pennies stopped being made of copper in 2005.
pennies stopped being made of copper in 2005.
when did pennies stop being made of copper?
2005
when minting coins, especially low denomination coins, there is a risk that the value of metal within a coin is greater than the face value. this leads to the possibility of smelters taking coins and melting them down for the scrap value of the metal. pre-1992 british pennies were made of 97% copper; but as of 2008, based on the price of copper, the value of a penny from this period is 1.5 new-pence. modern british pennies are now made of copper-plated steel. for similar reasons, american pennies (cents) were once made of copper alloys, but since 1982 have been made of copper-plated zinc.
coinage metals
the pennies of queen victoria (1837–1901) form one of the most intricate denominations of british coinage, both before and after the transition from copper to bronze pennies in 1860. a number of specialist books have been published on the many varieties of victorian pennies. the final years of the copper penny, from 1839 to 1860, saw a portrait of the queen by william wyon, usually dubbed the "young head". it had a reverse largely unchanged from king william's but for changing an x to a g, thus became , short for regina (queen), denoting the fact that the monarch was now a woman. thus, the legend on victorian copper pennies was . copper pennies were issued for all years between 1839 and 1860 except 1840, 1842, 1850, and 1852. the heaton mint, of birmingham, had been founded with equipment from the wound-up soho mint. beginning in the early 1850s, it supplied large quantities of blanks for pennies to the royal mint, and at times was called upon to strike pennies, though its mint mark h would not appear on pennies until 1874. these contracts were because of the needs of ireland (where counterfeits and tokens were common) and the colonies; the large quantities struck between 1797 and 1807 by boulton ensured there were no shortages in england, scotland and wales.
history of the british penny (1714–1901)