Whats with the 1982 cent? Only way to know what you have is to weigh? How often will a person find all of them?
Uhh... Some are zinc, some are copper... I find plenty of both in each box of cents I go through. Easy way to tell the difference is to bounce 'em off the desk/table. Copper rings, zinc thuds. I think that's what you wanted to know.
Another easier way I have adopted is to balance the coin on your finger very lightly, and the take another coin and lightly tap it on the edge of the one on your finger. The ring of copper is extremely distinct and impossible to miss compared to the 'tap' of the zinc. try it with a few and you will immediately hear what I'm talking about. As Merc said bouncing it works, but I've found that the balance and tap method is easier because the copper ones will ring for a whole second or two.
' Bounce on wood is what I've always done. Hardest of the seven for me to find are the Philly small dates of both the copper and the zink, and the Denver zink large date. Never seen mintages broken down by large/small date. Otherwise record huge numbers produced.
WOW. I just tried that, the difference is insane! On a different note, is it bad that I have stacks and stacks of coins sitting around my computer, just to play around with?
I do it the easy way and weight them. I bought a scale on the bay for $10 with free shipping. It measures to the tenth of a gram and fits in my pocket. Great deal as far as I'm concerned. I find more copper 82's than zinc's. I find mostly large date Philly's over small dates. Being on the east coast, I seem to find more P's than D's.
Tell me about it. My friend gave me boxes up on boxes of them and I don't know what to do with them. LOL...
Quick question how can you tell a lg date from a small date I have about 20 1982's and I cant seem to see a difference. And phil I. Feel your pain I'm on the west coast and I find a TON of d's not so many p's.
See this ' 2 '? That's exactly what a ' Large Date ' two looks like. The ' Small Date ' two has a little ' belly ' on it. I find that the easiest way for me. The lrg. date two is closer to the rim than the small date. This can be very difficult to tell. The lrg date is on the left. Hope thyis helps.
My 2 cents Here two link that are 2 of the best online site Lincoln Wheat &LMC:thumb: http://www.lincolncentresource.com/ http://www.coppercoins.com/
The easy way, and easy on the coin, is to weigh it. If you look around online, I have even seen directions on how to make a scale out of a penny and a popsicle stick. Then you just put each cent you want to verify on the stick, and the scale will tell which composition it is. Easy cheezy. All are easy to find.
I like seeing pics of peoples coin command and control centers. You can tell something about someone from his HQ. Just like golfing with someone. My stuff does not sit around very long in 2 x 2's very long because I put them in my Intercept albums. Recently I have purchased a few certified coins just to have some graded benchmarks. This do not get cracked. They stay encased. Keep the pics coming.
