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Using zinc pennies in bullet casting?

9K views 9 replies 9 participants last post by  ejkoechling 
#1 ·
Thru another hobby I pursue I've collected a number of badly corroded zinc pennies. I've been told that most if not all banks won't accept them in exchange for other useful coins. It just goes to show you how useless some of our money is to begin with. Anyway I was wondering if they could be melted down and cast into bullets? I don't know enough about metallurgy to answer my question.:confused::eek::rolleyes::confused:
 
#2 · (Edited)
The melting point of zinc is 787.2F whereas the melting point of lead is 621.5F - you certainly could melt the pennies and cast them but you'd have to heat them up much higher than lead. The problem with the zinc pennies is that they aren't pure zinc. The 1943 pennies were zinc coated steel and the melting point of steel is close to 2,000F. From 1982 onward the composition of the penny is 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper (copper coated zinc). These would be easier to melt even though the melting point of copper is 1,984F since the copper amount is small. Note that pretty much all steel is an alloy and, depending on the other metals in the alloy the melting point of steel can vary a great deal. For bullets I certainly would not recommend any amount of steel since the bullets would likely strip the rifling of any barrel quite quickly which is why bullets are made from softer metals than the barrels. Steel core bullets which are armor piercing have a copper outer shell.
 
#3 · (Edited)
I think you've been told incorrectly. If "lawful US money" can actually be determined to be "lawful US money" - that is, there's enough of it there to recognize what it started out as - then the banks accept it and it gets turned into the mint, where it is destroyed.

"They won't accept corroded pennies" is like saying, "They won't accept torn in two/taped back together dollar bills". They accept them. But instead of sending them back out into circulation, they are traded in to the mint, for new money, and they are destroyed. No one loses anything, and the bad money goes away.

As to your question, zinc weighs (masses) 63% of lead, so if you were to cast a 158 grain 38 special bullet out of zinc, it would only weigh 99 grains. A 124 grain 9mm would weigh 78 grains. A 230 grain 45 would weigh 145 grains.

Finding reloading data for that would be kinda difficult.

The melting temperature of zinc is about 170 degrees higher than lead.

I don't know whether zinc will flow easy enough to fill a bullet mold. I do know that many many casting boards complain about the zinc wheelweights being used now, and how the zinc can contaminate an entire pot of lead, and make it so it won't fill, and the only thing you can do with it is fishing sinkers.

I, personally, would not do it.
 
#5 ·
DO NOT melt zinc to use for boolits, it'll never fill out the mould correctly. Don't even try to put it into your cast pot of lead, it'll ruin a whole pot of lead, ask me how I know this....:eek:
 
#7 ·
The melting point of zinc is 787.2F whereas the melting point of lead is 621.5F - you certainly could melt the pennies and cast them but you'd have to heat them up much higher than lead. The problem with the zinc pennies is that they aren't pure zinc. The 1943 pennies were zinc coated steel and the melting point of steel is close to 2,000F. From 1982 onward the composition of the penny is 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper (copper coated zinc). These would be easier to melt even though the melting point of copper is 1,984F since the copper amount is small. Note that pretty much all steel is an alloy and, depending on the other metals in the alloy the melting point of steel can vary a great deal. For bullets I certainly would not recommend any amount of steel since the bullets would likely strip the rifling of any barrel quite quickly which is why bullets are made from softer metals than the barrels. Steel core bullets which are armor piercing have a copper outer shell.
You are aware that there is such a thing as bimetal jackets. A lot of European and almost all Asian ammo is made with steel jackets with copper layers on both sides. The Raug 9mm I have is made with such jackets. The steel used in jacketed ammo is very soft. They cause no more wear than pure copper jacketed ammo. The china made 7.62x54R 160 grain steel core I have also has steel jackets. I fire that ammo regularly from two Mosins I own. One was made in 1892 and the other 1897. The bores still look great.
 
#8 ·
And just exactly WHAT does the grade/temper/hardness of the steel used in bullets have to do with the steel used in coinage?
 
#9 ·
Take the pennies to a coin collector. If I remember correctly they are worth more than 1 cent. I have a number of them I saved. I used to have a currency book, and I think they were worth around 30 cents, and that was 15 years ago or so. May have them confused with something else, but thats what I remember anyways
 
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