Options
Where do all the rusty steel cents go?
claychaser
Posts: 4,405 ✭✭✭✭
I'm sorting through a quantity of steel cents searching for CPG varieties, with nothing good found so far. I'm then sorting rolling them up by P,D,S and separating out the rusty ones and culls from the OK looking ones.
Silly question, but with decent circulating steel cents selling so cheap, why would anyone buy the rusty and plated ones? Yet I hear of these actually having a value of a few cents each. Where do they go and why are they being bought?
==Looking for pre WW2 Commems in PCGS Rattler holders, 1851-O Three Cent Silvers in all grades
Successful, problem free and pleasant transactions with: illini420, coinguy1, weather11am,wayneherndon,wondercoin,Topdollarpaid,Julian, bishdigg,seateddime, peicesofme,ajia,CoinRaritiesOnline,savoyspecial,Boom, TorinoCobra71, ModernCoinMart, WTCG, slinc, Patches, Gerard, pocketpiececommems, BigJohnD, RickMilauskas, mirabella, Smittys, LeeG, TomB, DeusExMachina, tydye
0
Comments
Just get em copperplated. Then they’re easy to sell
Just make sure to throw it on the scale when you sell it
https://tinyurl.com/wbuh7ba (Search PCGS on ebay)
Haha I just picked up 10 for $1.00 ea with 1- Indian cent for $3.00 and not rusted.
Hoard the keys.
Yes! That’s a very good thing to do. Why can’t we weigh things on our smartphones yet? Oh yeah, the crack dealers. Don’t wanna make any easier than it is already. But it would be handy for coin collectors and dealers alike. Did I just give away a good idea? Naw
$3 Indian is a gold piece.
You beat me to it, then I realized that he meant that he paid $3 for the Indian cent
BHNC #203
To answer the original question.
They go two places...
They get replated OR
they go to the big blast furnace in the sky.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
The few I find in circulation now, are not rusted... Though they do exhibit wear... I find more damaged zincolns than rusty '43's....Cheers, RickO
Okay fixed.
And yes most get plated or put in junk box's. I had a dealer ask for 10 roll's so he can put them in his junk box.
Hoard the keys.
As Cameo has said......
They get tumbled, to clean the rust and then get reprocessed.
You see those P,D,S sets that are all shiny and newly plated.
You forgot the Neil Young answer, "Rust Never Sleeps".
I spend them!
We here in the rust belt hoard them.
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
To all,
I just do not see that much demand from Lincoln cent collectors - after all, a P, D, and S will fill the album holes. Just how many collectors are the for the Whitman book #2 (1941 forward) cents? And how many less sophisticated collectors and hoarders for them?
And, the attrition I think would be low. There is no demand to melt them since scrap steel is worth far less than copper, and post war, I think a lot were saved by both collectors and the general public. It's more likely to get a pre 1940 Wheatie in change than a steel cent.
Did the banks take these back for the government to cull these out of change after the war?
Mintages:
43-P 685 million
43-D 218 million
43-S 192 million
Assuming a 1% survival rate in all grades from rusty culls to BU, that means about 10 million survivors. But I think the survival rate would be higher for all grades including circulated and rusty ones.
Any other pundits here?
==Looking for pre WW2 Commems in PCGS Rattler holders, 1851-O Three Cent Silvers in all grades
Successful, problem free and pleasant transactions with: illini420, coinguy1, weather11am,wayneherndon,wondercoin,Topdollarpaid,Julian, bishdigg,seateddime, peicesofme,ajia,CoinRaritiesOnline,savoyspecial,Boom, TorinoCobra71, ModernCoinMart, WTCG, slinc, Patches, Gerard, pocketpiececommems, BigJohnD, RickMilauskas, mirabella, Smittys, LeeG, TomB, DeusExMachina, tydye
In the mixed wheat cent rolls
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
I love the steel cents as they remind me of going to flea markets when I was a child in the 1970's. It is such a unique coin. You could never find them in circulation. I have a few in my old Whitman books, but they are not so attractive. Perhaps I should get a nice one, but it's not an imperative. There is always tomorrow!
He who knows he has enough is rich.
And that's exactly what the Mint (or the banks) started to do by recalling and withholding as many as they could from recirculating. The rest, of course were saved by collectors and interested individuals and got ugly.
Pete
Original, uncirculated 1943 Cents had a nice finish to them. There is a slightly bluish tint to them that gives them a great look.
Pete
Here is one I bought 15 years ago - I liked the mild cameo contrast. Bluish tint as @BuffaloIronTail pointed out.
Paid crazy money for it, even by today's prices.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
Is there really money to be made scrapping steel cents? Any idea what the melt value of a steel cent would be? I don't have any rusted steel cents I'm just curious.
I have a little ziplock bag of them that I don't know what to do with.
Collector, occasional seller
I've got a bunch of them that I soaked in vinegar and let them sit for awhile. Rinsed them in baking soda, then water.
Dried 'em up and it got rid of the rust.
But.................I don't know what to do with them, either.
Pete
Scrap copper is around $2.50 + per pound, and scrap steel is around $0.05. So, no money in scrapping steel cents. But it would be economical (and illegal in the US) to melt down copper cents.
There are about 150 copper cents per pound, and 180 or so steel cents per pound, so the steelies melt for almost nothing,
==Looking for pre WW2 Commems in PCGS Rattler holders, 1851-O Three Cent Silvers in all grades
Successful, problem free and pleasant transactions with: illini420, coinguy1, weather11am,wayneherndon,wondercoin,Topdollarpaid,Julian, bishdigg,seateddime, peicesofme,ajia,CoinRaritiesOnline,savoyspecial,Boom, TorinoCobra71, ModernCoinMart, WTCG, slinc, Patches, Gerard, pocketpiececommems, BigJohnD, RickMilauskas, mirabella, Smittys, LeeG, TomB, DeusExMachina, tydye
Thanks claychaser, so I guess they will just continue to move from owner to owner until they all either get replated or rust away to nothing.