madwest
Hero Member
I am as new of a newbie as it gets. I decided to sort pennies for Cu so I started hoarding bags that my credit union agreed to sell to me from the coin machine.
I wanted a quick and dirty way to approximate the mix of Cu and Zn pennies, so I did the math. I spot checked a random draw from one bag and it seems right on! Here is what I came up with:
It is an exercise of 2 equations with 2 unknowns.
The $50 bag contains 5000 coins. You don't know how many are Cu and how many are Zn. The equation looks like this:
(Cu + Zn) = 5000. Unknown variable "Cu" is the number of copper coins. Unknown variable "Zn" is the number of zinc coins.
The second equation requires you to weigh the coins and the packaging that they are in. The equation then looks like this:
(3.11*Cu + 2.50*Zn) = (Weight - Package). Unknown variables "Cu" and "Zn" have the same meaning as in the first equation. "Weight" is the total weight of your bag/box of pennies [in grams] and "Package" is the weight of the box+wrappers or coin bag [in grams] that contain your pennies. Remember, copper pennies weigh 3.11gm and zinc pennies weigh 2.50gm.
I'll skip the mathematics, and go right to the answer.
The number of copper pennies in your box/bag is: Cu = (Weight - Package - 12500)/0.61
Remember:
"Weight" is the total weight in grams.
"Package" is the weight of your box+wrappers (or bag) in grams.
"Cu" is the number of copper pennies in your box or bag.
For all weights in Kg, the equation is: Cu = (Weight - Package - 12.5)*1639
For all weights in lbs, the equation is: Cu = (Weight - Package - 27.558)*743.6
Once you know the weight of the box/bag materials that you get from your bank, you can reuse that weight to decide if you want to open the box/bag or not. I suppose you could weight it right at the bank and decide if you want to buy or not.
A cruder approach is:
A bag of all zinc pennies would weigh about 27.75lb
A bag of all copper pennies would weigh about 34.25lb
50/50 would be about 31lb.
75/25 would be about 29.5lb
You can weigh your bag/box before tearing into it to see if it is worth sorting or not. (It would sure suck to sort someone else's dump.)
!! UPDATE !!
The equation works for a bag, or 2 (two) boxes as it is based on 5000 coins.
For a single box, the equation for grams is: Cu = (Weight - Package - 6250)/0.61
in lbs, Cu = (Weight - Package - 13.78)*743.6
Anyway, I'm a nerd looking to become a copper hoarding nerd. I have 8 bags of pennies waiting for when I figure out the best way to sort 'em.
I wanted a quick and dirty way to approximate the mix of Cu and Zn pennies, so I did the math. I spot checked a random draw from one bag and it seems right on! Here is what I came up with:
It is an exercise of 2 equations with 2 unknowns.
The $50 bag contains 5000 coins. You don't know how many are Cu and how many are Zn. The equation looks like this:
(Cu + Zn) = 5000. Unknown variable "Cu" is the number of copper coins. Unknown variable "Zn" is the number of zinc coins.
The second equation requires you to weigh the coins and the packaging that they are in. The equation then looks like this:
(3.11*Cu + 2.50*Zn) = (Weight - Package). Unknown variables "Cu" and "Zn" have the same meaning as in the first equation. "Weight" is the total weight of your bag/box of pennies [in grams] and "Package" is the weight of the box+wrappers or coin bag [in grams] that contain your pennies. Remember, copper pennies weigh 3.11gm and zinc pennies weigh 2.50gm.
I'll skip the mathematics, and go right to the answer.
The number of copper pennies in your box/bag is: Cu = (Weight - Package - 12500)/0.61
Remember:
"Weight" is the total weight in grams.
"Package" is the weight of your box+wrappers (or bag) in grams.
"Cu" is the number of copper pennies in your box or bag.
For all weights in Kg, the equation is: Cu = (Weight - Package - 12.5)*1639
For all weights in lbs, the equation is: Cu = (Weight - Package - 27.558)*743.6
Once you know the weight of the box/bag materials that you get from your bank, you can reuse that weight to decide if you want to open the box/bag or not. I suppose you could weight it right at the bank and decide if you want to buy or not.
A cruder approach is:
A bag of all zinc pennies would weigh about 27.75lb
A bag of all copper pennies would weigh about 34.25lb
50/50 would be about 31lb.
75/25 would be about 29.5lb
You can weigh your bag/box before tearing into it to see if it is worth sorting or not. (It would sure suck to sort someone else's dump.)
!! UPDATE !!
The equation works for a bag, or 2 (two) boxes as it is based on 5000 coins.
For a single box, the equation for grams is: Cu = (Weight - Package - 6250)/0.61
in lbs, Cu = (Weight - Package - 13.78)*743.6
Anyway, I'm a nerd looking to become a copper hoarding nerd. I have 8 bags of pennies waiting for when I figure out the best way to sort 'em.
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