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Making a profit by melting copper cents?

How soon do you think we'll see copper Lincoln cents melted down for a profit, like silver coinage was in the 60s?
I heard they were making a French version of Medal of Honor. I wonder how many hotkeys it'll have for "surrender."

Comments

  • airplanenutairplanenut Posts: 22,386 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I think it'll take a lot of work to melt 'em... and it won't be worth it for quite some time...
    JK Coin Photography - eBay Consignments | High Quality Photos | LOW Prices | 20% of Consignment Proceeds Go to Pancreatic Cancer Research
  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,645 ✭✭✭✭✭
    My father-in-law recently turned over his "stash" to me, mostly junk silver and so forth.

    In the bag were some copper cents, circa 1981-1982. It was in 1982 that the copper in pennies came close to approaching 1 cent in value. Apparently he heard something on the news and started putting them away.

    Seems to me that it would have had to significantly exceed 1 cent in order to make melting them at all profitable. Who's gonna melt pennies worth 1.1 or 1.2 cents each - you'd have to have millions of 'em to make any money on the deal. There is no comparison to silver - a silver quarter might be worth a buck and it doesn't take too many of 'em to add up quickly. It would take a LOT of pennies to make 75c worth of profit.
  • Yep, I was hoarding pennies too up thru 1982. After they changed the composition, I stopped hoarding them. I still have 2 jars worth of old copper pennies. Really don't have anything better to do with them...
  • ttt
    I heard they were making a French version of Medal of Honor. I wonder how many hotkeys it'll have for "surrender."
  • Right now the company that picks up our scrap sheet metal is giving $1.11 per lb for #1 copper (clean, no insulation)

    How many pennies in a lb ? about 75 maybe, i'm not sure. If that's true then you can turn in 75 pennies and get $1.11 for them.

  • UPDATE: Our digital scale says it takes 176 pennies (wow!) to make a lb.

    Considering the alloys of the post '82 cents i would think they would discount scrap value.

    Not quite there yet to be profitable to think about "melt" value of pennies. image

  • JohnZJohnZ Posts: 1,732
    Just a couple of small points.

    US cents are not referred to as "pennies". A penny is a British denomination.

    US Lincoln cents were minted of bronze before 1982. Melting them down would also entail the process of purifying the copper. I doubt that this would ever be cost-effective.

    US large cents were minted of pure copper.

    We ARE watching you.

    image


  • << <i>US cents are not referred to as "pennies". A penny is a British denomination. >>



    Actually, they are almost universally referred to as pennies, though that is not the proper numismatic term for them. Most numismatists also refer to Winged Liberty Dimes as "Mercury Dimes" despite the fact that they know better image

    Good point about the bronze alloy though. The refining process would be quite expensive.
    I heard they were making a French version of Medal of Honor. I wonder how many hotkeys it'll have for "surrender."


  • << <i>US cents are not referred to as "pennies". A penny is a British denomination. >>



    geez louise !!! I provide a small tid bit of info to this thread and i get hammered on silly semantics !

    image
  • keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    US cents are not referred to as "pennies".

    WOWZER!!!!!! newsflash......................image

    hey John, since we're in a "correcting mode" i'll say that sure, they're referred to as PENNIES all the time. might not be Numismatically correct, but there's no reason to get the old sphincter muscle all tightened up about it!!!!image

    ............back to the thread topic, it would seem that the time to start considering about melting "pennies" is when our Uncle decides to stop making them. copper has a fairly high melting point and it wpould take quite a bit to turn a profit. on the other hand, most dealers will pay a premium for wheat cents........oops, i mean wheat pennies!!

    al h.image
  • flaminioflaminio Posts: 5,664 ✭✭✭


    << <i>US cents are not referred to as "pennies". A penny is a British denomination. >>



    Note that the US Mint themselves refers to the one cent denomination coin as a "penny" repeatedly throughout their site, for example:

    Link

    Since the Mint is clearly an authority on this matter, pennies it is!
  • Conder101Conder101 Posts: 10,536
    176 cents to the pound is too high, 146 would be closer to the correct figure (453.5 grams/pd times 1 cent/3.11 grams = 145.8 cent/pd)

    Yes there is the cost of seperation but metals, including copper, have been rising rapidly lately. Back in 174 the figure the bounced around was that once copper went over $1.54 per pound you were above the breakeven point. That figure my be getting close to being within reach, but I don't expect actual melting down of cents to start occuring until it gets over about $1.75.
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,731 ✭✭✭✭✭
    $1.75 copper price would see wholesale melting of the old cents, but there would be some
    limited melting even before copper gets to the break even point. It will be more convenient
    for a few people to melt their pennies than return them to the bank. Copper is at only $1.25
    now and there is no certainty that it will go higher.

    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
  • MacCoinMacCoin Posts: 2,544 ✭✭
    I don't see it happen
    image


    I hate it when you see my post before I can edit the spelling.

    Always looking for nice type coins

    my local dealer
  • MoneyLAMoneyLA Posts: 1,825
    I recall back in the early 80s when the metals soared and speculators who socking away bags and boxes of the old copper cents. copper prices never reached the melt point.

    the trick now would be to find the old pre-82 copper cents. take a look at your pocket change-- I rarely see a pre-82 cent anymore.

    cheers, alan


  • << <i>176 cents to the pound is too high, 146 would be closer to the correct figure (453.5 grams/pd times 1 cent/3.11 grams = 145.8 cent/pd) >>



    I put 88 pennies (oh.... excuse me, Lincoln Cents) on our Certified Digital parts weighing scale, and it came to .503

    X 2 equals 1.0006 . Pretty close to 1 lb . give or take a pennie either way and your still way over your 146 pc figure.


    A question that comes to mind is: "does a post '82 cent weight more or less than a pre '82 cent "?
    I'll see if i can find a sample of each and post what i come up with.


  • flaminioflaminio Posts: 5,664 ✭✭✭


    << <i>A question that comes to mind is: "does a post '82 cent weight more or less than a pre '82 cent "?
    I'll see if i can find a sample of each and post what i come up with. >>

    Pre-1982 cents weight 3.11 grams; post-1982 Zincolns weight 2.50 grams. In 1982 they made both kinds, so you have to weigh them to tell the difference.
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,731 ✭✭✭✭✭
    A zinc cent weighs much less than a copper cent and is now worth only about $.55 per pound.
    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
  • JohnZJohnZ Posts: 1,732
    Geez guys, relax. I wasn't hammering anyone.

    I know perfectly well they're commonly referred to as "pennies" by almost everyone.

    We ARE watching you.

    image
  • fishcookerfishcooker Posts: 3,446 ✭✭

    I remember stores paying $1.08 for 100 pennies when I was a kid.
  • I weighed 5 "pennies"

    1959 .00611
    1964 .00611
    1971-D .00611
    1982-D .00568
    2000-D .00568

    with those weights it would take between 163.66 and 176.056 of those little round copper/zinc thingys to make a pound
  • Cam40Cam40 Posts: 8,146
    i think one could turn a nice profit from the melting of copper cents
    if you were to cast something neat out of the melt.
    i wanna make me some cool custom-fit brass knuckles
    out of some just for grins.
    maybe a nice figurine or sculpture would be cool.
    ....door knockers?.....
    be a cool hobby to get into... casting things from various alloys.
  • MoneyLAMoneyLA Posts: 1,825
    I went back into my "archives" and called up the following:

    for a pre 1982 cent to be worth more than one cent the price of copper must exceed $1.44 a pound because there are 144 cents to a pound.

    cheers, alan mendelson

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