Question on Copper Weight

[exbingoaddict]

Correct me if I'm wrong but copper is weighed in avoirdupois pounds and not troy pounds? If anybody wants to share some knowledge on why precious metals and base metals are different weights, I'm all ears (or eyes I guess in this case). Taking a hunch that it has to do with Roman weight system being used on years ago on precious metal.

[highroller4321]

Typically yes copper is weighed in avoirdupois pounds/ounces.

[68Camaro]

Without any real explanation (the details of which may be subjective and/or lost in history), wiki says "To maintain purity standards and common measures across time, the troy ounce was retained over the avoirdupois ounce in the weighing and pricing of gold, platinum, silver and gunpowder."

[VWBEAMER]

This is also a scam on ebay, people will sell junk silver coins by the avoirdupois ounce, which is smaller than a troy ounce. course people buying will figure price on a troy ounce because they either forget or are not aware of the difference.

[jldco]

avoirdupois How do you even say that? I don't think its a real word! I think you'd get a black eye if you said that in mixed company down here in in this part of the country!

[highroller4321]

avoirdupois How do you even say that? I don't think its a real word! I think you'd get a black eye if you said that in mixed company down here in in this part of the country!

What did ye say? Ye needs to take dat der tabacky out of ye mouth so me nogan can understand what de be talkn bout.

[jldco]

avoirdupois How do you even say that? I don't think its a real word! I think you'd get a black eye if you said that in mixed company down here in in this part of the country!

What did ye say? Ye needs to take dat der tabacky out of ye mouth so me nogan can understand what de be talkn bout.

SEE! I can understand that! No need to go makin up new words all over the place!

[highroller4321]

avoirdupois How do you even say that? I don't think its a real word! I think you'd get a black eye if you said that in mixed company down here in in this part of the country!

What did ye say? Ye needs to take dat der tabacky out of ye mouth so me nogan can understand what de be talkn bout.

SEE! I can understand that! No need to go makin up new words all over the place!

Ye sure that aint sum kind of animally? My cusin told me he saw with his one good eye a possum and one of dos dar racoon things doing some wild hanky panky undar his momma trailor. Maybe that be what dat avoirdupois thing be?

[jldco]

Come to think of it I did see a guy whose name was something like that on his eggsbox360 when I was playin "do yer duty" or "nature calls" or one them shootin games! But, I think they done made him take it offn it cause it was just two tacky! And his avatar (ever what that means) was some sorta demon possum like you was just describing! ooohhh children! You gots to watch out what you see on the internets!

[highroller4321]

Jdlco: People don't seem to find this as funny as we do! I guess the copper is getting to your brains HAHA!!!




Sorry for the thread hyjack exbingoaddict. 99% of the time copper is weighed in avoirdupois pounds.

[hejira11]

So, You're saying if I were to hide an army inside a horse (made of copper) in order to get through a well defended city wall- it would be called an Avoirdupois Horse?

[jldco]

Well, highroller, I'm and old guy from Arkansas who never was very smart to start with... but it could be the copper.... what's your excuse?

Yes, sorry exbingoaddict, sorry about hyjacking the thread and all. 99% of the time when say avoirdupis pounds, in Arkansas... just get ready for questions like do you smoke it, or spritz it or.... oh well you get the picture.

[exbingoaddict]

Well, highroller, I'm and old guy from Arkansas who never was very smart to start with... but it could be the copper.... what's your excuse?

Yes, sorry exbingoaddict, sorry about hyjacking the thread and all. 99% of the time when say avoirdupis pounds, in Arkansas... just get ready for questions like do you smoke it, or spritz it or.... oh well you get the picture.

I've hijacked enough threads that it bound to come back to me. Now don't be bogratin the avoirdupis, pass it over here. Oh yeah, that makes a guy feel...

[JadeDragon]

If I remember correctly each US copper penny contain 1/10 TROY Ounce of Copper... I own some overstamped pennies that say that.

Should I be deleting all the gibberish in this thread?

[68Camaro]

If I remember correctly each US copper penny contain 1/10 TROY Ounce of Copper... I own some overstamped pennies that say that.

Hmmm. Wow. Never thought of that like that. Knew there was something about that 3.11 grams that had caught my eye but I couldn't place why. What you said is almost right, but it would be 1/10 of a Troy Ounce period, so 1/10 of Troy Ounce of 95% copper.

Should I be deleting all the gibberish in this thread?

