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Being an Engineer, I have been wondering how some of you guys set up and run your ryedales. Not the mechanics behind it, but the "process" of Processing Coins. I'm just a small time hand sorter, but for those folks with ryedales, how do each of you choose to run your coins? Do some of you run the same coins twice to be sure that all coppers are caught?

The way I understand the basic principal of the machine is: Fill with loose coins and any comparator coin, then Matches get accepted and Non-Matches are rejected…..simple concept to grasp.

This is quite simple to understand, but is there a way where you could turn the tables some and run 2 different coins in the comparator to sort out the wheats or IHs as well as make sure all coppers are separated? This could be done with multiple ryedales in series or you could just re-run one of the separated piles after a basic Cu and Zn sort.

For example could you run a “Zn accept” batch on $100 FV (10,000 coins) and you are left with approx. 25% copper and 75% zinc. Then you could double check the machine and run a “Copper accept” batch on the separated Zincs (7,500 coins) to be sure none were missed. Then you take the separated coppers and set a wheat (or IH) penny as the accept coin in the comparator and run the coppers (approx. 2,500 coins) through. (The order of sorting can be switched based on what would be best for the machine, but I’m just trying to illustrate my questions)

Because I am not aware of the sensitivity of the comparator and if this is in fact how the machine operates, could a wheat or IH penny be that different of a metal composition from a modern (1959 to 1982) penny to have them accepted/rejected from the machine? I know some methods may take longer, just in the example above I estimate an hour and a half, but if somehow you can have the machine do all the sorting it would save time in the long run over hand sorting the “Copper accepts”.

Ideally everything would be sorted 100% accurately the first time, but machines do have their problems and I’m always looking for a way to double check or have a backup system for a machine. Ultimately you could run the coins as many times as you want, but is there a reasonable solution (Multiple runs or machines in series) to getting the most out of a mechanical sorter such as the ryedale?

I know there are a few other posts mixed in that discuss this here and there, but I thought this topic warranted its own thread.

I eyeball the rejects for the occasional wheat or copper. Only spotted one older wheat (and the vary occasional copper) in hundreds of dollars worth sorted in the last few days. It is not worth my time to resort zinc/steel to catch what might be missed.

I do resort copper to verify purity. While doing that I look for kings and wheats manually but am not worried if I happen to miss one. I also pull the US pennies out from the Canadian ones when I see them.

You could, in theory, rig a Ryedale to feed another Ryedale, but there would be issues. What if one jams? What about emptying buckets as they fill at very different rates?

I've not heard that wheats are consistently different enough from memorials to reliably mechanically separate them. An optical sorter would work, but that would not separate copper from zinc, so the wrong technology for our purposes.

Similarly, even the 1934 King George I found yesterday sorted as Copper.

Although I am sorting mostly Canadian 98% copper I use a 1979 95% US copper penny as the standard, in line with Andy's recommendations, so obviously there is not enough sensitivity to sort 98% from 95%, so sorting 95% wheats from 95% Memorials should not work.

For optimum results, get a mix of 10 copper pennies with a range of dates, and 10 zinc or steel pennies with a range of dates, including some US and some Canadians. Run them through and adjust the screw until you get 10/10 split the way you want it. A well tuned Ryedale is amazingly accurate. Most of the misses are the coins you drop in the bins by accident or that maybe shoot out and miss the comparitor.

I run a zinc accept first. I end up with 1 pile that's 99% zinc and another pile that I'll call dirty copper because there are other rejects besides just copper, like foreign, dimes, zincs that weren't approved for whatever reason. I dump the zinc pile without any further sorting (I do miss out on a few dozen coppers per $100, but it's not worth the time or the wear+tear on the ryedale to sort for them). Then I run a copper accept on the "dirty" copper pile. What I'm left with is one pile of nearly 100% copper (statistically speaking, there are probably just a few non coppers that sneak in) which has retained most of its wheats and canadians. I'm also left with one small pile of odds and ends which is my favorite part. It is usually about $1-2 for a $100 run and is about 90% zinc. The other 10% is where I find the goodies- dimes, some canadians, older wheats, foreign, plastic, etc.

Do you adjust the comparators sensitivity when you swap from zinc accept to copper accept, or do you leave that the same, and just switch compare coins only?

creshka46 wrote: (I do miss out on a few dozen coppers per $100, but it's not worth the time or the wear+tear on the ryedale to sort for them)

I was thinking this would come up...as in what are you really saving by having the machine pull double duty on the zincs only for a few extra coppers.

creshka46 wrote: I'm also left with one small pile of odds and ends which is my favorite part. It is usually about $1-2 for a $100 run and is about 90% zinc. The other 10% is where I find the goodies- dimes, some canadians, older wheats, foreign, plastic, etc.

