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Sorry for asking such a basic question, I just couldn't seem to get the forum search terms right to find the answer on my own. Well I'm about to order me a fancy scale so I could weigh my boxes and know what's in them so I don't have to open them (and for weighing my return bags). Does anyone know the weight differences between a box full of zinc and a box full of copper? And I know that a box of mixed zinc and coppers will weigh differently based upon the copper percent in them, but does anyone have an approximate weight?

Paging Mr. HCBTT, Mr. HCBTT you're wanted in the copper penny bullion investing section.

Teach a man to fish....

Zincs are 2.5 grams each. Coppers 3.1 grams.

A pound is 454 grams (rounded).
A box is 2500 cents.
2500x2.5/454 = weight of box of Zincs. Add in a few oz for wrappers and box.
Repeat for copper 2500x3.1/454= weight of copper. Add in the.paper

Zinc brick including box and paper = 14.1 pounds
Copper brick including box and paper = 17.1 pounds

Approximates:
17.1 lbs = full pre-Oct.1982 penny box (not including cardboard/plastic/paper/foreign objects)*
13.8 lbs = full post-Oct.1982 penny box (not including cardboard/plastic/paper/foreign objects)**

Given that the nationwide average for pre-Oct.1982 pennies is about 20%, then the following would be the weight of an average, unsearched box:
14.4 lbs = unsearched, average penny box (not including cardboard/plastic/paper/foreign objects)


EDIT:

*approx. 146 pre-Oct.1982 pennies = 1 lb
**approx. 181 post-Oct.1982 pennies = 1 lb

Sorry for being so slow.. but hey, a guy's gotta sort and get more coins sometimes.

HoardCopperByTheTon wrote:Sorry for being so slow.. but hey, a guy's gotta sort and get more coins sometimes.

Darn you... while I'm busy with my calculations you slipped your post in seconds before I got to display my finalized results.

Here is a chart with weight of the brick and percentage of copper.

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17798&p=167312#p167318

If you knew the exact weight of the packaging material -and-
If there was no extra gunk on the coins -and-
If there was no lost weight to wear or corrosion -and-
If there were no foreign coins,

Then, you would know exactly how many of each type were in the box based on a mathematical exercise of 2 equations with 2 unknowns.
There are 2500 coins ("Cu" + "Zn") and their combined weight ("wt") is what you read on your fancy new scale (assume that you've already subtracted the weight of the box and wrappers from the total to get "wt").

The equations are:
Cu + Zn = 2500
3.11*Cu + 2.50*Zn = wt

Solve for either Cu or for Zn:
Cu = (wt - 13.78)*743.6
Zn = (17.14 - wt)*743.6

On average an empty string and son box and papers weigh 3 ounces.

On average the copper ones are going to have a little more wear than the zincs.. having theoretically been in circulation longer. I just took some averages that I remembered from a while back when we were getting a lot of boxes of circulated zincs and some of the weights I remember when I used to ship copper bricks.

I do have one of those fancy scales.. it is good to 2/100ths of a pound.