Copper is the poor man's silver. Are you hoarding yet?
terribleredmonster
Posts: 456 ✭
With the price of copper floating right around $3/lb I thought I'd take a shot at rifling through a $25 box of cents and see what I come up with. I ripped through it in a hurry, paying no mind to possible varieties and such. I pulled only the copper and BU 2009 Lincolns (for later examination). This particular box yielded well over five pounds of copper including 11 wheat cents (nothing special, of course).
It took me a little less than an hour to separate the copper. There are roughly 146 copper cents in a pound. Basically, if you have a scrap buyer that's willing to accept copper cents (I do) and you have the time and inclination to cycle through massive amounts of coins, you can just about double your money right now.
It seems a bit silly to some folks and sometimes I even wonder what the hell I'm doing, but then I just think about how my grand dad started stock piling circulated 90% in 1963. People may have thought the same thing about that practice at the time, but it was smart enough that my grandmother is still reaping the benefits from it (why they didn't sell every last ounce in 1980 I'll never know). I don't think copper will ever perform like silver (if it does I think we're all looking at big problems), but it seems like it's already worth holding on to.
I've got about 100 lbs of copper including cents and small scrap. I started (seriously) pulling the pile together this month. What are you holding?
It took me a little less than an hour to separate the copper. There are roughly 146 copper cents in a pound. Basically, if you have a scrap buyer that's willing to accept copper cents (I do) and you have the time and inclination to cycle through massive amounts of coins, you can just about double your money right now.
It seems a bit silly to some folks and sometimes I even wonder what the hell I'm doing, but then I just think about how my grand dad started stock piling circulated 90% in 1963. People may have thought the same thing about that practice at the time, but it was smart enough that my grandmother is still reaping the benefits from it (why they didn't sell every last ounce in 1980 I'll never know). I don't think copper will ever perform like silver (if it does I think we're all looking at big problems), but it seems like it's already worth holding on to.
I've got about 100 lbs of copper including cents and small scrap. I started (seriously) pulling the pile together this month. What are you holding?
"YOU SUCK!" Awarded by nankraut/renomedphys 6/13/13 - MadMarty dissents
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It's against the law to melt copper cents for scrap, or to export them for the same reason. But that doesn't mean much to some people, and it can't last forever.
Some will say that hoarded cents wisely invested will return much more than the copper ever will. I'm not sure that's accurate. It would cost you 1,000 cents to buy a share of stock at $10 per share. How long will it take you to make 100% on that investment? How much did that share of stock lose in the last 24 months?
Conversely, those 1,000 cents, were they all copper, would already be worth 100% more than their face value.
Which is the wiser investment?
Edited to give a thumbs-up to Crass
--Severian the Lame
<< <i>I don't actively scrounge copper, but I do go through my change every night and separate (and keep) the copper cents. Been doing it for many years. I think I have around 40 pounds.
It's against the law to melt copper cents for scrap, or to export them for the same reason. But that doesn't mean much to some people, and it can't last forever.
Some will say that hoarded cents wisely invested will return much more than the copper ever will. I'm not sure that's accurate. It would cost you 1,000 cents to buy a share of stock at $10 per share. How long will it take you to make 100% on that investment? How much did that share of stock lose in the last 24 months?
Conversely, those 1,000 cents, were they all copper, would already be worth 100% more than their face value.
Which is the wiser investment?
Edited to give a thumbs-up to Crass
You need to calculate the value of your time though Weiss. The OP stated it took him about an hour to pull close to 1,000 copper cents from a bank box. I dont know how you value your time, but I make over $35/hour for mine. If a person can get 1,000 wheat cents CONSITANTLY from $25 boxes (which is highly unlikely in itself), and averages 1 hour to seperate each box, and each copper cent yeilds a 100% return, we are talking about $10/hour, not including time to travel to/from the bank or time to reroll the zincs. Now throw in the expense of buying new paper rolls, and factor in that what you are doing is a federal crime, and that $10/hour just doesnt seem worthwhile. You yourself have said you have been seperating your pocket change for years and keeping the coppers seperate. You also stated you have around 40 pounds. At $3/pound, thats about $120 total worth of copper, or about $60 in profit after you deduct the face value from the group. This is after "many years" of going through your pocket change mind you. Just a very insignificant exercise if you ask my opinion.
2) Copper melts at a pretty low temperature. Less than, for example, the temperature that occurs before the catalyst on your average modern wood stove. Less than the temperature of the coal bed of a strong camp fire. Once it is molten its source is unidentifiable. You get my point.
3) As the price of copper rises and the intrinsic value of copper cents (and nickels as well, but those are beyond my scope for processing purposes if need be) becomes significant enough that they disappear from circulation altogether the law will be unenforceable. What I'm talking about here is by no means a short term play or a "flip." When my grand dad started pulling 90% from circulation you couldn't take it to a refiner. It was a smart play anyway as now it's not only legal, it's common.
If anyone is interested I'll get the attach the video and website.
*** Yes, I pull out pre 82 cents... don't know what I'll do with them though.
<< <i>1) I have a scrap guy that will take them. I realize that I'm in the minority here, but that's my good fortune. >>
I sure wouldn't be bragging about it on a public forum. I hope your local jail serves your favorite food. In my book, it's not worth the few hundred bucks that could be made.
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No one got rich on picking silver out of change in the 1970's unless they were stashing away thousands of dollars worth of 90% silver coins. There's nothing wrong with salting copper, nickel, and silver coinage away. It's a pleasurable way to pass the time.
roadrunner
<< <i>Weight, bulk, and not much money. How about liquidity? If I said that I had 1000 ounces of silver at fifteen points under spot, I'd be fighting the masses trampling over each other to be first in line. Now if I said the same thing for copper, do you think you'd see the same scenario unfold? Umm, no. >>
If I was the kind of person that could afford to amass 1000 ounces of silver I doubt I'd have even the remotest interest in copper either. But I'm not. Hence the title of the thread.
Roadrunner, you're quite right. Grandpa wasn't ever a rich man, but grandma continues to live comfortably in her 93rd year. That silver had a lot (but definitely not all) to do with that fact.
<< <i>You could have bought Freeport McMoran stock (one of the world's leading copper-gold miners - symbol FCX) at around $20 last year and watched it rise to about $80. That would have accomplished the same general thing.
No one got rich on picking silver out of change in the 1970's unless they were stashing away thousands of dollars worth of 90% silver coins. There's nothing wrong with salting copper, nickel, and silver coinage away. It's a pleasurable way to pass the time.
roadrunner >>
I remember watching FCX and it hit roughly $18, I have no idea why i didn't buy any but the rest of my portfolio had taken a dump so money was tight. Thank goodness it rebounded 70% but I would have done better with freeport.