Realcent.org

So a few weeks ago I made a thread talking about how I had found 1974 and 1975 pennies that were rejected by a Ryedale:

http://realcent.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12375

Well since then I've found both a 1972 and 1980 penny that have been rejected by a Ryedale! And I've made a video showcasing all the pennies I've found that are copper, yet rejected, just so everyone can see this phenomenon.



Ahh!! My voice is now known by all of you! I feel so exposed.

Wow, quite intriguing.

I'm interested to hear the answers from those in the know on this one.

Counterfeit copper pennies.

I also often find a copper or two in the zincs once in a while. Not many- but enough to make you wonder why.

weigh them on a scale, also see if they are magnetic. that will eliminate several possibilities.


my ryedale did this on occasion, i would just throw them into the copper batch when I found them though. I never really put a lot of thought into it.

As Andy has stated in a post elsewhere, this can be a normal phenomenon but it should only become alarming if zincs started ending up in your copper pile : D

Yeah, if I run $1,000 dollars of pennies through the Ryedale and then run my zincs again I'll find a couple of coppers that fell as zincs. But I put them back through the Ryedale and they fall as coppers again. So that's a normal, miniscule error rate.

But all these pennies shown are copper pennies that fall as zincs every single time. There should be no way that the 8 copper pennies shown all fell as rejects at the same time, let alone dozens upon dozens of attempts. So these are special somehow, someway.

Yeah, I need to weigh them and check them with a magnet as soon as I have those things. I just don't have them right now.

Could be that specific run had a ever so slight deviation in metal content of the planchets. There could be several variables to consider here. Interesting though.

1974 Was the year I recall the mint was thinking of switching the Copper Penny to Aluminum.

This topic has been brought up here and the old forum with 1974 pennies not being right

It happens all the time... The comparitors are very good at accepting correctly, but if they error they will reject... So...

What I do is run a zinc accept... I have mine set so it will actually reject even early wheats... So, I run Two different zincs... One that I just run all the time, and the second one being one that it rejected... Then I run two coppers, the first one is just to eliminate a majority of the coppers, the second one is so it accepts the normal coppers that got rejected with the first copper... Then, I search what is left to find the early dates, and get rid of the last of the zincs, (at this point I have less than a dollar in pennies left)... After that I search the coppers for later date wheats....

But that,s just my technique.

Those years had questionable purity on the copper zinc due to copper prices. If someone had access to a gas chromatograph that measures the content then we could answer the question. Also checking the weight and thickness is also needed.

Tourney64 wrote:Those years had questionable purity on the copper zinc due to copper prices. If someone had access to a gas chromatograph that measures the content then we could answer the question. Also checking the weight and thickness is also needed.

You don't just throw a penny into a chromatograph to take a measurement. That's not how those machines work.

Weight and thickness aren't going to have that much of an impact. If weight and thickness did, all your pre-1997 Canadian pennies would fall into the reject bin.

DebtFreeMe wrote:It happens all the time... The comparitors are very good at accepting correctly, but if they error they will reject... So...

Like DebtFreeMe said, if you are set up on copper accept and the comparitor cannot get a good reading of the coin and it doesn't match the sample coin it will get rejected. Won't matter what it's made of.

There will always be some sort of error no matter what comparitor you use. Some coins may never read correctly in a comparitor. Errors can be created by dirty coins, dirty comparitor, too many coins loading into the comparitor at once .

The sensitivity pot may need adjusted on your comparitor. Try cleaning the coins to see if there is something on them that is causing them to fail.

Personally, I spot check the zincs to look for IHs and Wheats. If I happen to notice a copper in there I'll take it out, but I'm not sweating over getting every single one there.

Have you tried putting one of those eight as your sample coin, then testing the other 7? Just thinking out loud here. I've still only noticed the one, and it was a 1975.

Also, you might try to clean those pennies in the video and see if that fixes the issue. Tinhorn said that he had much higher accuracy when he pre-washed the coins. Maybe there is some sort of contamination on those that is throwing off the comparator.

You must have your unit tuned right...My copper accept unit rejects the nasty corroded zincs, canadians, some 70's, a few 60's, a few 50's and all of the early wheats...and Indian Heads. All of the copper rejects are weighed, then visually inspected. Not all Ryedales run exactly alike...I have found sensitivity differences between my three units.

Somewhere in the coin cave I have some trays full of coins, from where I had started to sort by date. I did this years ago, way before I had a Ryedale, then kind of let them gather dust. I wonder if I poured all the 74 and 75 through, if I could find a 74 oddball. I really want one from my birth year!

I've seen that too. Twice I found a REAL weight difference, one was 2.1g and another was 2.4g both copper years.

we handsorters NEVER have this problem.....

penny pretty wrote:;) we handsorters NEVER have this problem.....

Not quite true....sometimes i realized i've thrown a coin in the wrong bin and have to dig it out!

dannan14 wrote:

penny pretty wrote:;) we handsorters NEVER have this problem.....

Not quite true....sometimes i realized i've thrown a coin in the wrong bin and have to dig it out!

Last night I was happy that I hand sorted 3 handfuls in a row that were 50%+ Cu...and then I tossed the coppers in my zinc bag.

penny pretty wrote:;) we handsorters NEVER have this problem.....

I'm still a hand sorter (and collector) at heart... I sit and STARE at the reject tray while my Ryedale is running. Just this week, I found a George V Canadian cent that way, as well as several pre-40 wheats. AND the 1974. It just stood out in the tray full of "too shiny and too ugly."

Funny, just last night I found a 1933 George in the zinc tray. Lots of Canadian stuff found up here. I quickly paw through all the zincs before I dump. That's how I found my 1914D so now I am afraid of what I will miss if I don't give them all a glance before dumping. So far it is 100% worth the time invested.