Pennies highly corroded

[robert roy]

I've noticed that almost every penny I dig is corroded something terrible.
Only the older ones seem to be ok. Why is this?

RR

 

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[hollowpointred]

its because the newer ones are made of zinc clad in copper instead of solid copper. zinc pennies suck!

 

[aa battery]

Zinc pennies i like to know who the guy was that thought that one up 8) AA

 

[stoney56]

Zinc pennies i like to know who the guy was that thought that one up 8) AA

Guess as many that gets thrown away, they figured they better do something or we'd be up to our a$$ in them.

 

[Gen. Breckinridge]

Zinc pennies are the tab tops of the future only worse. They will waste away in the ground and still leave a good target for the detectors but can't be found. At least we can dig the tabs and hunt on.

 

[dfxdude]

The Zincoln's were started minting in late 1982. The ratio of copper 82 pennies to zinc has been about 85% copper, 15% zinc from my finds. The zinc pennies corrode expecially bad at salt water beaches, but can get bad anywhere there are certain ground chemicals. I've gotten to the point that I "cherry pick" and pass on zinc pennies unless pinpointing says there are on top or within 1" of the surface. I can hear the difference on the DFX and also the VDI is around 58 on the zincoln's and in the mid 70's on the copper. The older copper pennies prior to 82 are actually worth over 2 cents in copper content alone while the zincoln's aren't worth $hi$ !

 

[Rob66]

Its true... they don't make them, like they use to.

 

[desertfox]

Zink coins Suck!

Desertfox

 

[ivan salis]

after 1982 due to the "cost" of copper -- the US Govt switched to copper coated - zinc cents (most folks call them "pennies" in error --the us GOVT has used the word "cents" for our money --the british used "pennies" as part of the money sysytem and when america broke away we used "cents" on "our money" to break away money wize) --- the zinc cents are lousy and do not hold up well at all wither in the ground or not -- plainly put zincolns suck -- (zinc - lincolns)--- 1958 and before are wheat cents which some folks collect Ivan

 

[robert roy]

I deal with these pennies this way: I give them to the bank to deal with.

I save my regular pennies everytime I get change. When I get enough of them I put the good ones in wrappers and intersperse some bad one's in among them. I hope the bank never catches on!(:-) Its better than throwing them away.

RR

 

[doozis]

"I save my regular pennies everytime I get change. When I get enough of them I put the good ones in wrappers and intersperse some bad one's in among them"

Now thats a good Idea

Doozis

 

[re-tek]

from what i read... banks are supposed to take damaged coins and currency. its part of their job agreement with the feds.

i use my clad to buy stuff. my wheat pennies and silver go in a box where i hoard them. my real copper pennies go in a seperate bin. same with rings and such.

 

[Shortstack]

The corrosion of the zincs are from the acidity in the soil. Using fertilizers on the lawns really eats them up.

For those who skip over them because their VDI's identification; I've dug "zinc" indications with my DeLeon that produced '50s nickels. That happened twice.

 

[BIG61AL]

Stupid zinc pennies. I rather dig up a pull tab. At least I'll get to pull out a gold ring once in a while. Those zinc pennies always look like crap. It's almost embarrassing to save those hunks of corrosion.

 

[re-tek]

my coinstrike has a pretty decent notch to filter zinc pennies out. i'm glad it does! zinc pennies are the pulltabs of the new millenium!

before i started MD'ing, i used to fling all my zinc pennies out the car window when i left the drive thru. i'm sure i'm not the only one guilty of penny hate crimes.

 

[julesjunk]

from what i read... banks are supposed to take damaged coins and currency. its part of their job agreement with the feds.

Unfortunately, that's not the case. I'm not sure on currency, but I think any one of the federal branches will credit you, but for coinage, the only place to get credit is the Philly mint. And even then, you have to jump through a bunch of hoops. I don't know about "walkins" but when mailing it, you have to have at least 1 pound of any particular denomination in order to get them to reinburse you. I've got close to two pounds of cents. Problem is, the shipping nearly eats up ALL the value.
Been trying to get our local club to combine all our damaged coinage, then ship all at once, and donate it to our club hunt, or a charity........

 

[Ricardo_NY1]

zinc pennies are the pulltabs of the new millenium!

That is seriously f'd up! Makes me want to go out and save a park today by digging out all the zincs as opposed to letting them rot there and making detecting a hassle in the future. What to do? I hate those zuckers too!

 

[aa battery]

I know this is extreme but why dont we collect the ugly zinc cents and dump them in front of the mint under protest. We use to do dumb stuff like that in the 60s AA

 

[bjw]

one other point to bring up. If the area you are hunting is old and has the possability of containing IH pennies some of those will fall into the Zinc range so by not digging you could be passing on the IH pennies.
BJW

 

[Shortstack]

I know this is extreme but why dont we collect the ugly zinc cents and dump them in front of the mint under protest. We use to do dumb stuff like that in the 60s AA

You can bring all of those #**^%&** pennies over to MY house and dump them THERE. ( PLEEESSSEE! ) and thank you.