One Year's Worth Of Finds

[Againstmywill]

I tend to save all my finds and put them on a tray until I have time to sort them. Last year it seemed like I had too little time to sort because the two trays hold a whole year's worth of junk, jewelry, and coins. I did have additional plastic bags partially filled so the trays wouldn't overflow too much. The box holds the change that came out of all that junk on the trays. There are no picks of the jewelry because I remove that as I come home after detecting. Just wanted to share with others new to the hobby so they know that there will be junk as well as awesome finds. I used to keep track of how much change I found on each hunt, but now I just take it in and cash it out for Amazon credit. So, I'm not sure how much the change is worth yet because I have yet to take it in.

[2Valen]

Now that is a lot of trash, but also a nice box of coins.

Good luck on this year.

[kac]

Good amount of clad change. Check through them carefully, separate the copper pennies from the zinc and look for 82 and especially 83's. Look for bad strikes and double strikes too. I use a small scale to find the coppers which weigh more than 3g.

[strick]

Wife brought in some spare change last weekend to the coin star...got home said guess how much? I said $80...she said nope $200 lol...did not seem that much to me..it adds up...

strick

[GB_Amateur]

I keep a log of all coin and jewelry finds, dates, locations, hours spent, temperature of the hunt, etc.  But I separate things out after each hunt.  Your one year collection is more impressive.  Do you separate out metals with cash-in potential?  I have buckets for both lead and copper.  (I get quite a bit of copper scrap and some lead, from construction and demolition.  Surprising to me how/why it wasn't snarfed up at the time.  I guess when you're making big bucks operating heavy equipment you can't be bothered with the little stuff.  Just goes to show how long it's been since the Great Depression.)

 

[GB_Amateur]

On 1/21/2020 at 10:14 AM, kac said:

...Look for 82 and especially 83's.  (pennies)

Care to explain why you've singled out those years?

 

[kac]

82 was the transitional years for copper pennies and 83's were very rare.

[GB_Amateur]

15 hours ago, kac said:

82 was the transitional years for copper pennies and 83's were very rare.

Ok, I see what you're referring to.  I elaborate:

In the eary part of 1982, US small cents ('pennies') were of the traditional 95% copper composition.  Traditionally, since 1864, pennies were composed of 95% copper with the remaining 5% tin and zinc.  Apparently the mint wasn't exactly specific as to how much tin and how much zinc.  Around 1962 (again, not very well documented) they did away with any tin and the remaining 5% was zinc.  As copper went up in value, in late 1982 rather than to do away with pennies (the US government remains stubborn, obstinate, and irrational on that subject still today), they changed the composition to zinc with a (thin) copper plating.  That transition occurred during 1982 and both compositions bear that date, in large quantities.  Obviously the intent was that any cents minted after 1982 would all have primarily zinc composition.  Apparently, as has happened previously (e.g. 1943 and 1944), a few of the earlier 95% copper composition planchets (blanks) slipped through the cracks.  As a result these very rare off-metal strikes dated 1983 (mostly 'plains' = no mintmark, minted in Philadelphia or West Point, but apparently at least one from the Denver mint) bring $ prices in the 4 digits, in some cases even 5 digits.  Likely that value will escalate as their popularity increases, assuming a horde isn't discovered.

As you mention, the 95% copper pennies weigh 3.1 grams while the (undeteriorated) zinc versions ("Zincolns") come in less, at 2.5 grams.  Unfortunately the easiest way to tell if a typical penny find is a Zincoln is to see if it has badly deteriorated from galvanic corrosion.  Based upon the many Zincolns I've found, my guess is that it only takes a few years for a zinc penny to show signs of this deterioration.  But short of looking at the dates, the weight difference is a great discriminator.  (Oh, and so is a metal detector TID signal!)