Zinc cent decay question

nesvt

I was traveling on Monday and stopped at a large public park in another state. On the near 200 acres, there are several old buildings. I spent less than an hour near a building built in the mid-1600's. It was only a few feet from parking lots and paved paths. The park is heavily used (baseball fields, walking paths, playgrounds, picnic areas, etc). Figured it had already been searched, but I tried anyway. I assumed I would find nothing or modern coins on the surface. Got signals everywhere and dug up 15 coins. They ranged from 3 to 5 inches deep. Nothing older than 1950.

Sorry for the poor quality of the cell phone pic. It shows some Lincoln Memorial cents that are corroded/decayed. Some are missing edges; others holed right through the coin.

How long does it take for these things to decay this much? They were only a few inches down.

pcgs69

I think it depends on the soil. If you ever go to the beach at the ocean, zincolns come out horribly, even after a short period of time.

CROCKofCOINS

Salt beach finds:



copper shell



http://www.wikihow.com/Get-the-Copper-Shell-off-a-Penny

ricko

Yep, zincolns go fast... never dug a clean one at the beach... and most in the dirt are pitted badly. Cheers, RickO

nesvt

Thanks for the info!

Dockwalliper

We use lots of salt on the roads here in the winter. Road salt will eat a zlincon in a couple months. Spring thaw turns up lots of "half cents".

kiyote

I find more copper cents than Zinc ones-- I think the Zinc ones are gone in a matter of years. Good riddance!