another gripe.....

[whites1dbseries2]

Hello,
I went out detecting today at a local elementary school and was very disappointed with my finds. Using my trusty white's machine, in 15 minutes i found 16 coins.....thats not the part that makes me mad. It was the first time out since i was a kid (about 25 years). Back then, when i found a penny, no matter how long it was in the ground, it still came up a penny. Why is it that today the 13 pennies i found came up all eaten away and disintegrated? it is because when i was a kid, a penny was made of copper? and now they are zinc? If thats the case , the govt should go back to making pure copper pennies and scrap the zinc idea.....i want my son to have the same experiences that i had and he shouldnt have to pull up crappy , eaten away pennies. anybody else have this gripe?

[WeaponUSMC]

they are terrible, in fact I disc out zinc pennies and will only dig coppers.

[whites1dbseries2]

Hi and thanks for replying so quickly. I wonder if my old whites 1DB can disc out zinc...i will have to try next time out....thanks again

[hollowpointred]

yup zinc pennies are garbage. on my gti 2500 they dont even ring in as a coin! in two years in the soil around here a zinc penny will disintegrate into nothing!

[TwoDogsBob]

Well thank you guys, I was unaware, not an uncommon state for me, that the composite of the penny had been changed. Was digging at a ball field last weekend and finding totally corroded little disks that resembled coins but wasn't sure. After some cleaning finally found part of a memorial on one. Was wondering what kind of toxic _____ was in the landfill they had used to eat through metal like that.. Bob

[ROOT66]

I Have To Agree With Free , The 2 Rings I Found So Far Read A Penny. Goodluck All!

[morestuff!]

In the future, when your son goes THing at least he will find the better (older) stuff. That's the bright side.

It is unlikely our government will switch back to a better grade of coinage. They are more likely in favor of any process that produces coinage at less cost. Every few years an article appears in the newspaper or a coin collecting publication that points out merchants interest in discontinuing the penny.

I agree with the others - it is more fun to find one good early wheat or indian head!

[bill(de)]

I recently read that it costs 1.4 cents to make the junk pennies of today. It would probably cost 2.4 cents to make the old pennies. I say we should abolish the penny because it ain't worth a cent and it pollutes the soil .

I also agree that many good targets would be missed if you fail to dig the zincs , especially at older sites where the junk isn't so bad.

Bob i think the bad pennies started in 1982.

HH Bill