What are coins made of?

by Tiffany
(CA)

Question: What material(s) are US coins (penny, nickels, dimes, etc.) made from? I think I once heard coins from the 60's,(different time periods) had more silver in them.

My Answer: What you heard was correct. It was the Coinage Act of 1965 that changed the composition of United States silver coins. The silver content was lowered because the price of silver had risen above the face value of the coins.

You can read in more detail about the silver content of U.S. coins over time on my US Silver Coins page.

Pennies met the same fate because of the rising cost of copper. Early US pennies were made of 100% copper, but since 1982 they have been made of copper-plated zinc (core: 99.2% zinc , .8% copper, with a plating of pure copper; total content .975 zinc, .025 copper).

Feel free to browse the different US Coins if you are curious about the composition of different coins throughout history.