Sun like a burning penny

[agoodwinsmith]

We had a much smokier day two days ago - from the top of Tank Hill you couldn't see the valley bottom, the Fly Hills, or the lake. Today the mountains were mysteries in the haze - something was there. But the sun was shining like a red-hot ingot through the haze, about as big as a penny held at arm's length (I have short arms).

This whole metaphor has led me into areas I don't know how to solve: pennies should be copper. Does copper glow red-hot the way iron does? Or does it go straight through to white? Since pennies aren't copper anymore, would they ever reach red-hot, or do they just burn up the way slag metal is supposed to?

Anyways. It was an amazingly red red-hot burning penny this evening, late in the sky.