“Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you will have good luck.” Unless, of course, you find one jammed inside your washing machine. There is nothing lucky about that.

I recently discovered a 2019 penny — or what was left of one — wedged deep in a crevice of our washing machine tub. Armed with a pair of needle-nose pliers and the concentration of a heart surgeon, I carefully worked it loose. It felt like playing the old game “Operation,” except there was no buzzer, and, thankfully, no electric shock. The washer survived. So did I.

What fascinated me most was not that the penny nearly took out an expensive appliance. It was what the washer had done to the coin itself.

Like many people, I knew pennies had not been made entirely of copper for years, but I never paid much attention to when that changed. The washing machine, however, conducted its own scientific experiment. After countless spins, the thin copper coating had been scrubbed away from Honest Abe, revealing the dull zinc core hiding underneath. So much for the “copper penny.”

The U.S. Mint switched to zinc pennies coated with copper in 1982, ending generations of mostly copper cents. That makes 1982 one of those quirky years for coin collectors because pennies from that year can be either mostly copper or mostly zinc. During World War II, pennies were even made from steel so copper could be reserved for the war effort.

And now the penny has reached another milestone. This year, the U.S. Mint stopped producing new pennies altogether after years of debate over whether it made sense to spend more than a penny to manufacture a one-cent coin. Existing pennies will remain legal tender, but no new ones are rolling off the presses.

That means the penny I rescued from the washing machine may someday be remembered as a relic from a bygone era, even if it looks like it lost a fight with a cheese grater.

If you are wondering if those old copper pennies are worth more than a cent, the answer is yes. Their copper content alone is worth more than one cent, although melting them down for profit is prohibited. They also weigh more than today’s zinc versions, tipping the scales at about 3.1 grams compared with 2.5 grams.

Most of this information probably is not worth two cents to you. But the next time you hear a penny rattling around in your pocket, treat it with a little respect. It may be the last generation of a coin that jingled through our childhoods, hid beneath couch cushions and, in my case, nearly brought laundry day to a screeching halt.

Have a fantastic Friday, and thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital newsletter
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707