Is it my imagination, or has the ratio

[Robert]

of "copper" cents to "zinc" cents gone way down?

[Bob P]

I don't quite know what your getting at Robert. Which ratio are you talking about? Maybe the amount of copper coins in circulation versus the zinc ones?

[coppercoins]

Exactly what he's talking about from the way I read it...that the number of copper cents has declined drastically.

As with any other coin series, as the copper Lincolns get older we can expect to see fewer of them in circulation. This is helped in this particular case by some rather unique things:

1. Copper has gone way up in value, to the point that it is possible that people are hoarding them for melt.

2. People continue to see the cent as valueless, and once in hand go in the closet never to see the light of day again. Coinstar like machines have knocked this down a little, but I would be willing to bet that millions upon millions of dollars worth of cents are out of circulation in water jugs, pickel barrels, sock drawers and similar places. A vast majority of these would be copper cents.

3. Not so unusual is that the newer cents, being zinc, are simply overpopulating circulation. Copper cents haven't been made for 24 years now. Since then, an average of ten billion cents have been poured into commerce annually. This means that within the next year or two we will hit a quarter trillion zinc cents minted. That's more than double the total of all copper based Lincolns made. Doesn't take much to figure they would far outnumber the copper ones, especially considering a third of the copper ones have a different reverse and are summarily pulled from circulation even by the least experienced coin hounds.

P.S. Paused to do the math....from 1983 to 2004 the total mintage of cents slightly exceeds 240,450,000,000. This is a hundred billion more than the total 22-plus year mintage of copper memorial cents, which rests slightly above 139,875,000,000. I neglected to include 1982 figures into either of the totals because nobody knows exactly how many of the record 16.7 billion cents minted that year were copper or zinc.

What this means...even if all the copper and zinc memorial cents made were still in circulation we would find an average of 6 zinc cents for every 4 copper memorial cents. Take away from that the fact that bag and roll hoarding were rampant for the first ten years of memorial cent production, along with the fact that they are simply - well, old - we could probably safely assume a 4 to 1 ratio, zinc to copper.

Robert: How about this...keep track for a month and see what happens. Just count the total you receive in change and let us know. I'll do the same and we'll compare notes.

Anyone else want to join in? ONLY count the ones you receive in change for good purchased...grocery store, gas, whatever. Don't count rolls purchased at the bank, coins dug out of your closet, etc. I would think over a month's time this would provide a decent sampling of coins available in late 2006.

[coppercoins]

Oh...to add, 1982P minted cents hold the record for the most minted of any coin ever in a single facility in a single year...10,712,525,000. 2000D holds the second place spot with 8,774,220,000.

To put things into perspective, these two figures singly are more than ten times the total production of Morgan silver dollars throughout their entire 43 year history. Together they are more than ten times the total number of dollar coins made in U.S. history.

That's ten times as many cents minted in a single facility in two different years than the sum total of all dollar coins minted in U.S. history.

And we've had trouble locating enough cents for commerce at times over the past ten years.

[Dick]

Gentlemen, there is NO argument! Tthe zinc have taken over! I just received a jar full of "change" Mostly cents. It was most obvious that the "junk" being made now days is much more avaliable, and worth(less). Just separating by the 1981 cut-off, and eliminating the 1982, entirely, the last few years, (2000 on ) outnumber the "copper", almost three to one. Disgusting. We used to have real money, and now, junk! I thought when Mexico went to junk metals for their coinage, it was ridiculus, and because they are several decades behind us. Not so any more. We have joined them! Is it "progress, or retrograde"? In disgust, Dick

[Robert]

Bob and Chuck... that's exactly the gist of my question.

Those mintage numbers are amazing. I'm not sure if 2.75 x face is enough to make sorting them economically viable at this time.