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Letter 11159
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+ 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.
++++ Hi guys I really need to know how are pennies are made because I'm looking up how are coins made and if you can tell me what all the coins made that will be AWESOME! Shalonda S
++++ C'mon, Shalonda, we just finished telling you how pennies are made :-) But besides the info already given, you can find more about coins at the US Mint site, www.usmint.gov. Also, the History Channel has a nice several minute film clip on how coins are made, although we don't know how long it will remain on line. Good luck!
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Q. When did pennies go from solid copper to zinc clad?
Herb S 
- Munroe Falls, Ohio
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+++++++ A. Hello, Herb; it was 1982. Some 1982 pennies are zinc cores plated with copper, some are solid copper. You can weigh a 1982 penny to see which kind it is. You can search the site for many other factoids about pennies. Good luck.
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I was told (an old wives tale, perhaps) that if a person is stung by a bee, the copper in a penny will help calm the sting. Given this is true, would the pennies made after 1982 still be able to accomplish this home remedy?
Megan Bachara
- Houston, Texas
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+++++++ Hello, Megan. The answer is probably "yes", based on the supposition that the copper on the surface somehow reacts with the fluids in the sting area to soothe it. If that be the case, the fact that the core of the penny is zinc might be irrelevant. But you raise an interesting point for the students who are here for science projects. If we concede your "given" -- in other words, if we accept that putting a penny on a bee sting soothes it, without proof or evidence, then we would also be conceding that we don't "why" (if there is no proof that something is true, there is certainly no proof why it is true) And if we don't know why something works, then we can't make any projections at all! It might work for any chunk of metal, or it could work because the diameter of a penny is just right while a dime is too small and a nickel too big, or it could be that the stinging sensation comes from alien radiation and can only be deflected by the image of Lincoln :-) Good question.
+++++++ Homework: what metal were the pennies made from in the past? kareli
+++++++ Don't just post your homework question, Kareli -- teachers tell us to just tell the students to "Do your own homework." But tell us what you are having difficulty with. Before 1982 pennies were made of solid copper, all except in 1943 when pennies were made of steel plated with zinc because copper was in short supply due to WWII.
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The U.S. penny since 1982 is made of 99.2 zinc and 0.8 copper,
with the outside plated with copper.
;>)
Ann-Marie Clements
- Saint John, NB, Canada
September 25, 2008
hello my name is Annika I am researching the past of US Mint and I am interested in pennies, my question is why does Abe Lincoln face right when all the other portraits face left?
Annika S
student - Numine, Pennsylvania
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October 12, 2008 Hi, Annika. There is no particular reason, conspiracy theories aside :-) It just happens that the portrait and bust of Lincoln that were used as the model face that way. Also some Jefferson nickels face left and some face right. Regards,
My name is Mason and I'm in the 6th grade, why do they use zinc and copper, why not just one? Mason R
January 5, 2010 The reason pennies use zinc now and not just copper is that it's cheaper to make. Copper has become expensive. Because zinc cheaper, most of the penny is zinc, but the outside is copper so it looks the same (I guess). It still costs more than one cent to make a penny though. :) Jordan
Christiansen
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