What really happens to pennies when you turn them 'gold' with zinc and sodium hydroxide

In chemistry we turned pennies silver and then gold using zinc and sodium hydroxide and then holding them over a flame. I know that the pennies didn't really turn into gold, so what actually happened to the pennies and what did I form?

What really happens to pennies when you turn them 'gold' with zinc and sodium hydroxide?
In chemistry we turned pennies silver and then gold using zinc and sodium hydroxide and then holding them over a flame. I know that the pennies didn't really turn into gold, so what actually happened to the pennies and what did I form?

Copper + zinc → Brass, which is an alloy composed of copper and zinc
Melting point of Copper = 1083.4˚
Melting point of Zinc = 419.6˚C
Heating the copper and zinc causes the zinc and copper to melt and form a solid solution called an alloy.

Brass is shiny and similar in color to Gold.
See web site below
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass

The penny has a thin coating of brass.
You can prove that a Bunsen burner can melt copper by heating a thin copper wire at the hottest point of the flame. It melts.