Hello Adele, No, I am afraid you are wrong and the experts are right. The banks have called pennies "bronze" rather than copper for a very long time. Today's pennies and twopences are in fact made of coated steel, . If you go to this site; http://www.24carat.co.uk/silverpennies.html you will find a great deal of useful coin information. It is a commercial site (I have nothing to do with it) but bits and pieces of it, particulary the FAQs are very useful in helping to put coinage into context with historical incidents and changes. This is an excerpt from the site. " In 1992, the Royal Mint started to produce pennies and twopences made of copper-plated steel instead of bronze (copper has not been used since 1860!). " In the museum where I work we see a lot of coins which people think are worth a fortune, but in fact, very few of them have other than historical value. Yours Vicki ----- Original Message ----- From: <pentony@infogen.net.nz> To: <HAMPSHIRE-LIFE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 10:23 PM Subject: [HantsLife] Coin The Coin which I have been asking about.. here is the latest: Value about $2. Pennies minted prior to 1860 were thicker..and made of copper. after this date..bronze... (I dont agree with this...as I am sure the Pennies from pre decimal days were copper..can someone verify this please??? Bronze to me is not the same colour.. and I remember my pennies as being copper colour!!! Maybe wrong.. I love to question the experts! Nevertheless, I am retaining my coin of 1854 with Queen Victoria on... so thank you to all the people who showed interest in this coin.... Adele