Up to you as moderator/admin. It wanders way off-topic and gets a bit weird, and I would understand if you did censor it, but a bit of that is also part of the character of this forum, which can be a little bit endearingly quirky. I can choose to read it or ignore it. Not sure where to draw the line, but compared to places like Gold is Money (just saw a thread over there turn way bad, with a major fighting/sniping flamewar), not a major problem. Just wouldn't want to see it become common.

[tinhorn]

If I remember correctly each US copper penny contain 1/10 TROY Ounce of Copper... I own some overstamped pennies that say that.

I hope you're not remembering correctly for two reasons: 1) copper is measured in avoirdupois, not troy, and 2) a 3.1-gram coin is just UNDER 1/10 ozt., but just OVER 1/10 oz. av.

weight.jpg (26.54 KiB) Viewed 1150 times

Should I be deleting all the gibberish in this thread?

Naaaaa....it'll take you forever to, uh, sort it. Just give 'em the stinkeye if they do it again.

[JadeDragon]

If I remember correctly each US copper penny contain 1/10 TROY Ounce of Copper... I own some overstamped pennies that say that.

Hmmm. Wow. Never thought of that like that. Knew there was something about that 3.11 grams that had caught my eye but I couldn't place why. What you said is almost right, but it would be 1/10 of a Troy Ounce period, so 1/10 of Troy Ounce of 95% copper.

Should I be deleting all the gibberish in this thread?

Up to you as moderator/admin. It wanders way off-topic and gets a bit weird, and I would understand if you did censor it, but a bit of that is also part of the character of this forum, which can be a little bit endearingly quirky. I can choose to read it or ignore it. Not sure where to draw the line, but compared to places like Gold is Money (just saw a thread over there turn way bad, with a major fighting/sniping flamewar), not a major problem. Just wouldn't want to see it become common.

I'm just poking fun at the funny comments here. We very rarely need to delete anything other than spam.

[JadeDragon]

If I remember correctly each US copper penny contain 1/10 TROY Ounce of Copper... I own some overstamped pennies that say that.

I hope you're not remembering correctly for two reasons: 1) copper is measured in avoirdupois, not troy, and 2) a 3.1-gram coin is just UNDER 1/10 ozt., but just OVER 1/10 oz. av.

weight.jpg

That is close enough to 1/10 of a troy ounce to be a 1/10th of a troy ounce for me. The difference is in the rounding of the calculation. You can measure anything against any standard or non-standard weight you want. It looks to me that the US government chose to set the weight of a 95% copper penny in troy ounces. This makes some sense since the penny started back when there were silver and gold coins.

[68Camaro]

If I remember correctly each US copper penny contain 1/10 TROY Ounce of Copper... I own some overstamped pennies that say that.

I hope you're not remembering correctly for two reasons: 1) copper is measured in avoirdupois, not troy, and 2) a 3.1-gram coin is just UNDER 1/10 ozt., but just OVER 1/10 oz. av.

weight.jpg

That is close enough to 1/10 of a troy ounce to be a 1/10th of a troy ounce for me. The difference is in the rounding of the calculation. You can measure anything against any standard or non-standard weight you want. It looks to me that the US government chose to set the weight of a 95% copper penny in troy ounces. This makes some sense since the penny started back when there were silver and gold coins.

JD was perfectly on target here. Nominal design weight of a copper penny per US Mint isn't 3.1. It is 3.11, which to 4 digits is exactly 1/10 troy ounce.

1 Troy Ounce = 31.10(34768) grams

They can measure it in any system they want to. Commodity copper is traded in avoirdupois, but the mint can (and apparently did) design the copper penny to weigh whatever they wanted in whatever system they wanted, and they clearly and purposefully chose it to weigh 1/10 troy ounce. That means a roll of pennies weighs 5 Troy Oz, and a box 250 Troy Oz. And interestingly enough, that also causes a nominal box of copper pennies to weigh exactly 7775 grams, a semi-round metric number, even though the piece weight is in troy oz.

Note that they chose for the new penny to weigh exactly 2.50 grams, in keeping with the nickel, dime, quarter, and half (except 40% Ag) being in the metric system of 5, 6.25, and 12.5 grams. Nominal net content box weights in grams for 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 are 6250 (zinc), 10000, 6250, 12500, and 12500 (non 40%) grams.

[tinhorn]

I'll be darned--that's fascinating! It also explains why some of my coppers weigh over 3.1 grams.