Worn 1982 penny found - really, truly worn

WillieBoyd2

I found this 1982 penny on my apartment outside staircase.

My guess is that it had been in the bushes for several years and the gardener's leaf blower kicked it up onto the step.

I have seen uncleaned Roman coins in better shape.

(Image Deleted)

lordmarcovan

Zinc is a poor choice for a coinage metal.

There's a worse-looking zinc cent on my back porch.

Distelrath

I always thought that 1982 and before pennies were copper. It is 1983+ pennies that are zinc. I might be mistaken though. Here is a cool article I found about how differently gastric acid will corrode zinc based pennies as opposed to copper based pennies. Check it out

http://radiology.rsnajnls.org/cgi/content/figsonly/213/1/113

Cool (somewhat graphic) images in this link.

Distelrath

Oops...
Click here for images

Distelrath

^^^^DO^^^^NOT^^^^^CLICK^^^^^^^

...That site is hard to link to!... just copy and paste the one from two messages above (without the ".com" on the end), and it'll go through. Sorry for the inconvenience

millennium

In 1982 , the cent was minted in 7(?) different varieties......copper, and copper plated zinc...large dates small dates, Denver mint and Philly mint...

pocketpiececommems

That cent looks pretty tame as compared to some that I have pulled from the ground. It's amazing the number that have holes eated into them.