The Coin Analyst: 1982 Lincoln Cent Provides Collectors With Challenges, Rewards

Coinweek - 1982 was the year E.T. The Extra Terrestrial hit the silver screen. The average price of a new home was $80,000, and the Equal Rights Amendment failed ratification. It was also the year the United States Mint began making Lincoln cents from a 97.5% zinc, 2.5% copper alloy instead of the traditional brass composition that had been in use for decades.

The change in the penny's metallic composition actually unfolded in stages over the course of nine years, starting when the price of copper skyrocketed in 1973. As the intrinsic value of the copper in each Lincoln Cent approached the coin's face value, the public thought it could turn a profit by hoarding brass one-cent coins. This led to a nationwide coin shortage not unlike the situation that occurred in the early 1960s, when the increasing value of silver inspired bullion bugs to hoard silver dimes, quarters, and half dollars by the tens of millions.

The United States Mint experimented with an aluminum one-cent coin beginning in late 1973, but the vending machine industry raised concerns that the new one-cent coins would not be compatible with the millions of vending machines still accepting pennies. Meanwhile, copper prices began falling as 1974 moved forward, causing the U.S. Mint to forego changing the composition of the Lincoln Cent. Virtually all of the 1.5 million 1974-dated experimental pennies were destroyed, and the legal status of the few that remain is dubious.

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