Nice bag I got last Thursday
Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 11:57 pmI just finished hand sorting a bag I got last Thursday after work. I looked it over before opening and quickly noticed two dimes, a few Canadian cents and a lot of shiny looking coins so I thought it would be about average 24-26% copper. I open it up and start sorting and I am finding huge amounts of copper and all the shiny red coins are 1980, 1981 and earlier. I am pulling about 85% copper with about as many Canadian cents as zinc cents. I start sorting the AU - BU copper cents from the other copper. There are a very few 1982 and most every one of them was copper. Near the end of the bag the percentages go down a little but my final counts are as follows
3824 copper memorial cents (10 S mint marks, ~785 in AU to BU condition)
5 wheat ear cents
931 zinc cents
239 Canadian cents (238 pre 1982 and 1-1985, 2 -George VI, 1-1971 clipped at about 1o'clock position)
2 US clad dimes
5001 total coins (81.3% Cu)
I was a little disappointed by the number of wheat cents but very happy about the amount of copper. It seems to me that somone knew to save the copper when the composition changed in 1982 and put them away and somebody recently found them and dumped them at the bank. They also must have pulled the wheats and S-mint marks. I think the clad was the beginning or end of a bag from another dumper. When I picked up the bag they indicated they had another one available but I did not have enough cash at the time. I went back on Monday with the cash to pick up the other bag but have not had a chance to look in to it yet, from the outside it does not look as promising.
The coppers are on the right of the table in stacks and on the left forground face up. There are two seperate piles of copper on the right and left side. The smaller piles are the AU-BU as you can see. The zinc is the small stacks in the middle and the Canadian are the stacks on the upper right. That is about the relative amounts in a half of the white and green cup full of cents.
I think I will be spoiled by that one.
MUTiger
3824 copper memorial cents (10 S mint marks, ~785 in AU to BU condition)
5 wheat ear cents
931 zinc cents
239 Canadian cents (238 pre 1982 and 1-1985, 2 -George VI, 1-1971 clipped at about 1o'clock position)
2 US clad dimes
5001 total coins (81.3% Cu)
I was a little disappointed by the number of wheat cents but very happy about the amount of copper. It seems to me that somone knew to save the copper when the composition changed in 1982 and put them away and somebody recently found them and dumped them at the bank. They also must have pulled the wheats and S-mint marks. I think the clad was the beginning or end of a bag from another dumper. When I picked up the bag they indicated they had another one available but I did not have enough cash at the time. I went back on Monday with the cash to pick up the other bag but have not had a chance to look in to it yet, from the outside it does not look as promising.
- My sorting table
- Penny Table.jpg (101.88 KiB) Viewed 719 times
The coppers are on the right of the table in stacks and on the left forground face up. There are two seperate piles of copper on the right and left side. The smaller piles are the AU-BU as you can see. The zinc is the small stacks in the middle and the Canadian are the stacks on the upper right. That is about the relative amounts in a half of the white and green cup full of cents.
I think I will be spoiled by that one.
MUTiger