Why are one and two pence coins covered in copper?

Answer 1

Because the founding fathers (along with the founders of almost every other country) wanted their coinage to be as close to the intrinsic values of the metals as possible. Making a 1 cent piece out of silver would be far too hard because it would be easily lost and would be too small to really use, making it out of gold would be even harder, so the only solution would be to make it out of copper (actually, there were proposals and trial coins minted with a small amount of copper with a hole and then a silver "plug" would be inserted to equal one cent, this design was scrapped when it became evident that it would cost more to make than it was worth with the added labour costs) in fact, the older pennies were much larger than the small coins we have now, they were more similar to a half-dollar in size than a penny we use today, this was because of how large they needed to be to equal approximately a cent of copper (keep in mind that during this time we had a gold standard and a dollar was equal to 1.604 grams of gold). Today however, rampant inflation and the demise of the gold standard means that pennies used today are actually zinc with a small layer of copper on the top of them. Pre-1982 pennies are actually worth almost 3 cents a piece in copper content, however, because they are illegal to melt down or export, there are few people who will buy them at their true value.

Answer 2

For hundreds of years, British low denomination coins were made from copper as a relatively cheap means of manufacture.

Copper was a little too soft to make a hard wearing coin, so from 1860 they were made from bronze (which consisted of about 95% copper) which made the coins a lot more hard wearing and durable.

Eventually copper became too expensive to be making low denomination coins and from 1992, all British Pennies and 2 Pence coins were made from copper plated steel, a much cheaper and durable alternative.

Answer 3

Since 1992, British Penny and 2 Pence coins have been made from copper plated steel.

The change to steel coins was an economic decision, steel being much cheaper than the 95% copper the Penny and 2 Pence coins were made from.

The new steel coins are copper plated to protect the coin from rusting and to also give the coins a visual distinction from other coins.

Answer 4

British 1 and 2 Pence coins have been made from copper plated steel since 1992.

Prior to 1992, bronze (97% copper alloyed with a very small quantity of zinc and tin) was chosen as a relatively cheap and durable metal to make low denomination coins from.

Towards the end of the 20th century, copper became too expensive to be making even low denomination coins.