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I hand sort so I've just been throwing all the 82s together after being weighed/ring tested.

Just curious what everyone thinks about keeping all the 82 coppers separate or should I just throw them in with the rest?

Guess my thinking is it would squash any confusion in the future but I do throw some pennies in that you really can't see the date.

Just wanna see peoples thoughts on this. I've only been at this for a few months.

If you have them separate, then I would keep them separate.

While sorting I seperate them,after I finish sorting a box I weigh the 82's and throw them in with rest of the coppers.

Keep them apart. Someday it may make a difference to a potential buyer, and if it doesn't, you really didn't do any extra work in the first place.

i throw my 1982 back into the wild, i just want a 1959-1981 stash. ill let the next stacker get em.

You might as well keep them separate since you already went through the effort. You could always mix them back in later.

I weigh mine 4 or 5 at a time with my jeweler's digital scale. Usually get 80% copper. Sometimes 100+ 82's per box. It adds up.

yea most 82s are copper, but find a way to confirm before you put with the rest. I just saved them all till I got my ryedale.

I thought I heard about 75%a were copper so keep that in mine.

If its copper I don't care.

I weigh mine and throw em' in with the rest. You can reassure whoever's interested, that you weighed all 82's, and that they are copper.

thats what I think.theres alot of 1982s out there,and 80% of what im finding are copper.

Remember guys(gals) there is a nice double die on the 1982 copper Philly. On the front, in the lettering of "IN GOD WE TRUST"! I found one....so don't just blow off the 82's so fast!

TheJonasCollegeFund wrote:Remember guys(gals) there is a nice double die on the 1982 copper Philly. On the front, in the lettering of "IN GOD WE TRUST"! I found one....so don't just blow off the 82's so fast!

I put all my 82's aside for a rainy day or a ryedale!

The 1982's have been pretty close to 50/50 between copper and zinc in the boxes I have sorted. I hand sort my boxes and set aside the 1982's in a pile. When I'm done, I check them one by one with a simple balance I made out of a popsicle stick with a zinc penny glued to one end. I follow-up as I go along with a quick drop and confirmation of a "thud" or "ring" sound. The coppers all wind up geting mixed in with the rest of the coppers and the zincs go on the big pile of zincs to dump.

I usually drop/ring the 82s as I sort and leave them lay if they ring and throw them in the zinc if they don't. I'll weight them if I don't have anything good to drop them on.

Then I've just been throwing them in a ziplock that is getting very full. Didn't realize there would be so many 82 coppers but I definitely get more copper than zinc. I might just start rolling them up and marking them 82s.

Basically I asked the question cause I've never sold and I didn't know if it matters to some buyers or not. That and what could be the thinking for the future about the 82s.

Thanks for the replies.

TheJonasCollegeFund wrote:Remember guys(gals) there is a nice double die on the 1982 copper Philly. On the front, in the lettering of "IN GOD WE TRUST"! I found one....so don't just blow off the 82's so fast!

On the large date or small date? I may need to break mine out!!!

To answer the original question, I have a tub I throw all 82s in, and every year or so, when I don't have cents to sort for copper, I divide them all up by the 7 varieties. I roll them by variety, and have found that 75-80% are copper. 1982 D large date copper are the most common of the seven.

uthminsta wrote:

TheJonasCollegeFund wrote:Remember guys(gals) there is a nice double die on the 1982 copper Philly. On the front, in the lettering of "IN GOD WE TRUST"! I found one....so don't just blow off the 82's so fast!

On the large date or small date? I may need to break mine out!!!

To answer the original question, I have a tub I throw all 82s in, and every year or so, when I don't have cents to sort for copper, I divide them all up by the 7 varieties. I roll them by variety, and have found that 75-80% are copper. 1982 D large date copper are the most common of the seven.

Large date....and most, not all, but most of the double die ones had the front, the obverse, misaligned a little. 1982 Plain Philly large date. When you see it...it's like WOW...after looking at thousands of them...makes you wanna say..."About freakin' time!"

I do the ring test first. For cents with a less louder ring, I'll use a file and I'll scrape the sides and look for the silver zinc color.

TheJonasCollegeFund wrote:Remember guys(gals) there is a nice double die on the 1982 copper Philly. On the front, in the lettering of "IN GOD WE TRUST"! I found one....so don't just blow off the 82's so fast!

Dang.. now I gotta find that bag of 82's I never sorted and go blind looking through them. Hmmm.. maybe I can talk my buddy that loves errors into checking them.

1982s? I'm not too fond of them. I can spot them by eyeball and am right most of the time. I kick the known zincensteins to the curb right away and save the knowns and maybes in a bucket. Don't want to taint my coppers with them. If time ever permits, I'll do a better sort or weigh them, but, for now, they're a "no go" for my hoard. Those will be the first ones to the smelter if/when it's possible to do so.

I found a very helpful link about the 1982 penny varities which also gives instructions for creating a simple scale for distinguishing the coppers from the zincs.

http://www.lincolncentresource.com/smalldates/1982.html

Thank you to realcenter JOBIII for providing a link to that site on another thread related to double-die errors.

TwoAndAHalfCents, thanks for the link - good info. But I was intrigued by the implication that the change from copper to zinc was not just for cost purposes but because the mint feared copper hoarding by the masses. Now, we here at RealCent have been on to this for a while but other than when we transitioned to silver in 1965, I really didn't realize the mint had a true concern about copper hoarding. Greshams Law is recognized by the US mint. As if I needed another reason to pull coppers from circulation. Thanks again for the good info.