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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 1913005, member: 42773&quot;]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&#039;s far less susceptible to corrosion than pure copper, and as we all know, bronze can attain a very attractive tone.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>I wonder why the mint chose copper to plate the cents - surely they knew it wouldn&#039;t age well. Perhaps they didn&#039;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?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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