I knew there was a goody pile at the end! As a follow up, do you go back through the 100% copper pile (Coins run through twice) by hand to sort the “newer” Wheats and Canadians or just add them to your pile as they technically are copper?

I don't adjust the sensitivity knob. I actually haven't ever touched it. The ryedale seems to sort fine as it is and I don't want to mess with it.

I keep a few different buckets for my copper stash. First off, I have one bucket that contains all the pure copper fresh from sorting. When I have time, I pick away at it by hand sorting. While handsorting I separate further into these different groups:

Clean copper- 1959-82 coppers with no scratches/dents/holes/verdegris/etc
Ugly Abes- all 59-82 not in the clean copper bucket
Wheats
Copper Canadian

creshka46 wrote:I run a zinc accept first. I end up with 1 pile that's 99% zinc and another pile that I'll call dirty copper because there are other rejects besides just copper, like foreign, dimes, zincs that weren't approved for whatever reason. I dump the zinc pile without any further sorting (I do miss out on a few dozen coppers per $100, but it's not worth the time or the wear+tear on the ryedale to sort for them). Then I run a copper accept on the "dirty" copper pile. What I'm left with is one pile of nearly 100% copper (statistically speaking, there are probably just a few non coppers that sneak in) which has retained most of its wheats and canadians. I'm also left with one small pile of odds and ends which is my favorite part. It is usually about $1-2 for a $100 run and is about 90% zinc. The other 10% is where I find the goodies- dimes, some canadians, older wheats, foreign, plastic, etc.

This is the method I use. Except I have 3 machines doing the zinc accept and 1 doing the copper accept

slickeast wrote:

creshka46 wrote:I run a zinc accept first. I end up with 1 pile that's 99% zinc and another pile that I'll call dirty copper because there are other rejects besides just copper, like foreign, dimes, zincs that weren't approved for whatever reason. I dump the zinc pile without any further sorting (I do miss out on a few dozen coppers per $100, but it's not worth the time or the wear+tear on the ryedale to sort for them). Then I run a copper accept on the "dirty" copper pile. What I'm left with is one pile of nearly 100% copper (statistically speaking, there are probably just a few non coppers that sneak in) which has retained most of its wheats and canadians. I'm also left with one small pile of odds and ends which is my favorite part. It is usually about $1-2 for a $100 run and is about 90% zinc. The other 10% is where I find the goodies- dimes, some canadians, older wheats, foreign, plastic, etc.

This is the method I use. Except I have 3 machines doing the zinc accept and 1 doing the copper accept

Yeah me too 'cept I am a poor man, I only use two Ryedales to do the zinc accept and one for copper...

creshka46 wrote:I do miss out on a few dozen coppers per $100

Have you verified this...I have gone through my zinc pile and it was copperless. Trust and verify....I do this probably twice a year.

fasteddy wrote:Have you verified this...I have gone through my zinc pile and it was copperless. Trust and verify....I do this probably twice a year.

Yes, I sift through my zincs as I'm dumping them and always pull out a few coppers. Sometimes more than others. Perhaps it would help if I messed with the screw buy I just don't feel like messing with it.

All this talk about Ryedales, 3 for sale in the BIN, and me moving into a bigger place. You all know how to make it easy for a guy to expand his program of sorting!

creshka46 wrote:

fasteddy wrote:Have you verified this...I have gone through my zinc pile and it was copperless. Trust and verify....I do this probably twice a year.

Yes, I sift through my zincs as I'm dumping them and always pull out a few coppers. Sometimes more than others. Perhaps it would help if I messed with the screw buy I just don't feel like messing with it.

Mini screw driver, very easy to adjust it. Save you kots of time. I have to adjust back and forth to run pennies vs nickels.

johnbrickner wrote:All this talk about Ryedales, 3 for sale in the BIN, and me moving into a bigger place. You all know how to make it easy for a guy to expand his program of sorting!

Buy one! you will love it

+1

If you fine-tune the sensitivity, Ryedales are amazingly efficient at picking out different alloys. I do a zinc/copper double sort, and always wind up with a fun pile to look through at the end of the second sort.

Something that helps pick me pick up the newer wheats is to dump my cents into a white 9x13 tupperware tub before running them. I have a light above the tub, which makes it pretty easy to spot the wheats as I dig in to feed the machine. The copper cents go back into that tub before the second run, which gives me another chance to spot anything out of the ordinary.