Question regarding pennies...and Ryedale

[tenseventyfive]

Is it 1982 and earlier pennies that are 95% copper? Or is it PRE-1982? So I guess I am asking am I looking for up to and including 1982?

Thanks!

Also, since you can't sell them for melt value, what are you people doing with all the pennies? Just saving them in buckets awaiting the time when they can be? I am sure like most other metals copper will eventually rise significantly in value and that might not be such a bad idea.

 

[jim4silver]

I believe I read somewhere that some 1982 pennies are mostly copper, and some are not. I believe 1982 is when they made the change.

I am not a penny hunter so I could be wrong on this.

Jim

 

[Diver_Down]

I believe I read somewhere that some 1982 pennies are mostly copper, and some are not. I believe 1982 is when they made the change.

I am not a penny hunter so I could be wrong on this.

Jim

Correct. In 1982, they used two different planchets. From the beginning of the year until October, they used the bronze planchet. For the remainder of the year, they used the copper plated zinc-core planchet.

 

[AGCoinHunter]

Go check out the realcent forum. Lots of info about the ryedale over there.

 

[tenseventyfive]

well... since i am not overly concerned about pennies, if I am just sorting ones in my pocket, for example, the best bet would be to just keep 1981 and before, to be on the safe side?

 

[AGCoinHunter]

well... since i am not overly concerned about pennies, if I am just sorting ones in my pocket, for example, the best bet would be to just keep 1981 and before, to be on the safe side?

From my experience the majority of 82's are CU. I would figure maybe 1 out of 8 is Zinc. You can also tell by look most of the time where the CU cent seems to be well struck and their color is consistant with other CU while the zincs appear to be a lighter strick and a bit more shiney. Also dropping them on something hard, I can tell the difference in the sound. I have a Ryedale "Ace" hand sorter that does the sorting for me on the 82's. But if you wanted to be more safe and dont want to do any work, yes only keep up to 81.

 

[Bigj5731]

Yes. Best to just keep the 81's and before. Unless you have a coinscale or even a drug scale to weigh the 1982 pennies.

-bigJ

 

[SFBayArea]

Buy yourself a scale.. if it weighs 3.1 grams, it's copper......if it weighs 2.5 grams, it's zinc.. most 1982 that I've weighed are zinc but most 1982-D's that I've weighed are copper. Seems like 1982-D's have more copper coins produced.

 

[mts]

I use my metal detector to sort pennies (all of them). I don't have a Ryedale and I don't date sort. My detector makes a different sound for the zinc ones vs. the copper ones. The hardest part is getting them out of the plastic rolls. But once I have a handful I can wisk them past the detector head at almost two per second. And it's 100% accurate.

If you have a metal detector, you might want to check it to see if it is capable of telling the difference between copper and zincs. No weighing, no date checking, and no bouncing them off of the table (although all of those methods work). It even works on Canadian cents. And you get 100% accuracy at a speed that can only be beaten by a Ryedale. Your eyes will thank you for it.