Copper Hunters, post your results!

Since that other thread is mostly for silver hunting, I want to start a thread for those who stack copper from penny rolls. I think it is getting more and more common, and should be interesting to watch the copper percentages dwindle as time marches on.

As most of you know pennies made of copper are dated 1982 and older. Some 1982 are copper, some are not. The most reliable way to tell the 1982 difference is by weight - copper pennies are just over 3 grams, and non-coppers are just over 2.5 grams. The completed wrapped copper roll should weight about 155 grams.

I'm no expert, am rather new at this, but have done a little research... a year ago it seems about every dollar of pennies yielded about 20% copper ones. I am guessing this percentage is already less. Today on eBay the current market value for $10 face of copper seems to be about $16-$17 (plus folks are usually paying shipping). Today's copper value is $3.20/pound. It is currently illegal to melt the pennies, but that obviously doesn't stop the hoarding! I presume that one day the melting ban will be lifted, especially if the copper pennies disappear from circulation.

I just hunted $20 of rolls from the local bank:
$3.32 copper pennies (including 9 wheats, 1936 oldest and a nice looking 1937)
Copper yield = 16.66%

Is this good, bad, average? Post your results!

 

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The last $50 bag I did was about 7-8 months ago and it had $17.87, 23 wheats including a 1910 and I found 8 candadians 35.74% copper. I havent done any lately but I cant wait to start up again

 

from my last 8 boxes of pennies i've got a total of 5119 copper cents dated 1959-1982 for a total weight of 35 pounds 2 ounces with a melt value of $112.64 at 3.20 a pound, i still have between 15 an 20 thousand memorial cents to separate copper out of from earlier boxes where i did'nt separate while i picked, my wheat cents are all in tubes stored in cent boxes an got only like four boxes of those, around 10 thousand coins....

 

I started collecting copper cents in March of this year. I get most of my copper cents from work. Only once have I actually gone to the bank and got a full box and I got $6.09 out of it. My total between that box and the ones I found at work is about 12-15 pounds of copper. I haven't weighed it in a while. I also haven't really been getting much copper at work lately because we've been getting full boxes of 2013 cents.

 

If any of you would take the time to call a few of your local reclamation centers and ask them what they are currently paying for copper-alloyed metals, you might decide to stop hoarding those Lincoln cents altogether.

Chris

 

# 3 copper is still $2.30 per pound, still worth it...

 

So that is about 25% copper, correct?

Don't see how reclamation center policy has anything to do with penny roll-hunting, nor about what it has to do with posting the results of penny roll-hunting. Since when do numismatists and/or bullion stackers, base their hobby decisions on reclamation centers? There are lots of other threads here where you can posit that collecting copper pennies is a waste yada yada.

 

Just searched $25 in cents. $4.56 in copper. Only four wheat cents though.

 

For the year I have averaged 22.6% copper. 1 IHC this year. I've been through about $400. Not a high volume guy.

 

Nice results folks, seems like my percentage was the lowest. The bank gave me what seemed to be customer wrapped rolls. Maybe one gets better yields if they are bank wrapped? Would there be any chance of getting only shiny new pennies when requesting a full $25 box/bag?

 

Yea, there's always the chance of getting full boxes of 2013 cents. At my job last week we received 5 box of 2013 cents. Then this week we got 5 more boxes and they're all mixed cents. But personally, I would keep at least one box of uncirculated cents. On ebay people are selling uncirculated rolls for double to triple face value. And the value of uncirculated rolls will only increase each year. I saved 10 rolls of 2013 cents and 2 rolls of 2013 nickels. I'll store them away for a while and maybe sell them in a few years. I know i'll get some sort of profit out of it.

 

I have a stash of rolls I got from the bank earlier this year. Today I sat down to look through some of them. I searched $6 worth and got 12 wheats. Everything was mid-50s, so nothing too juicy. I did upgrade a 53S in the book.
Copper % was normal.
I don't recall ever finding a vein of wheat cents from banks rolls like this. I've had near skunk luck on wheats the last $100, so maybe it was just averages catching up.

 

I had mixed results doing a search, so I will ask some fellow copper killers....

I store my cents in canvas bags by the 25lbs worth. While I haven't had any corrosion issues, I always wonder about the scabby cents that go in there with the pretty ones.

Should I do something to neutralize the corroded ones? Or is it no big deal?

99.99% of these cents have no real extra value, I'm not opposed to cleaning some of them if they were likely to spoil the rest of them.

 

I go through only $5.00 worth every time I go to my local credit union, maybe twice a week and only get member wrapped coins. So my percentage is this: 20 percent of the rolls are copper. Other than that that's all I do on roll hunting.

 

don't think it exactly qualifies, but buying a few lots of british coins, including some George VI and Elizabeth II 1/2 pennies, I got 4 BU's, their wonderful copper lustre totally intact! it doesn't get better than that for 3/4 pounds.

 

apart from that, digging in a coin bin for practically close to nothing per coin, I chose over 200 Lincoln cents, quite a number of BU's, pre and post-82's. had a particularly large amount of lustrous from the 60's and 70's. left the shop a happy chap.

 

I've been itching to dig through more pennies. Sounds like people are still getting up to 20% coppers. Been curious about whether to keep the AU 70's and 80's ones. Although I've only seen a couple thus far.

 

better than spending them at face value, IMO, although as of now it seems it is not very likely that you can sell AU's from the 70's and 80's for much more than face value but who knows decades in the future? that's what i'm somewhat preparing for, although in my case it's not easy to submit a bulk lot of BU's hoping to get top dollar for them. is that sad or what?

 

Last two days picked up 2 rolls from a local bank, found a 1910-P cent plus copper cents. Today at another bank I picked up my usual $5.00 worth of pennies, in two rolls I found 4 dimes in the two rolls, sometimes I get a dime but never this much. Plus about $1.50 in copper cents. The copper coins are still out there. Also Wheat cents.

 

Just finished another $20 customer-wrapped rolls from bank:

$3.80 in copper (including 7 wheats) = 19% copper.
and 1 dime
and this: http://www.cointalk.com/threads/2000-d-lincoln-monstrosity.239836/ which in the end appears to be nothing but epoxy stuck to a penny.