Are pennies before 1982 worth more?

So for the past 30 years, pennies have been made with an alloy comprised of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper, but pennies minted before 1982 are 95% copper and 5% zinc. The price of copper has more than quadrupled over the past 10 years. So a penny produced before 1982 is worth 2.2 cents based on the metal it contains.

Is it worth saving pre 1982 pennies?

It turns out all pennies with a date of 1981 or earlier were made from nearly pure copper, which means they are actually worth three times their face value - three cents.

What year pennies are worth saving?

Lincoln pennies that were minted between 1959 and 1982 tend to be worth more since they are almost 100 percent copper, rather than an alloy. Improperly prepared dies can result in coins with a "double" image.

What is the difference between pre 1982 pennies and post-1982 pennies?

Pre-1982 pennies contain a much greater percentage of copper. Post-1982 pennies are mostly zinc.

What year penny is worth $1000000?

Here's a rare 1943 Lincoln penny: The coin was mistakenly struck in bronze rather than zinc-coated steel, one has just sold for $1 million.

Why you should save Pre 1982 pennies! There worth more then a Penny

What is the Holy Grail penny?

Source: slgckgc via Flickr (Modified) This holy grail penny is a copper penny from 1943. That might sound normal to some, but the U.S. didn't make pennies out of copper in 1943. Instead, they were made out of steel coated in zinc. This was due to copper being used for other purposes during World War II.

Why is a 1982 penny worth $10000?

So for the past 30 years, pennies have been made with an alloy comprised of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper, but pennies minted before 1982 are 95% copper and 5% zinc. The price of copper has more than quadrupled over the past 10 years.

Which pennies are worth keeping?

Are all pre 1982 pennies copper?

If your Lincoln Memorial penny has a date before 1982, it is made of 95% copper. If the date is 1983 or later, it is made of 97.5% zinc and plated with a thin copper coating. For pennies dated 1982, when both copper and zinc cents were made, and best way to determine their composition is to weigh them.

How rare is a 1992 Close AM penny?

The 1992 Close AM examples struck at the Denver Mint are also considered very scarce and there is only about a dozen examples known for this variety.

Are any pennies from 1980 worth money?

1980 D Penny Value

In lower mint state grades, the value is comparable to unmarked cents. At MS63, a red cent is worth about $5, and at MS65 it will be worth around $15. There's a slight premium at MS67, where a Denver red cent will be worth about $225, compared to $187 for one without a mint mark.

What makes a 1999 penny valuable?

It's from 1999 and could be worth $4,500 thanks to a little-known error on it. What you want to look for is a 1999 penny with no mint mark, which means no letter under the year on the heads side.

Why is a 1982 D penny rare?

In October 1982, the Denver mint began making the coins with a smaller date. Remember, the Denver mint struck 6,012,979,368 pieces. The number includes both copper and zinc pennies. So, such large numbers made these 1982 pennies have a low market value.

How rare is a 1982 small date copper penny?

The 1982-P Small Date copper Lincoln cent is one of the most difficult memorial cents to find in high grade condition. They are scarce even in MS64 and MS65 grades. It is one of the most difficult varieties to find in high grade out of all seven different varieties of this date.

What year penny is worth the most?

The Most Expensive Penny

Just 40 of the coins — probably created by accident, on copper-alloy one-cent blanks left in the presses in the wartime years when pennies were converted to steel — are known to exist. The first 1943 copper cent was sold in 1958 for more than $40,000.

Should I keep copper pennies?

Why should I save Copper Alloy cents/pennies? Some 1982 and all prior years are made with 95% copper. With copper at historic high prices, each of these coins are worth much more in actual metal content, than their face value.

How much is 10 lbs of copper pennies worth?

One modern US penny weighs 0.088 ounces. That means it would take approximately 1,818 pennies to weigh 10 pounds, which would be worth 18 dollars and 18 cents.

Are pre-1982 pennies heavier?

There are several ways to distinguish between old and new pennies. A post-1982 penny has a mass of 2.5 grams, while the pre- 1982 pennies have a mass of 3.1 grams.

What are the 15 most valuable pennies?

What pennies are worth more than $1000?

If you find a 1909 penny with an S on the front and the letters VDB on the back at the bottom, it could be worth nearly $1,000. We asked Matthew Duncan at U.S. Coins to take a look. "What we have here is a 1909 P, no VDB," said Duncan.

What's special about the 2009 penny?

In 2009, the U.S. Mint made four special penny designs to celebrate Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. It was also the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln penny, which the Mint first made in 1909. The image of Lincoln remained on the obverse (heads) of all four cents in the new program.

Why is the 1983 penny worth so much?

According to CNBC's Make It, the US made 7.7 billion pennies in 1983, but only about 5,000 are known to have this doubling error — making them valuable to those who find one in their possession.

Are 1983 pennies rare?

The U.S. made about 7.7 billion pennies in 1983, but only about 5,000 of them are known to have been made with this doubling error, James McCartney, director of numismatics at Stack's Bowers Galleries, tells CNBC Make It. The rarity of these misprinted pennies are what make them more valuable than ordinary pennies.

What is the error on a 1982 copper penny?

The most valuable 1982 penny is a transitional error caused by the move from 95% copper to 99.2% zinc composition. It's the 1982-D "small date" Lincoln Memorial cent made from copper. There wasn't supposed to be any "small date" bronze Lincoln cents struck in Denver in 1982.