Penny Confusion

How do I tell between coppers and zincs and What do I do with all the coppers if its not legal to melt and what is a proof and what is a AU cent?

The govt wont benifit from lifting a ban on melting copper pennies. The govt has already changed the composition almost 30 yrs ago and melting was not even a issue untill recent around 2009.

Copper usually bounces from $1 - $4 a lb it has for years . Right now its at high once it goes down to 1-2$ again as it always does the " hoarding for copper value " wont be a big deal anymore

Atleast not for a few years untill copper hits $4-$5 agian then it will be mainstream again

Lincoln Cent roll searching picks;

All Wheat, Indian Head, and S mint cents
1959
1959 D
1959 D/D/D large/small rpm
1960 small date
1960 D small date
1960 D/D rpm
1960 D/D large/small DDO rpm
1961 D
1961 D/Horizontal D rpm
1962 D
1963
1963 D
1966
1968
1968 D
1968 S
1969
1969 S
1970 S large and small date
1970 S/S rpm
1971
1971 DDO
1972 DDO
1972 S
1973 D
1973 S
1974
1974 D
1974 S
1975 D
1976
1976 D
1982 Seven varieties
1983 DDR
1984 DDO
1984 Doubled ear
1992 CAM
1992 D CAM
1994 DDR
1995 DDO
1997 DDO
1998 WAM
1998 S CAM
1999 WAM
1999 S CAM
2000 WAM
2006 DDO

You should sort out the mintmarks. S mints can be harder to find.

People who hoard copper just hold onto it as pennies. I hoard copper, but I also check it to make sure I don't have anything worth more than the melt value.

As for the wheats, start a collection. If you're not interested in that, research their values.

The way coins are graded is based on a scale (Sheldon, I think)

The possible grades are:
P01 - Poor
FR02 - Fair
AG3 - About Good
G4, G6 - Good
VG8, VG10 - Very Good
F12, F15 - Fine
VF20, VF30, VF35 - Very Fine
E/XF40, E/XF45 - Extra Fine
AU50, AU53, AU55, AU58 - Almost Uncirculated
MS60 to MS70 - Mint State

For proof coins, the grades are PF60 to PF70

Hope that mess above helps

Eric, to answer some of your questions...

An "Au" coin means "about uncirculated" It'll show some wear under magnification. A "proof" coin is a coin that the mint makes for collectors. They have an 'S' mint mark, are struck twice, and sold for a premium.

I'll give you some tips while your accumulating your hoard.

Before you pop open a roll, look to see if its a "shotgun roll" that's a roll that can't be opened without damaging it. If it's a shotgun roll and the showing cents are brilliant red, it's probably a "Bu" (Brilliant uncirculated) roll. If you can read the date on one of the end cents, write the date on the side, and set it aside. They are worth more unopened. That's the start of your "Bu Roll" Collection. At this stage, it'll be the money making end of your endeavors. Many people collect cents in Bu rolls.

For the rest of the rolls break them open one at a time. Sort them into three containers. Pre-1982, 1982, Post-1982. You may want to separate wheats, canadians, and notably "brilliant" ones at this stage too. You may want to salvage one of the opened tubes and put the "Bu" cents there.

Pre-82s are copper, post-82s are zinc. 1982s are a mix. There's a number of ways to separate them. I use a cheap balance beam scale. I compare each one to another non-82 cent. You can also drop each on a hard object or tap them with another coin. You can tell from the sound. Tap an '81 then a '83. You can hear it. Under magnification, you'll notice many differences on the surfaces of an '81 and an '83. Same holds true for '82 zincs and coppers. Zinc's look uglier under magnification, particularly the first few years.

One thing I'd recommend when your 'hoard' starts getting large enough, go to a dealer and buy 100 plastic coin tubes, along with the cardboard box. This is when it gets fun. Go back to your jars and sort them by decade, take each decade and sort them further by year. Each year gets its own tube. Buy some round labels from Staples that fit on the top of the tubes, to fill out the year. This makes for a nice organized hoard.

When a tube gets close to full, go through it again, and separate the year by mint mark. Those get there own labeled tube. At some point you'll need two boxes of tubes to hold all the variables as this stage progresses.

Once a tube gets totally full. You have to decide what to do with the 'spillage'. If its clad (zinc) I re-roll throw a "z" on the tube and dump it on a bank. (Don't dump where your getting them). If its copper, I toss them in a sack at the back of the closet.

It's a ton of fun. Once I assembled my rolls I went through them pulling out the best specimen from each. Enclose it into a 2x2 holder and then into a binder.

For me, I went on to collect Bu rolls for each year and mint mark, reusing the tubes from my circulated collection. The old copper ones are in the sack with their mates. Circulated clad was cashed in. Tellers hate me.

Sorry for the long post, I actually logged on to ask a simple question, when I ran across this thread. Glad to see someone else getting bit by penny mania. Enjoy.

Good info Jaf. I did essentially the same thing with all my wheats. I'm also planning on going through some of them again to look for errors.

In regards to the price of the copper, I think the value of the older pennies will eventually be due to their rarity, and not so much to the price of copper. Right now it seems about 20% of cents in circulation are pre-1982. Though it may seem that many people are hoarding them, the people that post on coin forums and the like have to make up a very small portion of the population. Add to that the normal wearing out of these coins, and the majority of copper cents will wind up in the hands of a relative few. In a few years, the percentage may be down to 10%, or low enough that it's too difficult to collect sufficient quantities of pre-1982. The mint is currently researching replacement for the cupro-nickels currently produced. The eventual replacement in a few years will likely widen the public's knowledge of both "real" nickels and pennies. When the public catches on, that's when we'll see the real value of the pre-1982 cents.