Featured A Guide to 1982 Lincoln Cent Identification

It wasn't many years ago I considered all three 1968 cents quite common in Gem. Of course when I say "common" I mean that the total existing in the world was betwen about half a million and one million. That was back in the early-'90's and there might have really been so many back then.

I did not foresee how unkind the years and mint packaging would be to them. Their numbers in mint sets keep dropping because the sets are being destroyed by a world that doesn't care. Their numbers in rolls aren't that great as evidenced by the high roll price back in 1970. These sold for as much as $2.75 or about $20 in today's money. Roll coins are not heavy in Gems for these dates. Mint set coins have turned pretty badly. About 60% of the D and S are corroded now. There aren't many sets left and 60% are corroded. The Philly is far worse and for practical purposes they are "all" corroded. Only about 5% aren't ugly but even the 5% are carbon spotted.

My concern isn't only that these modern coins won't be there if anyone ever wants them but every year that people ignore them another 2 or 3% of the few survivors bite the dust.

If the current generation of collectors fails to preserve some of these coins they just won't be there.

"Countless billions" indeed!

People just don't understand the concept that only the coins you see everywhere are common. 1976 quarters are common in Unc. But 1982-D cents that are well made and pristine weren't even all that common December 31, 1982 and virtually all of them are gone now.

 

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Agree, attrition is a nasty thing. Not to mention, improperly stored collections...I've seen my share of those too.

Part of the deception to collectors is they think you can just buy a mint set and get quality, MS-65 and up coins. FALSE!

All of this is one of the reasons I started roll set collection of memorials in "higher" grade. As I'm searching, I put the best examples in the bottom of the tubes. That way when I find a candidate, I just check the top few coins to see if it's better or worse than my worst. Over many years I have quite a few tubes marked as I know I'll probably never find one better than what's in that tube. After all the searching eventually you throw in the towel on some issues. Finding MS-65 and up is nearly impossible....by my grading standards...which are higher than the TPG's.

 

Found the 1982 penny around the rim gray colored? Why does it look like this?

 

Unless they are in the 67/68 or 69 range?

 

Thank you TJ and so zincoin is very common that I have?

 

Hey can you tell me anything about this coin?

 

Someone (outside the mint) has had fun playing with it. And what does this have to do with 1982 cents?

 

Yes zinc cents are very common. I was asking @physics-fan3.14 a question.

 

Sorry, this thread was for 1982 Lincoln's. Where did the dime come from? That dime has major post mint damage= PMD. Some kid probably took a screwdriver to it.

 

He's new here, no problem.

 

Since mid 1982 the one cent pieces have been made of copper plated zinc. When the copper gets abraded off it exposes the zinc which starts as a silver color but rapidly oxidizes to a dull gray color.

 

So is it common?

 

Yes, it's common.

 

Thanks

 

I admire your enthusiasm to collect and search these out in top grades. It's a small example of what we do as collectors for posterity, ie curate and pass down top examples for others. It's a small area of US coins that most overlook, but what we do individually benefits us all in the hobby. You never know what will be available and what you'll choose to collect in the future

 

A few years ago I had a few BU rolls of 68s and other dates and used them as change, thinking they were too common. What a mistake now that I think about it

 

Sometimes conventional wisdom is harmful. For example, I read in several places that roll collecting is less popular and rolls from 60s and 70s on up aren't worth much. I had some 60s rolls and one dealer offered me a quarter or two over face for BU rolls. He said that's good, considering I should just spend them. I guess it's probably wise to think and do things in contrary ways

 

People saved a lot fewer rolls of cents after 1964 and even fewer nickels. But it was the clad that were saved at all and people don't realize just how few were saved and of those few that were saved what a small percentage still survive today.

Back in the '60's - '90's there were only three dealers selling rolls to the public and even in aggregate their sales amounted to almost nothing. The biggest seller told me he had only secured a single bag of 1969 quarters and he returned most of them as unsold to the bank. He also told me back in the early '90's he would have great difficulty locating a roll of the '69-P's. He did get them once in a while because there was demand for BU roll sets of quarters. I personally have never even seen an original roll of '69 quarters since 1969.

But what most non-collectors don't get is with moderns it doesn't matter how many were saved when almost the entire issue of a date looks like junk. People didn't save the coins because they hated them and they looked like junk. These all went together since people didn't complain to the mint about quality.

It's hardly surprising that even some of the commonest date cents can be tough in Gem after so many years of being ignored by collectors. There are dates that are really pretty common even in Gem because some dates were well made but other dates are quite elusive. People don't care about them so when dealers destroy mint sets even the rarest might go straight into the cash register.

 

My dealer does exactly that, use modern set coins for change. Come to think of it, I have never really seen a BU clad quarter role before 1999. You mentioned 1969 but I imagine most years are scarce in rolls, since collectors had an aversion to non silver coinage, roll collecting dropped, and quarters have always been the work horses in commerce - not to mention a roll of quarters is expensive for the average joe, especially in the late 60s through all the way today even. I'd imagine prices to increase greatly for clad quarters if there was an uptick in demand

 

None of the clad quarters are common. Well, lots of 1965's were set aside and quite a few '66's as well but people figured out by 1967 that there was simply no demand at all and the bulk of these coins were put into circulation. You can still find a '65 roll once in a while. There are a few more "common" rolls like '74-D but even this date probably had fewer than a quarter million coins saved and many of these nolonger survive. Collectors search rolls for varieties and Gems and most of the rejects go into circulation. Of course there are lots of '76's. Most people think '82 and '83 rolls are the scarcest but in reality they are among the most common. Between about 40 and 125 thousand of each coin were saved but the demand for them is high because there are no mint sets; all the demand is focused on a few sets and the rolls.

Because so few coins were saved it means almost all the clad quarter varieties will be rare in XF and better. They simply all went into circulation even when the mintages were fairly high.

Collectors will be in for lots of surprises when they look for clads. There will be even more surprises in store if very many people start collecting them. There's simply no depth to the supply because the coins weren't saved. Finding nice choice examples will prove tough because the coins were very poorly made for the main part.