What happened to coins from the 70s and 80s?

The Metal Composition of American Coins Since 1783 ^ | 03/22/22 | Vanity

[P.O.E.]

OK, call me paranoid.

Local charity was having a “penny war” fund raiser, so I decided to go through the change jar (an old 5 gallon water jug). Parsing out all the bottle caps, shiny stones, etc. that got thrown in. I put the quarters aside.

Then started going through the nickels, dimes, & pennies. Growing up as a kid, we had coin collections, so with time on my hands decided to sift through them for wheat pennies, silver, etc.

To my wonderment, I found very few coins from the 70s and 80s. Even the 90s were sparse. I understand about the copper, silver, etc. content of old coins, but why were there so few from that era.

Then I started thinking about the “coin shortage” of the Covid days, and started to think how did all those coins disappear? It's not like they would have worn out. Was there some machinery somewhere pulling those coins based on metal content? Pennies I could understand. But dimes & nickels?

Like I said, call me paranoid.

[hope_dies_last]

Bkmk

[HKMk23]

Uhhhh... zinc CORE, yes, but the zinc isn’t exposed; pennies are copper coated.

[Salamander]

https://www.aspcapro.org/sites/default/files/zp-toxbrief_0202.pdf

[minnesota_bound]

#18 I have Hispanic tenants and I receive all my rent in cash. They do not trust banks. There is a huge economy still in cash.

So you have “no taxable income” then? : )

[HKMk23]

Ahh, yeah; stomach acid. Given what dogs are capable of eating, I shoulda known.

[PeterPrinciple]

So you have “no taxable income” then? : )

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Not reporting income is a gotcha and the first thing checked in an audit. Many times the only thing.. I am aggressive on expenses, that is a debate.

[Salamander]

Kinda scary how fast they can dissolve a penny.