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as part of cleaning out the man cave. I am turning in 150.00 of 1982s today as no one wanted them. lots of work, down the coin machine

Copper 82s?

When I started sorting larger quantities, I stored them loose in the brinks boxes including weighed 1982 coppers for expediency's sake. When I met my goals and started slowing down I began to roll the coppers and separating the 82s. I have at least a CTU of copper 82s. I've wondered if they would be less marketable than the pre-82s.

I've often thought that in worst case (currency collapse) scenario the copper penny would begin to circulate again as our lowest currency unit. In that scenario I would expect that 82 coppers would be less acceptable since they would have to be constantly weighed.

I also have a few CTUs of "cull coppers" (AKA "Ugly Abes"). These are the first coins I would sell once the melt ban is lifted. Perhaps the 82s should be on that same level or maybe 1/2 a level higher.

I also dumped all my cu '82 some time ago. I think it was in the neighborhood of $250 face. After that, I stopped separating them altogether...the sorting went that much quicker not having to deal with it.

Put yourself in a buyer's frame of mind: you have two CTU's to choose from. The 1st is 1959 thru 1981. The other is all copper dated 1982. They're both priced the same. It's a no-brainer.

Will any future buyer of copper cents just take your word for it that you weighed them? Would a coin store or pawn shop believe it?

Weighing them in the bag doesn't work. Too easy to deceive.

A copper ctu should weigh 31,000 grams +/-. You can get there by combining $80 face copper (24,880 grams) and $24.50 face zinc (6125 grams)...result, you'd be paying full ctu money for 55 lbs of copper vs 68 lbs.

I hate to admit it, but the guys who machine sort don't have to deal with this dilemma.

I don't understand why you just don't bounce the 1982? You can easily hear if it is copper, and then throw it into either the copper or zinc pile, and then sell your CTU as 1959-1982.

When I first began, I started weighing them on the chopstick scale, and then on a digital scale.... to me it took way too long vs bouncing them.

OtusLotus wrote:I don't understand why you just don't bounce the 1982? You can easily hear if it is copper, and then throw it into either the copper or zinc pile, and then sell your CTU as 1959-1982.

When I first began, I started weighing them on the chopstick scale, and then on a digital scale.... to me it took way too long vs bouncing them.

I would be too paranoid that I got the sound wrong... also, it goes a lot faster if you weigh 3 at a time. Often they'll all be copper.

The difference in sound in different metals is easy to tell. Once in sixth grade I heard a kid playing with a quarter on their desk. I knew instantly that quarter sounded different. So I traded her a pack of gum for it. If you are confident about what you do you should be successful. If you practiced a couple minutes I'm sure you could figure out the difference in pennies. I can tell the difference between copper and zincs when my ryedel shoots them out and I'm in a different room.

It's a pretty obvious RINNNGGGG vs THUD sound. The difference for me is amplified when I bounce off a wood floor sample from Home Depot for some reason. Samples blocks are free.

And if I couldn't tell the difference after bouncing it like 2-3 times, it would go into the zinc pile.

I don't have the best hearing. Thankfully, my Ryedale does.