Zinc pennies don't age gracefully like copper pennies did. They often get a dirty, grimy look. What is the reason? Is it just the way the zinc alloy corrodes?
Actually, the outer layer of the new pennies is pure copper. The inner core is zinc. The zinc isn't really a factor in appearance unless the copper jacket is compromised. The pre 1982 pennies were 95% copper, 5% zinc. I suspect the pure copper is more reactive than the 95% copper was.
I suspect the copper layers are worn off on these pennies. They're just so ugly. I never see pre-1982 pennies in this condition.
There was also a little more respect for pre 1982 pennies. Nobody likes the zincolns, so maybe they're being abused a little more than the older pennies were.
Copper is quite reactive and prone to corrosion - it reacts with oxygen to form copper oxide, resulting in the grimy stains on so many post-1982 cents. Coin bronze is also reactive, but it's far less susceptible to corrosion than pure copper, and as we all know, bronze can attain a very attractive tone. The virtues of bronze over copper were discovered by the ancients of course - the vast majority of ancient coins that contain copper are some sort of bronze alloy that uses varying amounts of tin and lead. I wonder why the mint chose copper to plate the cents - surely they knew it wouldn't age well. Perhaps they didn't care, or perhaps bronze plating would have added an extra expense. The point, after all, was maximizing seigniorage. Or was it minimizing negative seigniorage?
From a collecting standpoint, I'd be very careful to keep higher grade post-82 cents cool and dry, and I wouldn't be tempted to spend big money on them. But that's just my opinion. I've got four of the 2009 bicentennial cents as type pieces, but I bought examples cut from mint sets - those (and the proofs) are made of the traditional US cent bronze alloy. I'm guessing they'll weather better than the plated circulation strikes.
And how many do you see that are not saved in somebody's collection or being sold in rolls to collectors ? Simple fact - coins that are used get dirty. There aren't all that many pre-'82 cents still in circulation, so they aren't getting used anymore. And the ones that you see have either been saved or pulled for sale to collectors. So the dirty, grungy ones have been discarded and pulled from circulation over the years so you simply don't see them anymore. While the Zincolns are still largely in circulation, so you do see the dirty and grungy ones. That's really about all there is to it. It's just common sense.
I still see a fair amount of pre 1982 pennies in circulation, and I also remember back when there was no zincolns. I too believe the zincolns are aging differently than the pre 1982's. They do have a different metal composition exposed to the elements, so "it's just common sense".
Complete hogwash saying "there aren't all that many pre-'82 cents still in circulation"! I just went through a bag of 2500 cents, and around 35% were pre-82. When is the last time you went through a bag of cents from a bank Doug? There are still billions and billions of pre-82 cents out there circulating.
This might be an entirely unrelated factor -- but the relief on the post '82 cents diminished quickly over time, to a very low relief coin. There also may be some psychological connection made with the thin, cheaply produced modern zinc Lincoln and those better constructed copper alloy cents of yesteryear. As an aside, I do see quite a few pre '82s still in circ, and I agree that they by and large have taken on a nicer patina, and don't seem to generally suffer the terrible staining and other maladies.
I doubt that is the case. The average person doesn't even know nor care what the pennies are made out of.
This is true. I see pre-1982 pennies all the time. I find wheats on a regular basis and an Indian head every now and then.
Agreed. I find LOTS of pre-82s in boxes from my local bank. The percentages range from as low as 10% to over 50%, depending on the box. Oh, and I found an Indian Cent in a box last year, along with scads of Wheat-ear Cents. I find at least one Wheatie in every $25 box.
Hogwash ? One says 35%, another says 10-50% - Let's settle on an average of 25-30% ? But it's probably less. And how do you define not all that many ? Less than a third seems to meet that for me. And these bags you're searching, where do you think they came from, who put them together ? So I don't think they'd be a very good gauge of what's in actual circulation. And no, I haven't searched change since I was a kid, but then I don't need to either. The expected life span of a coin is 30 years, 1982 till today = 32 years.
Less than a third is still billions and billions and billions of cents. That was my point. I guess if you define "not all that many" as a few billion then that's reasonable.
Plating with a single metal is pretty straight forward. Trying to plate an alloy is a lot tougher. You can have troubles keeping the proper concentration of the different metals in the plating solution constant, the metals may deposit at different rates, and you have the problem that the plating alloy may not deposit in a homogeneous manner so the alloy is one ratio in some areas and a different ratio in another.
I get a lot of pre-82 cents in change, and they always look a lot better than the crappy zincolns. IMHO Zincolns are another good reason to get rid of the cent - many are so corroded and gungy looking that I don't even like handling them.
I CRH quite often, and have gotten bank sealed rolls and customer wrapped ones. My first Indian head was in a customer rolled one. Today I got $25 in pennies that were customer wrapped, and ALL of them were 59-82, so lucky me I guess.
