Change Is Worth More Than Its Face Value
Copper pennies and even nickels contain more value in their metal content than their face value. Because of this, many people including myself have been saving our copper pennies and nickels expecting that one day the US will stop minting these coins and melting them will become legal making our 1 and 5 cent coins sellable for more than face value.
How To Tell If Your Pennies Are Copper
All pennies made before 1982 have a 95% copper content and all pennies after 1982 contain 97.5% zinc with the 1982 supply of pennies being half of each. To tell if your 1982 penny is copper or zinc, there are two tests you can do to determine which type it is. First you can hold the penny in one hand and a post-1982 penny in the other and if the 1982 penny feels heavier, it's probably copper. You should also switch the pennies between your hands to feel if there's an obvious difference in weight each time. Second test is by dropping it on a hard surface such as wood. Copper pennies make a distinct metallic 'ting' sound when they hit a hard surface while zinc pennies make a flat, boring sound when they hit a surface. There are also machines that will sort pennies for you but they are most likely too expensive to even bother with. You don't need to worry about the date of nickels, just keep them all.
Written 2021-6-14 Published 2021-8-1