copper pennies

secondrepublic

I've been setting aside pre-82 copper cents for several years now, and have a small bucket of them. It's hard to spend a coin whose intrinsic value is 2.5x the face value, even if it's such a small denomination. It got me thinking about what would it take to make this worthwhile....

--A pre-82 penny weighs about 3.1 grams
--Copper is worth about $3.80 per POUND
--1 pound = 453.6 grams
--146 pennies = one pound

One TON of pennies (2,000 pounds) is worth about $7,600. That's 292,000 pennies. Enough to crack the foundation in your basement/garage.

ricko

Would be a nice profit if it were legal to melt them... Cheers, RickO

piecesofme

Would be a nice profit if it were legal to melt them... Cheers, RickO

It's comin', and I'm locked and loaded. I think there's a far better chance for lincolns going away than jeffersons at this point...at least in my lifetime. When it happens, the F150 is going to get a work out going back & forth to the local coin shop that I know will be taking them since he is the biggest 90% guy around now.
Gotta have alot to make it worth the while, but I've got (I dont even know how much face value I have of it anymore) the time for it to happen and if it doesn't in my lifetime, the kid will get it and she has been told already to only cash it in for the copper

BigRick

What is the cost of melting them & what can you REALLY expect to get for the copper if sold?

piecesofme

What is the cost of melting them & what can you REALLY expect to get for the copper if sold?

It has to become legal to do first Think of it in terms of when it became legal to melt 90% silver coins. Do you think there are more pre-1982 cents available than there were pre-1965 90% silver at the time it became legal to melt them? 4 denominations were available vs. only 2 now that have enough copper in them to make it worth while.

MsMorrisine

I was thining the gov't would just melt them and take the profit for themselves.

But, the money is not in the government's hands. It's in the Fed. Res. hands. That's not really the gov't.


This is probably why the government didn't say "no more silver coins, give us all of them, we're melting them ourselves" way back when.




There may come a day where 1982 and earlier cents become legally meltable. As people hoard and as more zinc cents are made, the impact of melting them will be negligible.

Now, if they stop making the cent at some point, they may continue to have the ban as they'd want as many to remain out there as long as people wanted.



opinions on this pondering?

Baley

IMO, it depends almost entirely on what your time is worth to you, and how much you enjoy handling and storing pennies, relative to other ways of spending your time.

JamesMurray

Ive found theres a lot more to it than just hording copper cents , ive put together whitman folders from the 50's and 60's that would bring a tear to your eye , beautiful coins with that soft gleam.Then there's the two small S 1970's i had confirmed on the US coin forum and always the chance of an error or oddity.
If getting coins like that isnt worth someones time roll searching i'm always glad to hear it. : )

secondrepublic

Looking through some rolls this morning, I found a really nice 1918 wheat cent that would grade XF+, except for some damage to the rims on the reverse. There's still some interesting stuff out there. That one I set aside. The other pre-82s went into the bucket.

nam812

<< <i>Looking through some rolls this morning, I found a really nice 1918 wheat cent that would grade XF+, except for some damage to the rims on the reverse. There's still some interesting stuff out there. That one I set aside. The other pre-82s went into the bucket. >>



Does that mean that the wheat cents not nice enough to set aside go into the pre-1982 bucket?

I understand that wheat cents have the same intrinsic value as copper cents from 1959 to 1982, but using eBay as a gauge, copper cents from 1959 to 1982 sell for about 1.4x to 1.6x face value, while common date wheat cents from 1940 to 1958 sell closer to 3x face, with wheat cents from the teens, 20s and 30s selling a bit higher.

I understand that you may have no interest in selling them, but at least set up another bucket.

