Who’s collecting pre 82 pennies for copper value

I gotta say I am excited to pay for groceries with cash so I can scavenge my coins

 

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No one should be, imo, but many of the uninformed still do so.

It is illegal to melt U.S. cents for their metal value and…
The alloy they are composed of is not the type copper smelters accept.

Search Coin Talk using key words to find a veritable cornucopia of posts regarding saving copper cents. You will discover saving copper cents that no longer have numismatic value or a very small value is an exercise in futility…imo…Spark

 

You're better off rolling them up and depositing them at your bank.

 

It’s against the law to melt them so why save them? They take up lots of room and the more you have the heavier they are to move them.

 

Don’t be a sap, Bob.

 

Not as long as there are "greater fools" out there. There seems to be a steady stream of buyers at 2x FV or more. (I'm not one of them.)

There was a time when you were better off rolling up 90% silver and depositing it, and a longer time when you were better off rolling up 40% silver and depositing it. There will certainly come a day when copper cents are worth well over face value, even after taking the hit for the lower copper grade...

...but they still won't be worth much in ACTUAL value. Who cares that you'll get 25 cents each for pre-1982 cents, if it takes fifty bucks to buy a small burger? You're better off selling or depositing them now, and putting the money into something that will stay ahead of inflation. Or, of course, you can sit on a room full of cents, waiting for your small fortune to, well, remain a small fortune.

 

I used to until I had a few boxes worth, but I ended up dumping them.
You'll get more love in the coin roll hunting forum by the way.

 

To me hoarding copper cents is like the Seinfeld episode where Kramer and Newman are going to make money by driving their 5c deposit cans to Michigan to cash in on the 10c deposit rate there. Spoiler alert - it ends in disaster.

 

Only the US law is keeping these from being removed from circulation and melted for feed stock of brass.
Soon the US cent will be discontinued. Canada already did. Only due to a political animosity didn’t it happen 5 years ago.
Speculation price is currently about double face with copper at $4.50+ per pound. Face is about $1.45 per pound

 

As I approach retirement, I'm looking to protect various investments in the five- and six-figure range - in today's dollars. Sitting on tens of tons of copper just doesn't really appeal, no matter the form factor.

 

Curious about the illegality of melting cents. How would anyone know? Has anyone ever been arrested for it?

 

With you on that brother. I do prefer silver but I already have too much in the SDB. Those CDs were nice for the last couple years but 5% doesn’t cut it. Moved into GLD and SLV 2 months ago . Been wind at my back since then.

 

Melting them is only CURRENTLY illegal IF you sell the melted product. Selling the actual pennies is no illegal and I’ve sold 5$ FV for 12-15 bucks at a time.

also once we move to a cashless society, I doubt any of the legalities will apply

 

Also yes, silver stacking is great. Never said this can compare. But why not keep free copper if you can

Fellow gold silver and platinum stacker here. Keeping copper Pennie’s and stacking precious metals aren’t mutually exclusive

and it’s not a way to “get rich” but people DO buy pre 82 cents for 2x FV and I have sold them to people at 2X FV

 

I can only speculate that people have done it. But you can't just take them somewhere, you'd have to have your own smelter and then find someone who wants to buy homemade chunks of 95% copper 5% zinc, all while looking over your shoulder. You have to accumulate $1.54 in cents to have 1 pound of copper currently worth $4.52. So even if you could sell your 95% chunks of copper at full price, how much money do you want to profit from this illegal venture? $1000? You're going to need to pull 50,000 copper cents out of roll hunting. Probably over double that for a realistic price you'd get for your homemade chunks. All in order to earn $1000. I'm guessing people quickly learn that it's a waste of time.

 

It’s not illegal to sell the coins.
Also not illegal to melt unless you sell the product. Also this will likely not matter when we go cashless

 

Nobody is getting rich keeping 82s
Maybe there are speculators who exchange them in large quantities who are betting on a move entirely away from cash where melting and selling would not be illegal-if a large company does this they may make a lot of profit in the future but that’s tangential

but also nobody is wasting time holding onto 82s that cross their path and there is no downside to doing this lol

it’s as simple as just not spending 82s. Nobody mentioned trying to get rich

also I just like the way they look lol. Copper is badass metal

 

holding GLD SLV is a joke
Trading them is fine but as a long term holder of PMs physical is the only way

SLV literally leases its silver holdings. Their physical stocks are literally owned by multiple parties. What happens when silver hits 100/oz? Yea no good if you must hold something other than physical go with PSLV. They actually have a backing of audited silver and you can redeem your shares for physical if requested

 

Yeah that $8000 I made last month really sucked
My physical holdings are just insurance against politicians.
And enjoyment and entertainment. Numismatics

 

I have SLV and GLD LOL
yes it was a good month. Just saying look into SLV and how many entities own their silver holdings. They’re leased