What are pennies made of

Pennies are made out of copper. Interestingly, it costs more to make a penny than what the penny is actually worth. Some say the United States should remove the penny from our money.

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Prior to 2001 pennys were made from copper, or a copper-nickel alloy; since 2001 they have been made of copper plated steel.

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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 …

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Related Questions Answered on Y!Answers

How many 1933 & 1952 English pennies were made?

Q: What is the value of these pennies if anyone ever found one ?Apparently there were only 7 – 1933 pennies madeAlso only 1 – 1952 pennies madeSurely more were made & put into circulation ?There are a lot of copies available to fill int he gaps for collectors etc, so how would you know if you FOUND the real ones ?What other coins were discontinued or not made in a particular year, making them sought after ?Thanks in advance

A: There are conflicting stories regarding the 1933 penny. Some say seven and some nine. They were all released by mistake. The 1952 penny is unique so it is a pretty sure bet that there was only one.

what other metals are pennies made out of?

Q: what other metals (besides copper) are pennies made up of?

A: They are 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper

Are pennies made of pure copper and pure zinc? Also, when they turn darker, what chemical is the darker stuff?

Q: Is the darker stuff just copper oxide?

A: A simple way to tell if it’s copper or zinc is look at the date. In the middle of 1982 they switched it from 95% copper to Zinc with copper plating. So to be safe pre-1982 it’s copper after 1982 it’s Zinc.