Transcription
I need you to do something before this video is over. Go grab a handful of pennies. Doesn't matter where from — your change jar, your drawer, your kid's piggy bank. Just grab some.
Because in 1982 and 1983, the U.S. Mint made two of the biggest mistakes in modern American coinage. And the coins that came out of those mistakes? They look exactly like every other penny you've ever seen. But they're not. One of them sold for $10,800 at Heritage Auctions. Another one sold for $23,500. And the only way to find them — the only way — is with a scale.
So here's what we're doing today. I'm going to show you exactly what you're looking for, exactly how to check, and exactly what these coins are worth based on real auction results. Let's get into it.
Let me give you a little background, because it matters. From 1909 all the way to 1982, Lincoln cents were made from bronze — 95% copper, 5% zinc. Heavy, warm-colored, and worth more than face value in raw metal alone. But copper got expensive. So in 1982, the Mint made a switch. They moved to copper-plated zinc — a zinc core with a thin copper coating. Much cheaper to produce. The problem? They made BOTH compositions in 1982. And they made both in Philadelphia AND Denver. And they made both with two different date styles — Large Date and Small Date. That gives you seven different varieties from a single year. Seven. For a penny that most people throw in a dish by the front door.
Now — most of those seven varieties are worth a few bucks. Interesting, but nothing crazy. One of them is different. The 1982 Philadelphia Small Date bronze cent is the coin that most collectors know about. It's genuinely rare — and in high grades, it commands serious money. This one — graded MS67+ Red by PCGS — is the finest certified Small Date example known.
HERITAGE AUCTIONS — 1982 Bronze Cent, MS67+ RD — SOLD: $9,987.50 — Feb 27, 2014
Nearly ten thousand dollars. For a penny from 1982.
Now — how do you know if you have a bronze 1982 versus a zinc one? You weigh it. A bronze 1982 penny weighs 3.1 grams. A zinc one weighs 2.5 grams. That's a difference you can measure with a ten-dollar postal scale or a jewelry scale. If your 1982 penny tips the scale at 3.1 grams — you need to look closer.
Two pennies. Both look normal. Both dated within a year of each other. One came from a coin roll, the other came from a change jar just like yours. Together they've sold for over thirty thousand dollars at auction. Stay with me — because by the end of this video, you'll know exactly how to find out if you're holding one.
This is where it gets interesting. For years, collectors suspected there might be a Small Date bronze cent from the Denver Mint. But nobody had confirmed one. Then in November 2016, a collector named Paul Malone sat down with a 5,000-piece bag of pennies from a local bank. Instead of looking at them — he weighed them. Every single one. And he found it. The 1982-D Small Date bronze cent. The Discovery Coin. Graded AU58 by NGC. The first confirmed example ever found. It went to auction in 2017 at Stack's Bowers. And it happened again in 2019 at Heritage Auctions.
HERITAGE AUCTIONS — 1982-D Small Date Bronze, NGC AU58 BN — SOLD: $8,400 — Sep 6, 2019
Eight thousand four hundred dollars. Found in a bag of bank rolls. With a scale. A second example in the same grade came up at Heritage Auctions the same year.
HERITAGE AUCTIONS — 1982-D Small Date Bronze, NGC AU58 BN — SOLD: $10,800 — Apr 25, 2019
Ten thousand eight hundred dollars. Two coins. Same year. Same grade. Both found by people who weighed their pennies. You now understand why I told you to grab a handful at the start of this video.
TRANSITION — INTO 1983
Now. 1982 was the transition year. By 1983, the switch was supposed to be complete. Every cent struck in 1983 was supposed to be copper-plated zinc. Supposed to be. A small number of copper planchets — leftover bronze from before the switch — found their way into the 1983 production run. The theory is they were lodged in a Mint bin, freed during operations, and got struck alongside the zinc planchets. Nobody caught it. And those coins — looking for all the world like ordinary 1983 pennies — went out into circulation.
Here's one of them. Graded MS63 Red and Brown by PCGS. Struck on a copper planchet — 3.05 grams when everything coming out of that mint in 1983 should weigh 2.5. Described by Heritage Auctions as a transitional alloy mint error — reminiscent of the famous 1943 copper cent. That's not a casual comparison. The 1943 copper cent is one of the most valuable coins in American history.
HERITAGE AUCTIONS — 1983 Bronze Cent, PCGS MS63 RB — SOLD: $18,800 — Apr 24, 2014
Eighteen thousand eight hundred dollars. For a penny dated 1983. A penny that looks completely normal.
And then there's this one. Same error. Same year. Different example. Graded MS62 Red and Brown by PCGS. 3.05 grams. Struck on a copper planchet in a year when that simply was not supposed to happen. Heritage Auctions noted at the time of sale that they had seen just a handful of coins with this error. That's not marketing language. These are genuinely rare.
HERITAGE AUCTIONS — 1983 Bronze Cent, PCGS MS62 RB — SOLD: $23,500 — Dec 6, 2013
Twenty-three thousand five hundred dollars. For a penny. A penny that came out of circulation. That looked like every other 1983 cent. That someone almost spent. The only thing that separated this coin from the ones that DID get spent? Someone weighed it.
So here's what you do right now. Pull your change jar. Pull your coin rolls. Look for 1982 Denver minted small date coins and all 1983 pennies. Put them on a scale. 3.1 grams means bronze. 2.5 grams means zinc. If you get a 3.1 gram reading on a 1983 penny — or a 3.1 gram 1982-Denver minted Small Date — do not spend it. Do not clean it. Get it to a PCGS or NGC authorized dealer and get it authenticated. Because based on what we just saw from Heritage Auctions? You might be holding something worth more than your car.
All the auction data in this video comes straight from Heritage Auctions. Links in the description. If you found this video useful — there's a whole series on pennies right here on this channel. The rabbit hole goes deep. Thanks for watching.