new pennys

[brewhaha]

Whats with the newer pennys? I have dug some newer pennys that are almost disintegrated. I don't think they can be cleaned and spent. They just don't make em like they used to

[NGE]

They are zinc base metal with a little copper wash. In here we call them Zincoln's instead of Lincoln's.....NGE

[John Dyer]

New pennies are made of copper coated zinc. Zinc is a "sympathetic" metal in that it dissolves to protect the copper. Ships have zinc anodes welded to the hull that dissolve to protect the steel hull. Banks will accept pennies in pretty sad shape as long as the majority of it is there. I have had no problem turning in pennies that had holes eaten through the middle. I just tumble them with all the others and take em' to the bank. When I was working in a lab, we had an acid bath for glassware. You could scratch a new penny and drop it in the acid bath and watch it dissolve. In a few days, all that would be left was the copper shell and it would be so light, it couldn't be weighted on a micrograms scale.

[Seamuss]

I'm not done saving the old pennies.

[jeff of pa]

tell you what,
at the rate I'v
Been Pulling These Rotted Pieces Of
Metal out the Ground Lately
They can't Rot away Fast Enough
for me.

[vanoldschool]

you are 100 percent guaranteed to at least find one everytime you go out in this state!!