Aluminum 'Nickels' Are Looking More Likely

The next time you put together a roll of old pennies with no particular collecting value, you may want to sell them on Ebay rather than take them to the bank. The total value of $1 of 1982 Lincoln pennies is $2.13. Copper pennies from 1982 with a face value of a buck contain 0.6514 pounds of copper and 0.0343 pounds of zinc.

For that reason, the US Mint started removing copper from pennies. The current version of pennies contains 0.5374 pounds of zinc and 0.0138 pounds of copper in $1 face value of 2010 Lincoln pennies. That buck-worth of current pennies translates into 56 cents worth of melt value.

No surprise the US government wants to save money by using less expensive metals in pennies and nickels.

The total melt value of $1 in 2010 Jefferson nickels is $1.10, according to the Web site coinflation.com. They contain 0.1653 pounds of copper and 0.0551 pounds of nickel.

Small denomination Euro coins are made of copper-covered steel. Aluminum is also added to certain Euro and Australian coins. According to a recent report, one possibility is even industrial porcelain embedded with an identification chip.

My vote? Get rid of pennies altogether. Use debit cards more, and let merchants round up and down for small transactions.