Over the years, since being introduced in 1982, the zinc cents have become a real problem regarding how they decompose. Being in retail management, I have seen firsthand the condition of the zinc cents go from bad to worse to pathetic. A handfull of zinc cents out of any cash register these days reveals coins in a condition of advanced rot. Many are so bad as to be unrecognizable. Worse, many of the 'old' copper cents mixed with them are also getting the 'zinc' disease! Thank goodness most of the wheat cents are now out of circulation and safe from this effect. I think I would have been more pleased with a plastic cent than to watch what is happening with the zinc. This is a metal that should never have been used for coinage; at least not by a country as prosperous as the U.S.A.
All they had to do is look at the coating of some of the 1943 steel cents (which were, of course, zinc-coated) to see what could happen to coins which were primarily zinc. Some of those old steelies are all cruddy and corroded on the outside. One wonders how long some of the remaining gems can stay that way without special protection.
