A worker pours molten copper into forms for easy transport.

As collectors we all know that the life of a squished penny is a long and hard one. First the penny spends years in circulation, or maybe worse: Some pennies spend a couple of days in circulation getting traded from pocket to pocket, and then land in the hands of someone who doesn’t like to use pennies. You know, the folks who have jars and bowls of them around their house for extra change. They claim that pennies are too heavy to carry, and are useless. So they dump all the “useless” pennies they gathered that day into a collection that gradually accumulates into a mountain. This mountain is eroded only when raided for tooth fairy money, or when the local bank sends out a plea that there is a shortage. Apparently, neither the banks nor the tooth fairy see them as useless. And neither do those of us who are collectors! We at the SPM like to elongate the life of the penny by squishing all that we can get our hands on, and we even occasionally raid others’ penny jars to go on a squishing binge. With this in mind, we got curious about the life of a penny before it becomes that loveable disk we love to stretch almost beyond recognition. And here’s what we found:

Copper is extracted from "veins" in the earth (shown in black"

A Squish in Time

The life of the penny begins as a large mass of molten rock called lava. No, really, it does. This lava is essentially like a bread ball. You know how when you have a piece of white bread and you press it together in your hands? Eventually it can be rolled up into a ball, and after a little more pressure it sort of turns back into dough as if it was never baked (which, in the case of Wonderbread, may actually be their secret). Well, the type of lava pennies come from is just like that. It is heated and put under all the pressure of the overlying rocks and buildings and people and penny squishing machines and filled extra change bowls, and it actually turns into a somewhat liquidy-hot mass. This mass is constantly moving underneath all the hard rocks that we walk on. When the mass of lava gets pushed close to the surface, it begins to cool down and make new rocks. Sort of like the skin on pudding. In between many of the larger rocks that form there are small streams of copper, called veins. When the whole mass of rock that holds the copper veins and other rocks is taken out of the earth to get to the copper, it is called ore.

Drilling the rock face of copper veins takes huge machinery. Note the men in the foreground for scale.

The other rocks in the ore are often very special rocks themselves. Turquoise, that sky-blue colored rock that is the birthstone of December (because they ran out of the sparkly ones by then, or so I thought when I was 6) is one of these rocks. Another is a cousin of turquoise called malachite, which is bright green and thought to be sacred in parts of Africa. Both stones are used as gem stones that many people pay many pennies to wear around their necks or on their fingers. But I think if they knew it could have been crushed up to get out another penny or two, they may have changed their mind about wearing it as jewelry.

Copper ore is mined all over the world, although the largest deposits are in Michigan. That’s right, in our own backyard we have nearly 1/2 of the world’s supply. But most of the copper in Michigan is too far below the earth’s surface to mine, so the US imports 18% of our copper from places like Canada, Peru, Chile, and South Africa. And since copper is so soft, we recycle lots of it too; we reuse 23% of our copper every year! (I don’t think they count turning pennies into squished souvenirs as recycling. Imagine the figure if they just asked us how much copper we reuse!)

Copper is taken from the earth by open pit mining. These pits can be over a mile in diameter.

Copper is most often mined by a method called open pit mining. This is where they dig a big pit in the ground, and then ramps are dug around in a spiral so the trucks can get in and out of the hole. These mines look like the inside of a giant anthill. Another way to get the copper out of the ground is called in-situ mining. This is where they inject an acid into the ground, dissolve the copper (but not the rest of the rocks), and then pump the copper stuff back out. After the copper is out of the ground, it goes through a smelting process. First the rock is crushed smaller, and then it is heated. The copper then foams at the top, and is scooped up, kind of like when you boil down a pot of soup. Then the copper is cooled, and rolled into sheets, tubes or rods to be used for pots, wires, pipes, and, as we know, pennies!

What could be more perfect to commemorate on a penny than a copper mine?

So the next time you see someone pass up a penny on the street because it is face down (and they think it might be bad luck) remember how rough it has been for the penny get there. They think they’ve had bad luck! The life journey of the penny is long and hard. It gets heated and fused and squashed and boiled and stretched and then finally (hopefully) spent. Appreciate the journey that piece of the earth has had, then pick it up, and go squish it!

