Coins are made in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Denver, Colorado and San Francisco, California. Paper money is printed in Washington, DC and Texas. Pennies are made of zinc covered with copper. Nickels are a mixture of copper and nickel. Dimes, quarters, half-dollars and dollar coins are three layers of metal. The center layer is pure copper (you can see it on the edge), the top and bottom layers are a mixture of copper and nickel. 48% of the paper money printed each year is $1 bills. What happens to money when it gets old? Coins that are bent and unusable are melted to make new coins. Paper money is shredded and recycled. It is estimated that over 15 million pounds of paper money are shredded each year!* *NY Federal Reserve Bank