The American phrase “OK,” as in “everything is alright, I’m OK,” first appeared in common use as a result of an abbreviation fad that swept Boston in the late 1830s; OK was an abbreviation of the purposely misspelled phrase “oll korrect” (a variation of “all correct”).

Modern U.S. pennies are no longer pure copper (and haven’t been since 1837). The current composition is 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper, leading to modern pennies being referred to as “Zincolns” (a merge of the word zinc with Lincoln).