Pennies?

[airborne1092]

Years ago, my stepdad bought hundreds of dollars of "straight from the mint" pennies rolls (white with red stripe ends - non circulated.) They were all minted in 1980. He said at the time, copper was worth more than the penny itself. Since, he's given most of them to me and his other four grown children.

Fast forward to a few minutes ago, I read a post mentioning something about copper content and 1980s pennies.

Can someone please bring me up to speed? What gives?


Thank you all!

 

[mistergee]

1982 and below are the copper pennies... anything after that is zinc...

 

[daveg13]

1982 and below are the copper pennies... anything after that is zinc...

Actually '81 and below are copper. '82's are both copper and zinc and after that they are all zinc. The coppers are worth a little over $0.02 each, obviously depending on the price of copper. The pre '82's are currently selling on ebay for about 1.5X face.

 

[klava]

Yes the 82's are both copper and zinc. Here in Virginia I find that they are about 85% copper to 15% zinc. You can weigh the rolls to determine which you have. Ill look up the weights for a whole roll but if you feel like doing math. For uncirculated coins: copper coins weigh 3.1 grams and zincs weigh 2.7.

Also there is a crapload of different varieties of the 82 penny. Small dates and Large Dates of both the zinc and copper varieties. Do NOT sell those rolls soley for the copper content. unc rolls will catch a very nice premium if you decide to sell.

-K

 

[mistergee]

Actually '81 and below are copper

oops ...i stand corrected....

 

[airborne1092]

Klava,

What is considered a "nice premium" for unc rolls of '80 pennies?

I have 6 rolls, my wife wants to spend 'em, and my son is eyeballing 'em as he loves my old coins and wants to tear into em, ASAP! Might as well sell to help finance my new addiction!

My wife tore me a new one for spending $45. today, She got even more mad when I pointed out that I technically didn't "SPEND" the money! LOL

LOL