Recent Observation about Copper Cents

metalmeister · December 13, 2014 2:47AM

I have a interesting observation to share. The last half of this year my Wife and I have been doing some traveling visiting family and friends in California from north to south and Nevada. I would pay in cash at most of the "out of the way places", just for cyber security. I saved all the coin change to look through later when we got home. Anyway after a few great road trips of several weeks and about two thousand of miles of butt sore driving, I finally had a chance to look through the road trip "coin change". What's this???? NO COPPER CENTS! I am looking at about 100 cents all Zincolns ! WTH??. I usually see about a 20/80 ratio CU/Zn of cents, although this ratio has been declining as of late. No Kidding! Even with Copper dropping below $3 a pound now as I write this. It seems the last of the copper cents must be being pulled from circulation.
To be honest I am part of this "Situation"

metalmeister · December 13, 2014 12:36PM

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TwoSides2aCoin · December 13, 2014 12:45PM

Been in a brick and mortar for 5.5 years. It's amazing HOW many people call up "selling" copper cents. A few times I offered to beat coinstar prices by 5%. That was a mistake.

Last week John called. He has "6 ammo boxes of wheat cents holding 6,000 cents each". He said the hard work was done. He's sorted them into rolls.
Your point makes me realize HOW MANY guys are doing this. I asked John what he wants to do. He said, "Get rid of them before I die so the kids don't have to deal with them".

His kids are older than me

savoyspecial · December 13, 2014 1:27PM

TwoSides,

just to clarify, doesn't CoinStar charge about an 8% fee?? So, if you offer to beat them by 5% aren't you still okay overall in the deal (behind FV)?

And in your second example (with the ammo box) you specify 'wheat cents' which is a different animal altogether.....I think most dealers buy wheats at a couple of cents each and wholesale them for 4 to 5 cents each in bulk

ricko · December 14, 2014 2:20AM

Yep... I noticed their scarcity as well....I check change and the 'take a penny' boxes as well...Cheers, RickO

Icollecteverything · December 14, 2014 10:00AM

I think I still average around 15% to 20% copper cents that wife and I receive in change. Lots of people throw them in a jar that could sit there for five or ten years before they roll them up. Then it's on to another container in another house for five more years.

291fifth · December 14, 2014 10:14AM

I just did a check of my pocket change box. It contained exactly 40 cents. Of the 40 cents, 8 were dated 1981 and earlier (20%). Given the massive mintages of cents since 1982 the percentage does not surprise me.

ProofArtworkonCircs · December 14, 2014 1:17PM

In late 1982 I checked a bunch of cents in my wife's change. I was shocked to see they were almost all zinc ones. Today I see a higher per centage of copper cents than back then.

pcgs69 · December 14, 2014 1:21PM

the place I recently worked at gets rolls of cents from the bank for making change. Most of these rolls appear to be brand new 2014 coins.

ProofArtworkonCircs · December 15, 2014 12:30AM

There is quite a flood of 2014 cents in Massachusetts, much more than in quite a few years. .

crispy · December 15, 2014 1:11AM

The overall surface condition of these zincolns tend to be pretty rough as well. Almost half of the ones I receive in change have varying degrees of surface contamination.

When I was fifteen, I worked at a carwash (late seventies) and we had an industrial vacuum and it had a huge tank inside the building. All kinds of things ended up in this thing. We would have to clean it out periodically (two or three times a year) and it always had a lot of change in it. The condition of those copper coins remind me of the circulating zincolns we have now. Nasty. You don't even want to touch them.

Given the degree of deterioration of these zincs, any rare varieties will become rarer as time goes on because of their lousy overall survival rate.

TwoSides2aCoin · December 15, 2014 1:13AM

<< <i>TwoSides,

just to clarify, doesn't CoinStar charge about an 8% fee?? So, if you offer to beat them by 5% aren't you still okay overall in the deal (behind FV)?

And in your second example (with the ammo box) you specify 'wheat cents' which is a different animal altogether.....I think most dealers buy wheats at a couple of cents each and wholesale them for 4 to 5 cents each in bulk >>

Hi Savoy.

I believe CoinStar's fees are now higher, but not certain and have never utilized those services.
I didn't get the deal because, "that's a rip-off", I was told by the holder of them (hard to say collectors or hoarders), especially as I hear "They're worth at least 3 cents each".

. (my mistake was attempting to reason. However, what can a dealer say ? "It says ONE CENT on the coin, so it's worth one cent".
And in the second example you are correct. Most dealers will, at least "double the money" with wheats; and if separated into decades , sometimes triple, or quadruple, or higher . With ebay , they do sell for about a nickel each , in bulk. ('40s and 50's wheat cents , only) Few dealers I know want to pay more than 3 cents for wheats. Then again, I haven't met too many dealers
who are into "wheat cents" in bulk. Especially when the majority seem to be 40's and 50's.

Recent Observation about Copper Cents

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