Differentiating 1982 Cents Copper Vs. Copper/Zinc

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 1,296
Shamrock4sure Valued Member United States 101 Posts	Posted 02/01/2008 8:54 pm My metal detector a Garrett will give a different tone for each and it hits it right every time. Other brands will do the same thing. If you have a metal detector it could save you from having to purchase a scale. I have a scale that goes two decimal places. The weights listed and in the Whitman are the target weights for the mint and will vary sometimes considerably, especially on the larger coins. Hope you find what you're looking for in coins. Report this Post to the Staff

gussyboy1 Valued Member United States 174 Posts	Posted 02/01/2008 10:03 pm Good to know! Thanks! Gussyboy1 Report this Post to the Staff
bmanofnbc Pillar of the Community United States 1424 Posts	Posted 02/01/2008 10:13 pm I sorted some 1982's with my Bounty Hunter QuickDraw2 before I got my scale, it works great and you can do them faster then with a scale if your machine has multiple tones. Copper cents give a higher tone then zinc cents. Report this Post to the Staff
littleboy Pillar of the Community United States 764 Posts	Posted 02/02/2008 12:12 am flip the coin in the air. high pitched ring = copper; dull to no ring = zinc Report this Post to the Staff
just carl Bedrock of the Community United States 20753 Posts	Posted 02/02/2008 09:16 am Why not just use a torch on them. You could place all on a steel sheet, blast them with a torch. The first ones to melt were the Zinc with Copper coatings. Then of course you could just dip in Sulfuric Acid. The pure Copper ones will form a really nice Green substance. Of you could just turn them all in to a bank and let them run all through a counting machine. By weighing each individually you could actually see which is the large date, D mint and other silly things like that. Report this Post to the Staff
karrlot Pillar of the Community United States 535 Posts	Posted 02/03/2008 10:35 pm I recently tried the "popsickle stick on a pencil" balance using a pre-82 penny as teh counter balance. It worked very well and didn't cost a thing. Report this Post to the Staff
Neffchiro Valued Member United States 55 Posts	Posted 02/03/2008 11:21 pm I just finished sorted through thirty coins to separate them by mint, date size and composition. Mint was really easy (duh), size was easier than I thought (once you see a small date in a loupe, the top of the 8 really stands out!) and the composition took a few tries. I settled on placing a glass mouth down on the carpet and dropping pennies from a few inches. The distincitve ring of the copper was in sharp contrast to the plunk of the zinc. It was my first time sorting via the ring test and was quite educational and fun to boot! Brandon Report this Post to the Staff
	Replies: 6 / Views: 1,296

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