copper cents

Bankerbob56

Tell me again, why am I compelled to save copper cents?

Will they ever be worth more than face?

oih82w8

Ordinary (dirty, non collectible) copper cents are worth more in the "melt" category, not including collectible ones (60 small (or was it large) date, 69-S, 72 DDO, etc...)

TopographicOceans

With copper @ $2.39 lb. today and 1909-1982 Lincoln cents are 95% copper and 5% zinc, that makes the melt value = $0.0159, which is more than the face value of $0.01

The only issue is that it is illegal to melt them. But Congress is fiddling with perhaps changing that down the road.

But it will takes tons of cents to make money.

LanceNewmanOCC

<< <i>Tell me again, why am I compelled to save copper cents?

Will they ever be worth more than face? >>



there are tons of varieties and errors 59-82, many 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and even a 6 figure coin.
.

coppercoins

There is some chance that they will actually have some collectible value over that of their zinc successors at some point, something like the wheat cents, which have some premium over the memorial cents. The chance, however, that it will become 'legal' to melt these coins is somewhat slim any time in the near future, and even at that it's unlikely that the value of said copper would be worth the smelting fee to get the zinc (and tin) removed from the copper to leave a marketable pure copper result. Remember that these coins are NOT pure copper. They are an alloy, officially 'French bronze' for those minted before 1962 and 'brass' for those minted after 1962, the year that tin was removed from the composition. Since the change occurred DURING 1962, there is no way short of spectroscopy to determine which are which for that year alone.

The value of pure copper would have to exceed and remain above $4 a pound for there to be any profit in saving and storing the coins for their melt value. This copper melt price was only achieved for a while during the first half of 2011. Before and since then, it has been much lower. Copper currently sells for $2.41 per pound, and with all the fees associated with pulling metals apart during the smelting process, the "value" of the metals contained within the coins is not the number to consider here. It's the value of the metals MINUS the expense of separating them.

So the only real value in saving and storing bags of pre-1983 cents is either as wheat cent bags (which currently trade around 4 cents each) or as post-wheat brass cents. I have seen these trade at up to 1.5x face value, but that's not a general market value and sales tend to be very sparse. At that level anyone is taking excessive risk considering the price of shipping said coins cross-country...if that's a determining factor. Fees for shipping a 35 lb bag of cents are often close to the face value of the coins...not worthwhile.

Having said all that - I don't save them except to chance selling them at a profit some day to someone who has failed to do the math and realize there is no real gain in them. If I'm looking through every cent I acquire, there's no real harm in tossing them in a different container and only returning the zinc coins to the bank. My garage can handle the weight until such time that copper makes an unexpected turn and people once again start buying them at silly premiums.

coppercoins

Of course all the rules change if you happen to have 100 tons of coins to melt...AND it's legal to do so. Any negligible profit per coin could add up with enough weight - heck, bird feathers are valuable to someone if you have enough weight in them. I was referring more to the 'general' public who might have up to a few bags lying around. Not the thousands of bags it would take to make a real difference.

BillJones

If silver is the "poorer man's investment" as oppsed to gold, copper got to be "the poverty investment." Yes the melt value of a copper cent is higher than its face value, but with a premium that is less than a cent per coin, you have got have tons of those coins to make anything worthwhile, if it become legal to melt them. I see these copper rounds that some dealers sell, and I just don't get it.

As for numismatic value, unless they are one of the classic better dates in the Lincoln series, or Gem Mint State red, I don't see a great appeciation in the value for common date Lincoln cents in copper.

CoinZip

MsMorrisine

I doubt these will ever be legal to melt.

if there is one org. that will want first right to melt profits from them, it will be the US Government.

I see something more akin to what is happening in Canada: you can spend them, but not be given any in change.

crazyhounddog

<< <i>I doubt these will ever be legal to melt.

if there is one org. that will want first right to melt profits from them, it will be the US Government.

I see something more akin to what is happening in Canada: you can spend them, but not be given any in change. >>



I'm pretty sure if ya got a ceramic crucible and fired up the oven you could melt as many as ya want and no one would ever know.

ricko

I accumulate copper cents... jars of wheaties and ziploc's of other cents.... not sure why, but they just pile up. Cheers, RickO

WaterSport

I have yet to hear a story of someone "cashing in" and making lots of money holding them. They just go through that endless cycle of being collected, looked at, bagged up, and resold for 3 cents each...kinda like sample slabs...

WS

MsMorrisine

bronze cents once melted for 2cents and nickels for 7 cents(!)

now its's 1.6 cents and 3.4 cents(!)



copper would have to fall from the $2.3942/lb it's at now to $1.5353/lb to make the 95% copper worth 1 cent. (this happened around the new year 2009 time frame)

tahoe98

<< <i>I accumulate copper cents... jars of wheaties and ziploc's of other cents.... not sure why, but they just pile up. Cheers, RickO >>



...same here!

mustangmanbob

Ironically, I just sent some to a Viking Funeral today.

I had some wheat cents, and copper pre 1982 cents that were damaged, bent, holed, etc. that were junk, plus about $5 in Canadian cents, and a bunch of foreign copper coins.

I tossed them in with some scrap copper pipe and fittings and they were weighed and dumped in the big copper hopper heading off to be melted.

No one will ever mourn their passing.

I wish copper would go to $30 a pound and silver to $140 an ounce, and it was legal to melt them, and clean up all the UNSEARCHED wheat bags and picked over, worn out, tired 90% out there.

BillJones

<< <i> wish copper would go to $30 a pound and silver to $140 an ounce, and it was legal to melt them, and clean up all the UNSEARCHED wheat bags and picked over, worn out, tired 90% out there. >>



Be careful what you wish for. Such price increasing would flow through to many consumer products and product inflationary increases though out the economy.

johnny9434

like the wheats I just like to hang onto them.

coppercoins

<< <i>I wish copper would go to $30 a pound and silver to $140 an ounce, and it was legal to melt them, and clean up all the UNSEARCHED wheat bags and picked over, worn out, tired 90% out there. >>



Yes, and at the same time gas would be $50 a gallon and consumer prices would be through the roof. Your 'clean up' would be necessary to survive.