"Green" '70s pennies

[Guest]

I've noticed that many circulated cents from the late '60s and much of the '70s have a beautiful "green" tint to them. Was the alloy different for these years? The green pennies seem to end in the late '70s and I don't see green '82 pennies. Am I the only one who noticed this? These cents are very attractive.

[jfines69]

It could be verdigri... Also maybe there was to much copper and not enough zinc in the mix for the planchets... Most of the ones I have seen from this time frame have been the verdigri!!!

[GrumpyEd]

Natural patina of copper is green, like the statue of liberty or a copper building or roof and maybe the reason most cents aren't as green is from the constant handling and skin oil and being bronze. Makes sense that some cents are greenies

Check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patina

[riff]

Here is one i saved:

[bugo]

I'm not talking about verdigris. These are regular pennies, that are brown due to aging, but with a slight greenish tinge to them. Older wheat pennies tend to be pure brown but the ones that I'm referring to are just slightly greenish-brown.

[enamel7]

If it's green on the "cents" it is either patina,verdigris or paint!

[bugo]

These pennies aren't bright green, they're brown with a slight tinge of green. I'll try to find a picture of one and post it here.

[enamel7]

My uneducated guess would be they were exposed to a chemical at some time.

[bugo]

I doubt they were exposed to a chemical because 1) I see these pennies all the time and 2) they're almost exclusively from the same era. My guess is that the alloy was slightly modified during these years.

[1gtsfan]

I'm guessing it is patina, the natural patina of copper varies with age. So your 60's and 70's may be a certain color, and your early wheat cents with natural toning would be a different color.

[GrumpyEd]

Another thought.
The older cents were circulated more frequently, less time in jars and more time in use.
Those old cents were wearing down so the toning was always wearing off and getting refreshed, those are often lighter toning. An extreme would be a worn flat old wheat cent.
The more modern cents hardly ever have significant wear, the wear barely gets through the toning.