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What percentage of 82 pennies are copper as opposed to zinc?

I think about 70% Cu......

I've been wasting time weighing these as I've handsorted nearly $90. I estimate 10-15% of my '82s have been copper.

Never kept an exact percentage but i would venture to guess between 70 and 80% copper.

Same here. About 80%

Same here about 80% copper

tinhorn wrote:I've been wasting time weighing these as I've handsorted nearly $90. I estimate 10-15% of my '82s have been copper.

that doesn't seem right...what is your overall copper percentage?

I've been getting close to 85% - a coin dealer once told me he thought the conversion to zinc took place in October of 1982- so you would expect a majority of them to be copper (if he was correct).

seems like 80 85% copper for us too.

I'm a newbie and I have weighed out just over 1200 '82's so far and only 40% have been copper. I was hoping it would be much higher. But even 40% is better than nothing.

Around 80% seems about right.

bman wrote:

tinhorn wrote:I've been wasting time weighing these as I've handsorted nearly $90. I estimate 10-15% of my '82s have been copper.

that doesn't seem right...what is your overall copper percentage?

Overall, 27%. I throw the 82s into a separate pile and weigh them. 15% at the most weigh over 3 grams. The vast majority of my 82s weigh 2.48 to 2.5 grams.

My perception is that 90% of 1982s are copper, most that I have weighed. I haven't kept records.

I'm here on the east coast, if that matters. (I haven't sorted over $200 FV.)

Here in the Midwest, I usually get about 60-80 percent copper on my 1982 pennies. Overall, my percentages are very good (27-32%). In some cases, I have gotten as high as 52% copper on customer wrapped rolls!

But it's not all good. For 2009 cents, I rarely find anything. I have never seen a presidential/capitol penny EVER. I also almost never see any 2009-D penny, so my Dansco folder slots are empty except for 3 2009-P cents, which really sucks. About 95% of the 2009's I find in the wild are crap anyway, so I throw them back in the zinc pile; I only keep clean ones and have only found less than half a roll. I guess I'm just too cheap to go down to the coin dealer and buythem, as they charge .40-.50 each for them. But if you are feeling sympathy for me and wanna sent me a 2009 P/D Presidential for my Dansco folder, let me know and I'll PM you my address.

I get 2010 cents all the time, but again, over 95% of them are garbage and have spots or worse.

tinhorn wrote:I've been wasting time weighing these as I've handsorted nearly $90. I estimate 10-15% of my '82s have been copper.

What part of the country are you in...it's pretty clear that you are getting alot of somebody's dumps. For a long time I was averaging over 90% copper 82's. Slowly it has dropped to the mid 80% range. But living so close to Chicago...there are tons of 82's floating around...copper ones. If you got a scale...and if your percentages are that high for zinc 82's why not weigh them. It doesn't take long...do 2 or 3 or 4...sometimes I weigh 10 at a time when I get really high percentages. It's just simple math. By not added these to your hoard it will cut into your bottom line. A little here..a little there adds up.

tinhorn wrote:I've been wasting time weighing these as I've handsorted nearly $90. I estimate 10-15% of my '82s have been copper.

According to some recent posts I have made in the Copper Penny Handsorter Tracking Thread my 1982s seem to be running much higher copper than zinc here of late. Has almost seemed abnormally high to me.

Enjoy your coin searches, everyone.


The vast majority of 2009s and 2010s now that I am finding are beginning to look really awful too. They sure don't hold up well.