was minted will have a bearing. Many old pennies were of pure copper but various alloys were included to harden them as well as reducing their tangible cost by including lower cost materials. An attractive cladding over the cheapest possible base is the pennies most recent destiny.
