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    What Makes the 1982 Small Date Cent Rare?

    Why Is the 1982 Small Date Cent Rare?

    If you hang around precious metals people or numismatists, you’ll likely hear discussion about the 1982 penny. The admiration and reverence that you’ll hear might be surprising.

    After all, the penny is the most maligned coin of the American currency system. There have been many prominent calls to remove the 1-cent piece from circulation over the years. So, it doesn’t make immediate sense that a penny would catch the eye of coin collectors and precious metals investors.

    However, the 1982-D copper penny deserves its accolades and respect. So, let’s discuss this coin, its value, the reasons for its value, and how you might want to take a closer look at the forgotten pennies in your pocket.

    Key attributes for the 1982-D copper cent

    The 1982-D copper penny results from a transitional period in its minting. Pennies were mostly copper from their inception until 1982. However, the rising price of copper caused the US Mint to switch the penny’s alloy dramatically.

    Instead of minting them in bronze, with 95% copper and the rest a mixture of zinc and tin, the Mint began producing copper-clad pennies made of zinc. In essence, they flipped the alloy percentage on its head.

    However, the metal content of these pennies is only the tip of the iceberg to understanding their value. Let’s talk about the other attributes that make this coin almost one-of-a-kind.

    Limited production and error

    The US Mint has four minting locations in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver, and West Point. Only two of these locations – Philadelphia and Denver – primarily produce pennies, and the subject penny is one of the Denver products.

    So, during the transition from bronze to zinc-heavy pennies, the Mint discovered that its dies were struggling to press the existing Lincoln penny design into the new planchets. In response, the Mint adjusted its dies to produce sharper detail than before.

    Pennies minted with the new dies were quickly nicknamed “small date” pennies because their date marks appeared significantly smaller than pennies minted with the original design dies. Thus, 1982 pennies are subdivided into Large Date and Small Date varieties by collectors.

    As a general rule, 1982 Large Date pennies are made of copper and do command a dollar or two from collectors, as they are some of the “old-style” pennies. The new pennies are therefore Small Date pennies and are likely worth little more than their face value.

    However, Mint employees at both Philadelphia and Denver made an impactful error as they were pressing the new pennies with the new style dies. A very few of the old copper planchets made it into the production line and out into the public, thus creating the Small Date copper penny.

    The transitional errors that created these rare coins are quite similar to those that created the vaunted 1943 copper pennies. The Mint largely issued steel-based cents in 1943 after Congress ordered the redirection of copper to the war effort.

    However, a few 1943 pennies managed to be stamped on leftover copper planchets, creating a now-valuable transitional alloy error. There are only 40 of these pennies that are known to exist, and investors have paid as much $82,500 for one of them.

    Extreme rarity

    Both varieties of 1982 Small Date copper pennies are extremely rare and valuable. 1982-P Small Date pennies – produced in Philadelphia – are quite rare in their own right. Top-graded specimens have sold for thousands of dollars, and even lower-tier uncirculated versions can cost more than $100 to buy.

    However, the 1982-D Small Date pennies are one of the rarest American coins in all of numismatics. Only two are known to exist.

    Characteristics

    There are four different characteristics that these rarest of pennies exhibit. Needless to say, many hopeful investors have endeavored to find all four of these elements present on their pennies, but only two have found success.

    Here are the four distinguishing characteristics of these rarest of coins:

    • Date: The first and most obvious thing to check is the date stamped on the penny. If it’s not a 1982 penny, then it’s time to move on.
    • Font size: The font size of the desired penny will be smaller than the large print on other copper pennies. The way to tell the difference is to look at the “82” portion of the date stamp. Large date pennies have two equal loops for their 8s, and the diagonals on their 2s are straight. By contrast, small date pennies have noticeably smaller upper loops on their 8s, and the diagonals on their 2s are curved.
    • Mint mark: Once you’ve confirmed the date and font size, you should look for the mint mark. The letter you want to see is a D, signifying that the Denver Mint is the origin of the coin. Any penny missing the D mark is a product of the Philadelphia mint, and although – as we mentioned – these pennies can be quite valuable in their own right, they are not the rarest versions.
    • Weight: Finally, you have to confirm that your small date penny is not one of the copper-clad zinc pennies. Unfortunately, the only way to do that is to use a scale, as copper is heavier than zinc. So, the weight you want to see is 3.11 grams. By contrast, zinc-heavy pennies will weigh only 2.5 grams.

    Mass production of other varieties

    Understand that these two pennies are the tiniest needles in the haystack, even among 1982 pennies. The Mint issued seven different varieties of pennies during the year in question – one of the largest single-year mintages of pennies in our nation’s history.

