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  for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Are pennies copper or bronze

Are pennies really made of copper because on a sight it said it was bronze? That must mean that bronze is a mixture of copper and metals. Am I correct?

Lea G.
student - Aiken, South Carolina
2005

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Pennies are made of a zinc core or slug or center with copper electroplated onto the surface. They are not made of bronze, which is an alloy of copper and tin. Copper, tin, bronze, zinc, and many other things are metals.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2005

Ted is correct for current minting of pennies. However, previous to a particular date which I do not remember, pennies were solid copper and at one time they were zinc plated steel (I believe this was during WWII if I recollect from long ago in my coin collecting childhood).

Gene Packman
process supplier - Great Neck, New York
2005

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The year was 1982, for the last of the copper US pennies. Those of us on the Canadian coast have had, until 2003 or 2004, a source of copper pennies. Yet the Canadian government has also seen fit to alter their pennies, and the new ones are copper plated steel. Magnetic, like a lot of other Canadian coins.

Lee Gearhart
metallurgist - E. Aurora, New York
2005