John Hines wrote in message . ..
"Pond Newbie" wrote:

Just theorizing, though. I know most places that have fish in their fountains now have
signs asking that pennies (or any coin) not be thrown in the water. I would assume this to
be the reason.

Pennies in the last decade or so have been made of copper plated zinc.

Neither is safe for fish.

And to make things more fun the presence of zinc significantly
increases the toxicity of copper...