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Yellow bronze penny?

stangthang

Elite Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Messages
774
Location
SW Wisconsin, near Dubuque, IA
I found this off-color penny. It appears to be made out of bronze, not copper or zinc. How is this possible? Thanks.

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Probably some kids science experiment! I did an experiment in high school where we coated a penny in bronze and it looked just like that. I'm guessing it was at a tot lot?
 
Pennies have changed their composition over the years. Maybe this
will help.

The penny composition was pure copper from 1793 to 1837.
From 1837 to 1857, the cent was made of bronze (95 percent copper
and five percent tin and zinc).
From 1857, the cent was 88 percent copper and 12 percent nickel.
The cent was again bronze (95 percent copper, and five percent tin
and zinc) from 1864 to 1962.
Note: In 1943, the coin's composition was changed to zinc-coated steel.
This change was only for the year 1943 and was due to the critical use
of copper for the war effort. A limited number of copper pennies were also
minted that year.​
In 1962, the cent's tin content, which was quite small, was removed. That made the
metal composition of the cent 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc.
The alloy remained 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc until 1982, when the composition
was changed to 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper.
 
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