Just curious as to when the US Mint stopped minting solid copper cents.
Copper still is not low-priced and the fee of copper plus the fee of production rose beyond the worth of a penny in the 80's. There's serious speak of discontinuing the production of pennies absolutely due to the high cost of production now.
100% copper pennies were last minted by the US in 1857. These were large cents, about the size of the golden dollar coins. The Flying Eagle and Indian Cents from 1856 to 1864 were 88% copper and 12% nickel. Beginning in 1864 Indian Cents, and later Lincoln Cents, were minted in 95% copper and 5% zinc, (some years have also some tin added which makes it technically bronze,) but there were other minor variation for certain years.