If you are already separating all wheat cents from Lincoln memorial cents then please disregard.

secondrepublic

<< <i>Does that mean that the wheat cents not nice enough to set aside go into the pre-1982 bucket? >>



Up till now, I have been throwing all the "copper" into the same bucket... that includes pre-82 memorial cents, wheat cents, Canadian copper cents, British 1- and 2- cent coppers I received on a trip there, and a couple of random elongated coppers that were lying around the house. The wheats I've found have pretty much been 40s and 50s until this point... But you're totally right, they are worth more. I'll set up another bucket

ricko

I have a couple gallons + of wheat cents... just have to take the time to go through them - maybe next winter... Cheers, RickO

mkman123

I think a member posted once that some have already been melting copper pennies in huge quantities behind closed doors. Just as silver coins only used to be worth a few face value, copper pennies one day may be worth a lot more then it is now.

fivecents

I haven't been saving copper cents from change. I have bought around 8 sealed pre 1982 Lincoln cent $50 mint bags over the years. I bought an open half bag of mint red 1959 cents. I put those in one of those clear glass lamps that I read by in the den.

Mission16

On a whim, I just called a local scrapyard for a price on 750# of bright copper pipe.

$3.20/# so the copper cents SHOULD be a bit less, not just because they're alloyed but because some folks will try to mix in zinc cents too. Scrappers won't pay top dollar if there is ANY risk.

Baley

Useful, usable copper pipe and copper wire should be more expensive forms of copper than bags of copper one cent coins.
(any numismatic/collector value aside) while the copper coins should be more valuable than random scrap copper, if nothing else, than for the known content and relative uniformity, ease of refining.

Be careful storing copper cents at face value; the cost of moving them in case you want to relocate could wipe out your profit

(not to mention potential doctor visits for sore back from lifting them, or broken toes from kicking heavy containers

Coins101

<< <i>IMO, it depends almost entirely on what your time is worth to you, and how much you enjoy handling and storing pennies, relative to other ways of spending your time. >>



Lets see, when I first started pulling silver out of circulation, it was worth about 3x face. So, if the copper is about 2.5x face, it is near the value when I started stacking 90% silver. I do have to admit it was much easier to see the silver coins than it is to see the copper cent (aka: penny).

JamesMurray

<< <i>On a whim, I just called a local scrapyard for a price on 750# of bright copper pipe.

$3.20/# so the copper cents SHOULD be a bit less, not just because they're alloyed but because some folks will try to mix in zinc cents too. Scrappers won't pay top dollar if there is ANY risk. >>



While i doubt if large scrapyards would entertain cents in bulk i believe there will be those merchents who will and theres already machines that seperate Zincolns from the copper so it's not really an issue.

sumrtym

I've got a couple of those coca-cola glass display bottles (replicas) I'd purchased that are 20" tall in two different designs. I fill those almost full with copper cents so they kind of look like they're full of coke. I like to decorate with them and if had another bottle design, would start filling another. I used to just fill them with copper I got in change, but that was getting so slow (majority is zinc) that I started getting rolls at the bank to go through with which to fill. I was surprised how many wheats you get. I usually average about 3-4 per $20, although once pulled out over 100 with one Indian. Those I keep separate.

Dang glass gets heavy. I've very paranoid if I move them to make sure the glass is supported well on the bottoms due to the weight.

JamesMurray

I remember the one time out of countless rolls now i pulled an Indian head cent , lol , it's a rare feeling even if it is in rough shape. With keeping the copper cents in glass bottles or jars , i recently had an issue where i'd a full mason jar of wheats waiting to be inspected and for whatever reason the whole bottem of the jar broke away,i'm guessing from weight. What i do now is reroll the copper cents and put them in the cent boxes i get from the bank and stack those.Zincolns go to the cashstar machine.

pitboss

Don't those cashstar machines charge you for cashing your pennies?

JamesMurray

<< <i>Don't those cashstar machines charge you for cashing your pennies? >>



Only if you want folding money , you can opt for a cash voucher for many top outlets like Lowes or Amazon amonst many others so there's no need to lose out.

tneig

I sort the boxes of pennies from the banks, just separating the wheaties and oldest as I go, then sell bags of them for 2cents a piece (always just a bit under the copper worth), and let someone else consider the melt prospects for future value. I think that the supply will get limited as time goes on, so its a window of time.

I don't recycle the zinc ones to the banks so as not to wear them out, give em to the grandkids or have even used to pay (or donate where I would have used other money types before).