My uncle called last night and asked me how to tell the difference between a copper 1982 penny and a zinc one. I didn't have a good answer besides getting a scale. He's old and never touched a computer, so I told him I would ask here if someone could recommend a small scale that's accurate enough to tell the difference, but not $$$$$$$$$$. For some reason he has a big pile of '82 cents and is curious. OR, is there another sure fire way of being able to tell them apart? His hearing is bad, so the drop test won't work for him. Thanks in advance.
I've got a basic, cheap, DigiWeigh scale that I use all the time for stuff. Tons of them on ebay. It's a rectangular pocket scale with a lid that flips up and it comes with two calibration weights. I believe they're plenty good for what we're doing. It weights to the 0.01 of a gram. Also weights in grains, carats and (std.) ounces. I have some extremely small calibration weights I tested on it. It would weigh accurately down to 1 grain which equals 0.06 grams. The 1/2 grain weight didn't register on it. That was too light. But I'm sure it's accurate within +/- a few hundredths of a gram, which to me is good enough. If you breathe to close to it, your breath will change the reading. It's not a bad scale for 20-30 bucks. Just don't bang it around or drop it, of course.
A cheap way is to make your own balance. You can use a popsicle stick or something similar and a pencil for a fulcrum. Place the center of the popsicle stick over the pencil and place a pre-1982 Cent on one end of the stick and the 1982 Cent on the other end of the stick (exactly the same distance from the center of the stick). If the stick balances on the pencil the 1982 Cent weighs the same as the pre-1982 Cent and therefore is bronze. If the pre-1982 Cent tips the end of the stick down the 1982 Cent weighs less and is therefore zinc.
