Watch zinc filled pennies (after 1983) to make sure the HCl doesn’t get to the zinc and dissolve it. Stir NaOH/Zn mixture with a glass rod. Zn will clump up on the bottom of the crucible in the NaOH.
1 Zinc-carbon batteries contain a zinc anode, a carbon rod cathode, and an acidic electrolyte (typically ammonium chloride or ...