Numismedia

Whether someone pays $20 or $700 for an AU 1922 Lincoln Cent, it doesn't make sense to me that that is the FMV of that coin when that coin is really worth in the thousands.

Fair Market Value is a carefully calculated number derived from hundreds of sales and price lists. They don't base it on one sale. It is an average of many transactions.

Determination on relative rarity of the 1982 cents has been made through years of study - the P mint small dates are the scarcest of the group, and even at that they are somewhat common. Truthfully NONE of the 1982 cents are "scarce" or "rare" - but the P mint small dates can be very difficult to find by the BU roll.

"Copper" and "zinc" are base elements. "Bronze" is a mixture of copper, zinc, and tin. "Brass" is the same mixture, take out the tin.

Cents were made of copper until the small cent was introduced in 1856 - basically all large cents were pure copper. In 1856 the small cent was introduced and was made of a copper-nickel mix. That changed in 1864 when they switched to bronze. This remained the rule for the cent until WWII when in 1943 the bronze was switched to steel, then in 1944 the steel was replaced by a bronze in which shell casings were used as the brass part of the bronze. They ran out of this in 1946 and went back to regular bronze. The composition remained the same until 1962. Mid-way through the year, the tin was removed and all cents were made of brass until the familiar composition change of 1982 when it was changed to a zinc core bathed in 100% copper. So:

1793-1857 (Lg. cents): 100% copper
1856-1864 (Sm. cents): copper-nickel (CuNi)
1864-1942 : bronze (also called French bronze)
1943 : Steel
1944-1946 : "shellcase" bronze
1947-1962 : French bronze
1962-1982 : brass
1982-date : copper plated zinc.