While thinking about money (or lack of said substance) I came across some interesting facts about our coinage. For instance , our penny, is not made of copper. It is actually 97.5% zinc and only 2.5% copper. If you want something made of copper try the quarter. The quarter is 91.67% copper and 8.33% nickel. Speaking of nickel, our nickel is only 25% nickel with the other 75% being copper. As for our dime, it is made of exactly the same mixture as our nickel - 75% copper and 25% nickel. It seems kind of strange that the dime, which weighs less than 1/2 of the weight of a nickel is worth twice as much. Maybe we should swap the names. It certainly would correct the coin size to coin value symmetry theorem which clearly states"The larger the coin the larger the value". The dime really messes that up.
On a slightly related note the police officer nickname "cop" (short for copper) came about because the buttons on the police uniform looked like copper pennies. Still no word on where the nickname "the Fuzz" came from. If someone has that information please let me know.
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