Copper pennies value
taxbuster1040
Posts: 343 ✭✭✭
I see that pre1982 pennies are now approaching 3 cents. At what price for copper might it pay to turn in copper pennies melt? Any guesses?
1
Comments
it is illegal to melt pennies and nickels
If you had 10 bags of 5000 each,
50,000 coins, that you paid face value of $500 for, plus your time and effort accumulating and storing them, and the opportunity cost of spending your time and money moving pennies around and separating them and washing your hands ... how would you propose to go about selling them and to whom and for how much?
And what will the buyer do with them? Melt and refine the 95% copper to purity?
When the answers to these questions make sense, that's when it will make sense, it will happen. I think the number to melt is a lot higher than 3 cents each.
Plenty of people are putting Gresham's law to work and saving them in coffee cans. Most likely, they'll end up in bags of 1000 and 5000 and sold for 3x face to the same consumers and collectors base that buys, collects, and stores pure copper bars and rounds.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Wow tough crowd... Is the govt really going around putting people in jail for melting copper coins? I really just take the long view as I do with silver and gold. I see copper not so precious, but I have some clad part silver kennedy halves that seem to sell very nicely on ebay. To me, in 20 years, Is it so hard to believe copper might be at 10-15 cents a penny? I think that would justify holding the pennies and then selling them on ebay or anywhere else. By the way, why did the govt make it illegal to melt pennies but not silver and gold? I dont see a difference.
cost and what circulates.
it costs more to make a penny and nickel. if allowed, the mint fears people will just melt them as scrap. go to the bank to repeat. this would take cents and nickels from circulation and would require the mint to coin even more money losing cents and nickels to replace them.
silver and gold don't circulate and quarters up are money makers.
as a side note, war nickels are specifically exempt from the law and are allowed to be melted likely due to the low numers circulating.
I'm not sure about eBay. if I recall, at the peak the copper cents were being saved in numbers, however I don't think they were a hot flip. As more copper cents are extracted, and if copper continues to rise, perhaps copper cents will see a market like common wheats do.
Pennies are not worth the effort to save forever in Hope's of heading to scraper.
I just recycled 2 bags of crushed aluminum cans...the recycling center guy says we pay 40 cents a pound is that good?
I told him no it's not but we both know that.
I don't really make any money recycling cans (takes me about 6 month saving what I drink)
I was headed one block over to the plumbing store, so I multi tasked.
I ended up with $11.52 for 29 pounds.
Your time is worth more, you just have to figure out how.
Stick with silver and gold, find a side job or paying hobby and you'll be money ahead.
instead of copper pipe melt your pennies
get a mold that will give you an ingot that fits in a small flat rate box and you can get probably twice melt value for said ingots
illegal to melt pennies
, central banks are printing trillions of digital dollars but the peons don't get to melt pennies . 
do what thou wilt is and always has been the law in financial circles observe the bankers and act accordingly
Do not take the pennies to a refinery as they will do nothing for you but respond like the people here.
Buy yourself a home forge and you can make your own ingots... Mix in some copper wire and some copper pipe...
Just keep a proper P&L and make sure it is worth the time you use. I sort pennies when I watch TV or am just bullshitting around the house.
Its fun and the shiny copper ingots look good in the garage next to the aluminum ones. Hopefully the thieves stop in the garage and I do not have to waste ammunition on them... Ammunition is the stuff you should be hoarding. Getting expensive
Mexico and Canada will gladly melt your copper pennies if you so choose. RGDS!
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
also illegal to export for melting
.
You can melt Silver coins but not Copper. Seems odd. But of Government does odd things.
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btw I still save copper pennies from change.
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I have a lot of wheaties... a gallon jug, a couple of zip loc bags, a cigar box full...and a few piles around. I am not saving them for copper value.... Just need the time to search them - accumulated over many years. Cheers, RickO
This guy points out a law that says you can melt pennies for art purposes as long as you aren’t selling or profiting from it.
That being said I have a few art projects I can think of to put to good use these pre-82s ... cameo portraits, statues, busts all marked coin bronze
Then when the penny becomes obsolete (as is the case in Canada) I can sell my masterpieces if I so choose - shall I earmark anyone for a lukemarshall original?
It's all about what the people want...
you can make some chinese spade money and some knife money.
Yes, I also had the idea of the “old west” ingots that had the fineness and dollar amount on them.
It's all about what the people want...
100 cents can be $1's worth of copper that's not worth a dollar.
somewhere in there is an idea. perhaps you can make something of it.
I'll add: hmmmm wagon wheel.... bull skull .... long horns ... hmmmm
The cents in trash cans photo is good right about now.
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https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/819143/my-wheat-cents-hoard
50c Copper Cent rolls now are worth $1.50 in Copper.
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Copper is the real gutter metal
ISO 1978 Topps Baseball in NM-MT High Grade Raw 3, 100, 103, 302, 347, 376, 416, 466, 481, 487, 509, 534, 540, 554, 579, 580, 622, 642, 673, 724__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ISO 1978 O-Pee-Chee in NM-MT High Grade Raw12, 21, 29, 38, 49, 65, 69, 73, 74, 81, 95, 100, 104, 110, 115, 122, 132, 133, 135, 140, 142, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 167, 168, 172, 179, 181, 196, 200, 204, 210, 224, 231, 240
Okay, I just made a purchase of $200 face value pre-82 US cents for about 2x face
Coinflation is showing there melt value is currently around 3c per coin so in you opinion did I...
A. Do good at purchasing Coin Bronze at 33% under spot!
Or
B. Are a sucker who paid 2c for a coin that spends for 1c
C. (Your opinion here)
It's all about what the people want...
C) Depends on the cost of melting the pennies into a bar and the amount you will be paid for a home-poured bar of adulterated copper
How much will it cost to refine it into pure copper?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Not looking to sell until said melt becomes unadulterated
It's all about what the people want...
No idea - a few videos where people melt the zinc core out of post-1982 pennies. Acids? Electrolysis? I used copper to get silver out of solution back in college, but my chemistry classes ended shortly thereafter...
Canada pulled the 53-81 nickels over many years. US pulled pre 82 copper & pre 65 silver out also. We are a little late.