1910 Lincoln Wheat Cent

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Most people refer to this as a copper cent, but it is actually made of bronze. It's an alloy of 95% copper with 5% tin and zinc mixed in.

The mint made the Large Cent of pure copper from 1793 to 1857, but with the introduction of the Flying Eagle Small Cent in 1856, they started using a copper/nickel alloy of 88% copper and 12% nickel. This changed to Bronze in 1864 during the production of Indian Head cents. Lincoln Wheat cents were made of Bronze with the exception of the 1943 Zinc-Coated Steel cent and the 1944 to 1946 that was made of Gilding Metal (95% copper, 5% zinc) which is sometimes called Shell Case cents. With a few exceptions here and there, the Lincoln Memorial cent was made of the same bronze alloy. The copper plated zinc core cents were minted starting in 1982 and is still used today.

There are a few collector cents that were made after 1982 using Bronze, but these coins were not intended for circulation.

A few aluminum strikes are known and are very rare and valuable. Off-metal errors can also bring large premiums.

Old-fashioned "copper" cent for sure.



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