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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Burton Strauss III, post: 13915767, member: 59677&quot;]The law on minor coins is interesting...</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/5112" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/5112" rel="nofollow">https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/5112</a></p><p><br /></p><p><b>31 U.S. Code § 5112 - Denominations, specifications, and design of coins</b></p><p><br /></p><p>(a)The Secretary of the Treasury may mint and issue only the following coins:</p><p>&nbsp;all</p><p>(6)except as provided under subsection (c) of this section, a one-cent coin that is 0.75 inch in diameter and weighs 3.11 grams.</p><p><br /></p><p>(b) ... The 5-cent coin is an alloy of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel. In minting 5-cent coins, the Secretary shall use bars that vary not more than 2.5 percent from the percent of nickel required. Except as provided under subsection (c) of this section, the one-cent coin is an alloy of 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc. ...</p><p><br /></p><p>(c)The Secretary may prescribe the weight and the composition of copper and zinc in the alloy of the one-cent coin that the Secretary decides are appropriate when the Secretary decides that a different weight and alloy of copper and zinc are necessary to ensure an adequate supply of one-cent coins to meet the needs of the United States.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thus the 1c is currently defined as the 3.11g 95% copper cent but Sec Treas has the authority vary the composition of the coin. </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m not sure quite where copper plated zinc is an alloy, but stranger things exist in law. I&#039;m not seeing a definition in the code or regulations (CFR - Code of Federal Regulations), so the word should have it&#039;s customary meaning. </p><p><br /></p><p>The one I do see refers to specialty metals and defines an alloy as:</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Restriction on Acquisition of Specialty Metals (MAR 2013)</i></p><p><i>(a) Definitions. As used in this clause -</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>Alloy means a metal consisting of a mixture of a basic metallic element and one or more metallic, or non-metallic, alloying elements.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>(i) For alloys named by a single metallic element (e.g., titanium alloy), it means that the alloy contains 50 percent or more of the named metal (by mass).</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>(ii) If two metals are specified in the name (e.g., nickel-iron alloy), those metals are the two predominant elements in the alloy, and together they constitute 50 percent or more of the alloy (by mass).</i></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Under this definition, the War nickels are copper alloy or copper-silver alloy.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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