[ExI] Why is this still a thing?

[John Clark]

On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 9:37 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:



> ​> ​
> Pennies form a deep copper reservoir that keeps the particularly useful
> metal’s prices from fluctuating too wildly.  If it gets significantly
> higher than the value of a penny, people will illegally recycle them while
> the copper mines crank up.
> ​
> Back in the old days, the copper was needed in wartime.  In 1943, US
> pennies were made of steel, while the copper mining and processing
> infrastructure was being used high-speed delivery of copper to the Nazis.
>
>
​​
The USA
​ stopped ​making pure copper pennies in 1982, since then pennies are 97.5%
zinc and 2.5% copper. Zink is less than half as expensive as copper but
even so it cost the mint 1.5 cents to make a one cent coin. Well... at
least pennies are safe from counterfeiters.

 John K Clark
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