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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;funnycoins, post: 3613004, member: 103887&quot;]The price of copper has risen and fallen over time. History records times when copper prices threatened production of the copper cent, as the cost of the metal approached and even exceeded the face value of the coin being struck. In 1943 all copper that could be obtained was needed for the war effort resulting in the 1943 zinc-plated steel cents, then the 1944 and 1945 cents made from recycled gun shell casings more in keeping with the traditional bronze cent composition. The next minor change came in September of 1962 when a shortage of tin (used in the French bronze alloy at 2.5% of the composition) became expensive, so it was dropped and Lincoln cents became brass, with a blend of 95% copper and 5% zinc. In 1974 there was another price increase in copper, at a time when the West Point Mint began coining cents (without mintmarks, mintages lumped in with Philadelphia). An experiment was launched to strike the 1974 Lincoln cents on aluminum planchets. A total of 1,579,324 aluminum cents were struck with all but a few apparently destroyed. At least one resides in the Smithsonian in the National Numismatic Collection. Other 1974 aluminum survivors are reported, but are still subject to seizure as having escaped the mint without authorization.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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