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Just a little tidbit for those who separate copper 1982's from zincs: Since I have been tracking this carefully, I have found that 1,492 of 2,258 pennies from the year 1982 were copper. That is 66.1%, almost exactly 2/3 copper.

While I have not officially tracked myself, I have also found that a majority of 82's are copper.

Ditto above.

My recent percentage is just over 50% of 1982 cents are made from zinc.

Just over 50% sounds low. How many coins are you talking about and how long of a period of time did you sort to get these coins? For instance, if they all came from the same group of coins (even a large group), the percentage could have been distorted if a hoarder turned in a large lot at the same time.

Here on the west coast I regularly find more zinc than copper with the 1982's. Here are my numbers since February:

Total sorted: 135,000
Copper 1982's: 1,475
Zinc 1982's: 2,529

I get about 75 percent copper on the 82s. Located in Minnesota.

tt

TwoAndAHalfCents wrote:Here on the west coast I regularly find more zinc than copper with the 1982's. Here are my numbers since February:

Total sorted: 135,000
Copper 1982's: 1,475
Zinc 1982's: 2,529

Wow, that is totally surprising to me and you have a good sample size that you accounted for, so it doesn't appear to be a fluke (at least in your area). Was there anything unusual about your results? For instance, did you get perhaps 100,000+ of the coins all at one time from the same source?

Recyclersteve wrote:

TwoAndAHalfCents wrote:Here on the west coast I regularly find more zinc than copper with the 1982's. Here are my numbers since February:

Total sorted: 135,000
Copper 1982's: 1,475
Zinc 1982's: 2,529

Wow, that is totally surprising to me and you have a good sample size that you accounted for, so it doesn't appear to be a fluke (at least in your area). Was there anything unusual about your results? For instance, did you get perhaps 100,000+ of the coins all at one time from the same source?

Nothing unusual about the mix of coins. It could just be the location (Southern California) and the timing of when shipments of pennies arrived here in 1982 as compared to other parts of the country. I always see more zinc than copper when sorting the 82s. I check them by weight on a digital scale. Recently I have been sorting pennies that I piled up back in 2011 and 2012. Those rolls have been closer to 50-50 on the 82s.

It's a little confusing to understand how these were disseminated and maybe even more confusing after reading this. Also, to know which way our coinage goes, here in the midwest I get significantly more Denver coinage that is new here, but who knows about yester years. They also made allot of these, some 16 billion that year since Philadelphia made 10 billion and Denver made 6 billion, it would seem we should see more zincolns than brass now doesn't it? None the less, an interesting year for the penny. I just did two boxes and found this for 1982 -- 5/51 and 10/69 zinc/brass

https://coinweek.com/education/coin-ana ... s-rewards/