Quick Beach Hunt and mild rant

[Stringtyer]

My wife and I went to the beach this weekend with some friends just to get out of town and relax. Since I don't sit around very well, I took my EQ-600 and hit the beach. I worked the sand for about an hour before the wind and chilly temperatures got the best of me. The beach was the cleanest place I've ever detected with not so much as a pull tab or bottle cap.

Since I am still learning how to use my EQ, I dig anything that beeps. My three clear targets were zinc pennies. One was about 1/4 of the penny (the rest had corroded away) and it was buried 11 inches in the sand. I had a good time being on the beach and digging the beeps.

Now, my rant ... Who in their right mind came up with the genius idea of making coins from a bimetallic group that forms a natural battery when exposed to an electrolyte? A zinc penny in a salt water environment is simply a science experiment for 5th graders in how electricity is made. Arrrgggghhhh!

So ends my rant.

 

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[Johnnybravo300]

The point was to make a penny that is made of worthless metal. That's the zincoln we have today.

 

[smokeythecat]

Even see a Zincoln on a parking lot at a salt water beach? Doesn't take them long to disintegrate.

 

[Stringtyer]

The point was to make a penny that is made of worthless metal. That's the zincoln we have today.

Oh, I fully understand the reason behind the coin. I simply find it interesting that no one had brains enough to pick another metal to mint a coin with little to no value; one that would not corrode in normal atmospheric conditions. For example, everyone is familiar with the steel coins made during World War II. Why not steel coins now? Is copper coated zinc that much cheaper?

Of course, we could go back to making them out of copper and pretend that they had any value whatever. Or, perhaps, it's time to let go of the penny coin.

 

[Slingshot]

Inflation is so insidious that first it was the copper cents that became too expensive to mint, now it cost more to mint the zinkys than a cent is worth. I have suggested that they start minting the cents out of cardboard for thats about all their worth anymore.

 

[cudamark]

Even see a Zincoln on a parking lot at a salt water beach? Doesn't take them long to disintegrate.

An Alkaseltzer dissolves faster........but not by much!

 

[Peyton Manning]

The current from the dissolving metal keeps the electrical charge of the earth in balance

 

[RTH]

The toll to produce, administer and distribute the 1-cent coin was 1.82 cents in FY 2017 compared to 1.50 cents a year earlier. For the 5-cent coin, the cost went up to 6.60 cents from 6.32 cents. - Coinnews.net

With production numbers of over 4 billion cents made in each Philly and Denver, that means the Federal Government is wasting OVER 65 MILLION DOLLARS annually to produce "pennies." No wonder the mint is charging such premiums for collector coins!! With more and more people using credit cards, debit cards, online purchases, and "fast pay," maybe it's time to do away with cent production.

Do we really need to produce an additional 20+ pennies for each man, woman and child in the country every year??

 

[haxor]

Why not just put a hole in a copper penny? (Reminiscent of the old Y punched into NYC subway tokens of yesteryear) No vending machine takes them, should that shouldn't be a prob (other then coin counting machines, but hey, more money for them on the upgrades)

 

[Megalodon]

Zinc is very useful in the production of sacrificial anodes used to protect other metals from the effects of galvanic corrosion. This is why outboard motors all come with zinc anodes attached to them and why commercial crabbers can use thin steel wire crab pots in saltwater as long as they keep sacrificial anodes attached to the pots. Sacrificial anodes are also attached to boat hulls, pipes, tanks, etc. Because zinc sacrifices its electrons so much faster than the metal to which it is attached, it is the best sacrificial anode material for objects in saltwater. The qualities that make it so good as a sacrificial anode also make it unsuitable as a material for coinage.

Zinc in coinage shows a lack of imagination and innovation, not to mention pride in the product. Now that farmers have lost their traditional soybean markets, could a soybean product be used to make cents?

 

[against the wind]

Abraham Lincoln would not be happy with being downgraded to a Zinc coin.