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 Replies: 27 / Views: 4,767 |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12813 Posts |
Is it known how many 1982 LMC were minted in copper alloy and how many in copper-plated zinc? Red Book and the coin facts section of this site lump them all together and I can't find anything definitive with a Google search, so I'm guessing the Mint didn't release these numbers. In my experience of CRH dozens of boxes, I come across many more of the copper alloy cents than I do the zincs (probably 3 or 4 to 1). I assume 32 years is enough time to get a good distribution out there so I'm discounting that it's a geographic thing. So two possible explanations come to mind: 1. There were simply more Cu alloy cents minted. 2. The zincs, known for their propensity to decay, have fallen off by attrition. Or both. Anyone have the same experience or kept track of their personal breakdowns of 1982 cents? |
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Pillar of the Community
1325 Posts |
The Mint probably didn't know. they probably kept using the leftover copper blanks until they were gone and then started using the newer ones. I could see not mixing steel and copper and such, but in the case of 82, they probably didnt care.
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Moderator
 United States
15392 Posts |
I kept records of the 1982 dated LMC over 16 boxes of cents searches (40,000 coins total) and found the following: 1982 Philly Mint924 of 1063 (86.9%) coins found were copper. Given the original mintage of 10.712 billion Philly coins ... I estimate that 9.31 billion were copper. 1982 Denver Mint104 of 124 (83.9%) coins found were copper. Again ... with 6.012 billion minted ... approximately 5.21 billion were copper. I search on the east coast of the USA, and my data was from 2011/2012 ... David Take a look at my other hobby ... http://www.jk-dk.art |
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Valued Member
United States
355 Posts |
I'm not sure if the coffee hasn't took yet or what, but when I'm customer CRH'ing, I hit about 20% Copper / 80% Zinc alloy.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
I seem to recall that back in 1982 then they were being produced Coin World published some rough numbers based on reported monthly mint reports when the change over occurred. But as far as I know there are no official mintage figures and the Coin World Almanac does not give any breakdown either. If you could find a copy of the 1982 annual mint report you might be able to find some figures. Unfortunately I don't have a copy of that one. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19931 Posts |
Quote:
924 of 1063 (86.9%) coins found were copper. Given the original mintage of 10.712 billion Philly coins ... I estimate that 9.31 billion were copper.
Based on what I've seen over the years, I think that is about as accurate as anything.  |
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Moderator
United States
15392 Posts |
Reply to clarify for trent ... Quote:
but when I'm customer CRH'ing, I hit about 20% Copper / 80% Zinc alloy Fully concur ... in fact my Lincoln Cent overall find rate is 24.9% ... very much in line with your CRH experience. The question posed by the OP is specific to the transition year 1982 when LMC were minted in both copper and zinc planchets ... and does not cover the entire 115 year life of the series. My reply data was specific to the 1982 transition year only ... and a data point to help suggest the relative ratio between copper/zinc for that year alone since official US mint records have not surfaced. David Take a look at my other hobby ... http://www.jk-dk.art |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12813 Posts |
Thanks for the clarification, nickelsearcher - that is indeed what I meant to convey. And thanks for the stats, that's right in line with what I'm seeing.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
I'd agree with Nickelsearcher... my educated guess would have been that 90-95% of all '82 cents are copper. I read somewhere that the Mint ran out of copper and switched to zinc around October/November '82. Ever since realizing that, I've made a special point to keep all AU or better '82 zinc cents... high grade specimens are quite rare in circulation.
Now the real question is why we see both large and small dates in both copper and zinc cents (except for the nonexistant '82-D small date copper). It just seems odd that the Mint would alternate between dies throughout the year like that.
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Valued Member
United States
110 Posts |
I have recently sorted the contents of a 45 year old piggy bank that got fat on 12,000 +/- Lincoln Cents from Dayton, Ohio pocket change. My total number count for all 1982 Lincoln's was 1542. Statistically a very good/large sample, but I suspect it is very skewed to the Dayton, Ohio area. I am interested in data from everyone's search results for similar statistical data on the production quantities of the 1982 Lincoln Cent. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
The only sure method to find out the exact amount of each type would be to accumulate all the 1982 Cents there are and check them all. Start now and see if you can do this.  OR accept the facts that no one knows. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4809 Posts |
I had accumulated cents for about 25 years and when I broke things down for the 82s, I found things were about 50/50. Scarcities occurred for a couple of the varieties, but the copper/zinc split was about half. I had several hundred for the date, likely between 600-700.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1186 Posts |
Anything good to look for with the 1982 cents? I have a lot of them!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4085 Posts |
My experience is that when I find a 1982, it is almost always copper. In fact, when it turns out to be zinc, I actually think "oh, wow, look at that - a zinc".
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12813 Posts |
Wow, an old thread revived.  with KenKat... my experience hasn't changed much over the past two years...if anything the ratio of Cu to Zn has gone up. I'm seeing 8 or more copper to ever 1 zinc when I CRH. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19931 Posts |
Quote:
My experience is that when I find a 1982, it is almost always copper. In fact, when it turns out to be zinc, I actually think "oh, wow, look at that - a zinc". |
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Replies: 27 / Views: 4,767 |
Posted 05/14/2014 05:49 am
