They were only issued as part of proof sets, so it's really unusual to find them in circulation. Nice find!
1982 mintage of 10,712,525,000 1982-D mintage of 6,012,979,368 1982-S mintage of 3,857,479 They may not be Rare, but they sure are scarce when compared with the other mints.
Yep. That's part of the reason you'll almost never find them in circulation (the other part is that most proof sets get kept in their boxes, rather than broken up and spent). Unfortunately, rare doesn't mean valuable in this case -- since there were almost four million proof sets minted, it's easy to find undamaged examples of the coin. The one you found would be considered "impaired", because it's been circulating and has gotten worn. That makes it more unusual, but not more valuable. But still fun!
No, the San-Francisco mint shortly opened up for circulation strikes during this time. This also cant be an impared proof because the rims arent sharp enough and the S matches neither 1982-S proof T.I or T.II. Scarcer because the SF mint produced much less than Denver and Philadelphia.
Okay, first, I didn't realize that SF issued any business-strike cents in 1982, but here are two articles that seems to support that: http://www.coinweek.com/education/c...-cent-provides-collectors-challenges-rewards/ http://lincolncentsonline.com/1982 Cents.html However, both articles agree that none of those business-strike cents had an S mint mark. I see nothing to indicate that a business-strike S-mintmark cent was issued in 1982. Do you have references indicating otherwise?
Thank you for all of the answers, I will hang onto it. If I come across another I will see if they are any different
Sweet! That is awesome, I will keep posting some of my finds and questions. You all are very helpful!
