I was reading an article yesterday about a guy who discovered a 1983 penny struck on the copper planchets and it was worth thousands of dollars. I can't find anything about this error on any of the coin sites. Was this real or not? I just went through all of my pennies and weight all of the 1983's. Unfortunately they were all 2.5 grams and not 3.1. Has anyone else heard of this? Thanks.
Here's an article. They are indeed very rare, but they are not unheard of. http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=26364
These are considered transitional "wrong metal" error coins and command hefty premiums depending upon their rarity. Since 1982 was a production year for both 95% Copper Cents and Copper plated Zinc Cents, some of the planchets intended for the 95% Copper coins were left over for the 1983 production runs which were supposed to be entirely Copper Plated Zinc Coins. This is not unusual and astute error collectors will search for such anomalies. There could very well be hundreds of these that were made but the only definitive method of spotting them is by visual acuity and then weight. Hundreds out of a production run of 6,467,199,428 is like searching for just the right "grain" in a cup of sand. These coins are usually found by collectors that are roll searchers that will sit and weigh each and every coin and the odds of finding one are greater than finding a 1969-S DDO. Often times, it is quite by accident or circumstance. (Right Place, Right Time, Right Mood) I found an off metal Eisenhower Dollar with the above circumstances which netted me mid 4 figures. I could not have predicted it and it blew me away but it could just as easily been passed over as it had been so many times before. This is the stuff that makes collecting really exciting.