Ore Becomes More
In search of answers in the continuing saga of the creation of the beloved cent, the SPM curators went to the source. That’s right, we had the privilege of visiting one of the meccas of collecting; and no, I don't mean Cave City, KY. Your fearless squishers ventured all the way into the center of the earth, or at least close to it. We pointed the car north and ended up in Philadelphia, on the steps of the Mint! Yes, folks this is where it all begins.

Our tour began when we parked our rental wagon in the shadow of the downtown skyscrapers (after using America's 2nd favorite public bathroom, otherwise known as Barnes and Noble). After pumping all the quarters we could spare, the squishers (undercover of course) ambled over to the security guard at the front of the Federal Building where money is made literally hand over fist! At first we were disappointed at the response that it would be at least an hour's wait in the sun to get on a tour. But don't you worry, curious readers, no sunburn is too much sacrifice for the copper detectives. The wait was not as long as expected, and we moved quickly to the front. Here we passed through a metal detector—a simple security measure the guards explained. But I was afraid they would find the squished pennies in my pocket and know that we weren't true lovers of coinage, instead we were coin artists! But we were in luck, our cover remained unblown.

From the introductory panels, we learned that the Philadelphia mint is the largest mint in the world, producing 1 million coins a half hour, most of which are Lincoln cents. That translates to about 19 million cents per day. Each of these 2.5g beauts have been produced since 1909, replacing the "Indian Head coin". Production of Abe's babes began in order to commemorate his 100th birthday. But it was not until 1959 that the wheat sheaves on the reverse were replaced by the Lincoln Memorial building, a limestone temple confection in the home city of the SPM, completed in 1922.

Among the rarest of pennies is the 1943 copper issue. Because of the war effort, zinc-coated steel pennies were produced that year. Less than 50 of these coppers are said to still be in existence.

Reading more about the history of the penny, we were able to answer some of those questions squished in our subconscious: why the bright idea to switch from copper to zinc? From 1793 until 1837, the US Mint produced cents that were better than gold to a squisher: they were pure copper. For the next 20 years the US cent was bronze: 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc for strength. There was a brief interlude where the coin was 88% copper and 12% nickel (1857-1864) and then until 1982 (with the exception of the war effort steelies of 1943) pennies were bronze, with various levels of tin and zinc. This means that the composition varied slightly, but was generally 97% copper. Then, presumably for reasons of thrift, CPZs or copper-plated zincs were introduced with 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper on the outside. Basically it’s a zinc sandwich, with a copper veneer to make it look shiny. But as most real squishers know, the proof is in the rolling. When these CPZs, or stinky-zincies (as we at The SPM prefer to call them) are put into a roller, the copper sometimes looks like it is rubbing off. No bargain for the squished penny hunter.

The real tour began with some signage about the process. Before the Mint buys the blanks, (yes, our government buys money—go figure!) the blanks are pressed from a sheet. Then they are sorted by size, a process called riddling. The blanks are then annealed with 1800 degree gas which softens and cleans them. Then they are cooled, rinsed, and dried. This process makes them shiny. Then the blanks are upset (not emotionally) which means they are squeezed to get the edge on the disk. Then they really become coins: they are stamped front and back simultaneously with 40 tons of pressure. And you thought the Sunday morning crossword puzzle was tough! Afterwards, the sign says that the new pennies are inspected, weighed, counted and bags and stored for shipping. At this point in the tour, we got to actually look into the huge bins, not unlike mine cars, filled with pennies. And don't think that I didn't want to swan dive through the bullet-proof glass into all those coppers! I had visions of doing the backstroke, gliding through the metal disks. But instead, I walked to the next exhibit window where you can see the pennies put into shipping tanks approximately 2.5 x 3 x 3 feet, which hold about 4,000,000 cents. That could create enough squished pennies, if lined up end to end, to go from the front door of the Mint to the Empire State Building. That's a lot of squishin'! My arm is tired just thinking of it.

When the tour was over, Pete asked the guide about the Mint's official position on squished coins; they said they don't mind 'em. They aren’t illegal, and are kinda cute. There is even one in the exhibit at the Denver Mint. So much for our cover.

Sources of research for this article include our visit to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia; www.copper.org; “A Pictorial History of American Mining” by Howard N. and Lucille L. Sloane (Crown Publishers); and “The World’s Great Copper Mines” by B. Webster Smith (Hutchison & Co.). The diagram is reprinted from Smith.