I was going through my Desk and trying to clean it up. I ran across a small Dixie cup and found two 1982 Lincoln Cents in it and one of them made me super curious. I took some pics with my phone and a coin microscope. Pics aren't that great but I measured it with Photoscape to see if a line underneath the Date would confirm it was a small date or not. I believe it is. Also it weighs 3.11 grams. Do I have a winner?
There are 7 known business strike varieties for 1982 You have found one of over 10 billion Minted in 1982. Nothing special about it. It is a small date. Here is some information to help you..
Small date 1982 Cu has a very small mintage of the total 82's minted. It should be around 4 to 5% of the total no mint mark 82 Lincolns. They are a little tough to find.
If you go to the following website this statement is made.. 1982 P & D Large and Small Dates (lincolncentresource.com) Why did the mint Create 7 Varieties? They didn't. The die varieties were noticed by coin collectors, and since collectors normally relish small details, these varieties became popularized and now show up in coin albums that way. Remember, the mint stays away from anything that causes the public to hoard coins and disavows all varieties, even if collectors see the obvious. The mint's job is to keep coins moving in and out of jars, desks, etc.
Here is an article from David Lange at NGC about 1982 Lincolns. Too bad David passed - I always enjoyed his in-depth articles. Alot of collectors didn't realize that West Point and SF mint did mint coins too for circulation as no mint mark coinage of 1965 thru 67. Caveman - if you are wondering if your 82 SM CU a winner - possible. I would say it's one of top 10 lowest Lincoln Memorial mintages based on estimates in the article produced in Numismatic News. I know some collectors like to look at the 10 billion number and lump everything together. Alot of collectors have their own thoughts what they believe. Here are the mintages for 82 and the article from David L. Snowman https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/646/
I pulled all seven of them out of change maybe 5 years ago. It was fun but I think I spent them. The only reason they aren't found as much now is that people have hoarded them because they've heard that they're valuable, without really understanding. Only the 1982-D small date bronze has any value in circulated condition, and only two of those have ever been found.
