i know that pennies contain copper, but how much of it? i also know that mostly all other coins are a blend of different materials. , so just how much copper is actually in the penny?
I think pennies are approx 1/3 copper.And due to the cost of copper,the US mint may soon be making steel pennies again because of the cost/worth ratio of a penny.
A modern American penny contains 2.5% copper by weight. This has been true since 1982. Up until that year, pennies contained 95% copper by weight. Due to rising metal prices, the copper in the penny had to be replaced with cheaper metals such as zinc and steel in order to reduce production costs. Due to present day metal prices, a penny made before 1982 is currently worth about two cents. To get a little more technical, the old pennies were composed homogeneously of an alloy of 95% copper and 5% zinc by weight. Current pennies have a zinc core which makes up 97.5% of the weight, and the copper is plated onto the surface to give the same appearance as the old pennies.
