I received this from a coin dealer at a coin show in a state museum. The dealer told us that this was an example of a penny before it is minted with the Lincoln head etc. He didn't mention of zinc so I would not be able to verify that point in question. According to the wisegeek dot org site, pennies from 1982 on were,
" composed of 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper, also known as copper plated zinc, and it remains this way today. " wisegeek "what is a penny made of?" paragraph 6.