View Gold Penny Lab Questions
Pictures. In doing so, you are following a tradition that goes back to the earliest days of chemistry. The penny appears silver in color due to the electroless plating of zinc.

A gold penny is a 1 cent coin that's been treated to give it a gold color.
Why the gold penny exists. Just a favorite chem lab experiment. In order to save expensive copper, penny coins, starting in 1983, were made of zinc with a thin layer of copper plated on the surface. Surface tension can be measured and observed by dropping water (drop by… use this information to help you answer the questions on the lab sheet after you have completed the experiment!