A New Member To Forum I Have A ? On 1982/83 Circulated Coins

If you find something in uncirculated condition from those years, it's worth a little more than usual because there were no mint sets released those years, but frankly, no, short of mint state examples, they're not worth saving.

i think I have a P & D souvenir mint set somewhere...

but some folks do collect the 1982 & 1983 quarters and sell them

i dont know if BlueRidgeSilverHound still does it but here is his video on the subject.2s

And to CCF Unfiltered and Justice41ca.
John1

But Souvenir sets and Mint sets are not the same thing.

They made souvenir sets for many years ('72 to '98) with most in very low mintages. They made more of these for '82/ '83 because there was more demand (10,000 to 20,000).

But, yes, these are different than regular mint sets in other ways than just the far lower mintages and relative difficulty of acquiring them. They are only half of a mint set and the coins in them are usually lower quality than regular mint set coins. Mint set coins are struck under higher pressure with new dies and souvenir set coins are not.

Typical '82 and '83 coins in circulation are hardly worth setting aside. Mintages were large so they are quite common in pocket change. I do save out very nice examples in XF or better. These high grade coins were common until just a few years ago but it's apparent people are selecting these from circulation and they are disappearing.

levelsofmadnes, Yes.....there are people that grind out searching quarters anyways, and yes, a solid date/mintmark $10 roll of circulated 82 or 83, P or D, does for some unknown reason sell for like $15 or $20 plus shipping on ebay.

People will buy full rolls of Bicentennials also, for $15-$20 also. Again no idea why, but they do.

A person can make a buck or two off doing it after fees and costs as a side thing to the searching along with some other side things to make a couple bucks here or there over the course of a year searching quarters. it's not gonna make you rich, it's a hassle to do the shipping, but some roll hunters do it because it's money to get while looking for Silver or Ws, rim Cuds, or doubled dies (82 P and D has a doubled die to find) all these bucks or two add up of the course of hunting coins, there's always a die chip or a spitting horse or a spitting eagle or an extra leaf, or .... something people are going crazy for and spending $5-$10-$20or even more.

Not saying it's necessarily fruitful, or you can make a living doing it, just saying people do it, and people buy it and they make a couple bucks. all the finds, pretty much goes for sale somehow if it's sellable for a profit. I guess it beats paying fees to return the coins. Sort of supplemental to the hunting because there are losses incurred from coin roll hunting, even if it's just short rolls or foreigns or buying storage supplies. it's rarely a "break even" hobby even if you are getting things at face values.

It is remarkable just how ratty the older coins in circulation are getting. Something is apparently going on in the counting houses that is damaging the coins passing through and the attrition rates are increasing on all the coinage. It's been 40 years now since these were made so they're getting long in the tooth as well. About 25% of them are lost forever and it appears another 20% have been pulled out by collectors. Then there are the collectors pulling nice specimens for collections causing the nice coins to disappear faster.

I can hardly imagine what the old circulating coinage is going to look like in another five to ten years of all this abuse and growing interest. I have to imagine that it will be almost impossible to find any of the older coins that aren't cull, heavily worn or both before we even know it. The old nickels are 65% gone and the dimes are at about 60% with quarters at 55%.

Pennies are such a mess and mass of corrosion and filth I've hardly looked at them in years. I'm about ready to start refusing them. But I watch them closely enough to know most of them are less than 3 years old and almost every single one of any date is a cull, and often a really bad cull. New ones are just spotted but old ones have gunk stuck to them and zinc oxide. They are an ugly way to waste human effort and wealth. Oddly enough the incidence of copper pennies is holding pretty steady at 20% even as they are being pulled out. I believe this is because zinc pennies are rotting away as fast as the coppers are being removed. This implies very little usage of the toxic slugs that require us to make billion every year to pad the landfills and the pockets of the lobbyists. I keep wondering if all the memorials are actually available. Some of the zincolns have endured incredible attrition and the coppers have been around so long that can't be many left. One of these days I'll have to get a few rolls and see what surprises await.

I'll be wearing gloves.