Is pennies made of copper? Pennies aremade of zinc coated with copper. Only nickels are one solid material—that same 75% copper/25% nickel alloy. Are there any silver nickels? Nickels minted in the United Statesbetween 1942 and 1945 are made of 35% silver. These are commonly known as ...
By the late 1700s, industrialists like Matthew Boulton and Thomas Williams were minting large quantities of copper coins to pay their own workers, or for sale to clients who needed small change. These were smaller coins like pennies and halfpennies, nothing as large as the shilling (one ...