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The penny, also known as the cent, is a coin in the United States representing one-hundredth of a dollar.It has been the lowest face-value physical unit of U.S. currency since the abolition of the half-cent in 1857 (the abstract mill, which has never been minted, equal to a tenth of a cent, continues to see limited use in the fields of taxation and finance).
Since 1982, copper-plated pennies have been made primarily from zinc. Ironically, the other mainstream coins are primarily made from copper, with roughly 75% content for nickels and more than 90% ...
Pennies were made of copper before 1962 and are currently made majority of zinc but with copper plating. Lincoln has been on the penny since 1909, and the penny was the first coin made by the U.S ...
Nickels made of 75% copper and 25% nickel, while pennies, despite their reputation of being a copper coin are copper-plated zinc, meaning they are only 2.5% copper and 97.5% zinc.
The half cent and cent were made of pure copper, the half dime, dime, quarter, half, and dollar in 90% silver, and the quarter, half and full eagle in .9167 gold (later changed to .8992 in 1834, and then 90% gold in 1837). All of the coins featured Liberty on the front and a bald eagle on the back. This period of coinage covers several designs ...
Making a dollar equal to given quantities of both gold and silver made the currency vulnerable to variations in the price of precious metals, [1] [2] and U.S. coins flowed overseas for melting until adjustments were made to their size and weight in 1834 [3] and again with the Coinage Act of 1853, when the amount of bullion in the silver coins ...
As a result, with only a few wartime exceptions, any penny from 1981 or earlier -- and some made in 1982 -- have a high copper content. At current copper prices, the melt value of older pennies is ...
The Coinage Act of 1857 (Act of Feb. 21, 1857, Chap. 56, 34th Cong., Sess. III, 11 Stat. 163) was an act of the United States Congress which ended the status of foreign coins as legal tender, repealing all acts "authorizing the currency of foreign gold or silver coins". Specific coins would be exchanged at the Treasury and re-coined. The act is ...