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totalcount
Penny Sorter Member
USA
77 Posts |
 Posted - 11/06/2009 : 19:40:49
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Sorting pennies by hand can be pretty time consuming. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could speed up sorting by entirely skipping rolls that no copper pennies, or even just a couple. I have a scale that can measure grams (but not fractions of grams, so these are rough estimates) I took a single box of 50 rolls and weighed each roll individually, then when I was done, I weighed the paper penny wrappers.
In the end, I didn't find it to be very useful, most of the rolls were right up around the average. The lightest roll I estimate had 5 coppers. Even if I had skipped that one, I doubt it would have made up for the extra time I took weighing them.
If you're interested, here is what I found:
The rolls weighted 6,691 grams total
Of that, 51 grams where the penny wrapper paper
On average each roll weighed about 134 grams, or 133 subtracting out the paper.
50 zinc pennies weigh 125 grams
50 copper pennies weigh 155 grams
A copper penny weighs .6 grams more than a zinc penny
On average, that means there were:
133g-125g = 8g
8/.6 = 13.33 copper pennies per roll
By my estimate, there were 666 copper pennies in the box equalling 4.3 pounds. (but some pennies were crusty and had extra stuff sticking to them and, the scale didn't do fractional grams, so it was really fewer than that.)
The following stats exclude the 1 g of paper wrapper
* The lightest roll was 128g, there was one of them
* One roll weighed 137 grams, it was the heaviest.
* Half the rolls weighed either 133 or 134g
Almost entirely useless, but somewhat interesting.
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bman
Penny Collector Member
USA
425 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2009 : 20:12:21
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I usually weigh my rolls and sort them by weight...I open the lightest rolls first so I can cash in the zincs for more rolls.
I also use the scale to tell when my coin tube is full before I roll my coppers, I don't trust the marks on the side of the tubes. |
check out my coins for sale on ecrater : http://bmanscoinsforsale.ecrater.com/ |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2009 : 02:03:36
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If a roll is all zinc it will weigh about 126 grams with the paper on. We used to check roll weights prior to opening them back when there were a lot of dud boxes going around. If you have a bigger scale.. a solid zinc box with box and paper will weigh 14.1 lbs and a solid copper box will weigh 17.1 pounds.  |
If your percentages are low.. just sort more. If your percentages are high.. just sort more.
Now selling Copper pennies. 1.6x plus shipping. Limited amounts available. |
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totalcount
Penny Sorter Member
USA
77 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2009 : 19:17:55
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quote:
Originally posted by bman
I usually weigh my rolls and sort them by weight...I open the lightest rolls first so I can cash in the zincs for more rolls.
Interesting, exact opposite strategy, but the same result, returning the zincs quickly. I was thinking about not even bothering with the rolls that only had a couple of copper pennies in them, but the distribution was evener than I thought it would be.
Do you find many rolls that are significantly lighter than average in a box? |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2009 : 21:03:25
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| horgad used to weigh all his incoming unsorted boxes and write the weight on the box. By sorting the lightest boxes first he was able to cycle more of his capital faster. If you have to hold some back it makes sense to hold back that heaviest boxes since sorting them will yeild less capital. Ideally, you would sort all of your incoming boxes quickly and not have to worry about this. The distribution is roughly even for a given area if you aren't getting duds, so there is not much to be gained by tying up your time weighing the rolls or boxes. Spend the time sorting and get that capital freed up. |
If your percentages are low.. just sort more. If your percentages are high.. just sort more.
Now selling Copper pennies. 1.6x plus shipping. Limited amounts available. |
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PreservingThePast
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1572 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2009 : 07:41:35
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quote:
Originally posted by totalcount
quote:
Originally posted by bman
I usually weigh my rolls and sort them by weight...I open the lightest rolls first so I can cash in the zincs for more rolls.
Interesting, exact opposite strategy, but the same result, returning the zincs quickly. I was thinking about not even bothering with the rolls that only had a couple of copper pennies in them, but the distribution was evener than I thought it would be.
Do you find many rolls that are significantly lighter than average in a box?
Gosh, you could be missing out on all sorts of treasures if you don't search the rolls. You never know what could be lurking inside that penny wrapper! Be it, copper or zinc!
Enjoy your searches, everyone.  |
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Weighing penny rolls
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