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I noticed on coinflation that a tiny amount of tin was added to Cu pennies prior to 1963. Just curious, does anyone know why? Does it affect the refining process if Cu cents are ever melted in the future? Maybe one of our refiners can chime in. Hopefully I didn't set off someone's OCD so that they start seperating the 59-62's

Funny you posted this. I noticed the same thing today and was wondering about it.

someone correct me if im wrong but the tin value is so small its not worth counting even if you had a huge hoard it still would not matter that much as most scrap yards that take tin count it as scrap steel $.08/lb and the amount in thoose pennies is so small you would need a few dump truck loads of said pennies to get some cash as far as tin value

I know the Ryedale notices it

jasmatk wrote:someone correct me if im wrong but the tin value is so small its not worth counting even if you had a huge hoard it still would not matter that much as most scrap yards that take tin count it as scrap steel $.08/lb and the amount in thoose pennies is so small you would need a few dump truck loads of said pennies to get some cash as far as tin value

I did realize it was a tiny amount, I was just kind of curious if it mucks up the refining process or anything and also why they had it in there in the first place.

i dont know about the refining process as it is illegal to melt pennies in the us and anyone that is refining they probly wont comment on this as far as why its in there maybe tin was cheaper at the time or perhaps there was a shortage of zinc.idk im sure some one on here knows the exact reason and why and now you have me wondering so lets here it guys whys it in there

Both Cu-Zn and Cu-Tin are common and ancient alloys, but with different names:

An alloy of copper and zinc is called Brass Look well down in the article for history of brass http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass
An alloy of copper and tin is called Bronze.

Functionally, at 95%+ Copper the choice of Zn or Tin as the main alloy metal is of little consequence for the function of the coin.