    Between the Philadelphia, Denver, and, to a much smaller degree, West Point facilities, the Mint produced nearly 17 billion – with a B – pennies. Even if you find a 1982 penny with the D mint mark, know that it is one of more than 6 billion – the number produced by the Denver mint alone.

    So, even though four characteristics seems to be a small set of hurdles to overcome, be prepared to find a ton of false positives. If your penny does not satisfy all four characteristics, it is not the subject penny of this page.

    What is the 1982-D Small Date copper cent worth?

    We know about the presence of these pennies primarily because of their appearance at auctions. There have been four auctions, but only two coins between them, so there are two of these pennies known to exist – that’s it. Here’s a look at those auctions.

    Variety Condition Approximate Value
    1982-D Small Date copper penny (Malone) AU-58 $18,800
    1982-D Small Date copper penny AU-58 $10,800

    Zinc vs. Copper cent: key differences

    Determining if you have a copper penny versus a copper-clad zinc penny can be difficult. Although there are some different chemical and physical tests that you can undertake, they are likely both to destroy the coin itself and to be dangerous to the untrained. So, let’s talk about the more superficial aspects to examine when you’re trying to tell the difference.

    Color

    Copper has a distinctive reddish-brown color, while zinc is a whitish metal with a slight tinge of blue. However, because pennies are either copper or copper-clad, it may be difficult to tell them apart. A zinc penny may look slightly shinier, but this color difference is not definitive.

    Texture

    Because of the Mint’s difficulty stamping the large date design onto the new zinc pennies, it began to use the smaller date dies. The resulting stamp typically yielded a penny with sharper features and deeper reliefs – the stamped portions of the penny. However, wear and tear on either type could result in a penny with an indeterminate texture, so don’t assume necessarily one way or the other.

    Edge appearance

    Unlike some other American coinage, there is no appreciable difference between the edges on copper and zinc pennies. Both of them have smooth edges without dimples or other designs.

    Date size

    As a general rule, the sizes of the dates are rough separations between the copper and zinc pennies. All zinc pennies have the small date marks, bar none. Almost all of the copper pennies have the large date marks. The reason for this page is to discuss the few copper pennies that do not have large date marks.

    Weight

    The most definitive way to detect a zinc penny or a copper penny is their weight. Zinc is a less dense metal than copper, so zinc pennies weigh 0.61 grams less than copper pennies. You may be able to tell the difference between the two if you have sensitive hands, but the foolproof method is to use a scale. No zinc pennies ever exceed 3 grams, so a penny that does is absolutely a copper one.

    Other errors in the 1982 penny besides the small date

    Though the small date transitional alloy error is the big deal, there are some other known errors in 1982 pennies that may increase their value. Don’t expect to pull the same levels of money as the pennies described above, but finding one of these errors can result in a very nice premium above the one-cent face value.

    Doubled die

    Some 1982 pennies suffer from a double die error, where a worn die is misaligned and stamps a portion of the coin with a doubled image. Common errors of this type on the 1982 pennies include a doubling in the lettering on both sides of the coin.

    There may also be some extra imaging around Pres. Lincoln’s ear. The value of coins with this error depends on the coin’s condition and grade, but they are usually worth between $150 and $200.

    Occluded gas bubbles

    Minting a coin requires tremendous pressure, and that pressure can generate significant amounts of heat as it stamps a design into a planchet. Sometimes, the heat can create small pockets of air beneath the surface of the coin.

    A few 1982 pennies suffer from this condition. If you have one, it might be worth $35 – $40 to you.

    Off-center strike

    These errors are probably the most obvious. If a die is misaligned or the planchet is not sitting in the proper location, the strike may put the coin’s design noticeably off-target.

    Because these types of errors are so desirable to collectors, due to their fascinating obviousness, they can command decent money from other collectors. Depending on the degree of the error and the condition of the penny, you could reasonably expect to sell it for anywhere between $90 and $120.

    Other articles of interest:

    Conclusion

    Certain versions of the 1982 penny are quite valuable due to their rarity and history. The most expensive of the group are the 1982-D small date copper pennies.

    Because the Mint created these in error during an alloy transition, they are quite rare. Only two are known to exist.

    However, that doesn’t mean that the number has to remain at two. Both coins were discovered in the 2010s, and there’s no reason that others might not be found at some point.

    All Market Updates are provided as a third party analysis and do not necessarily reflect the explicit views of JM Bullion Inc. and should not be construed as financial advice.