I've been on the fence about putting my 1959-1982 Lincolns in a jar. I know the copper is worth 2.5 cents or so, and is likely to go up with the price of silver and gold and other metals. I've seen a few auctions on Ebay to buy 50 or 100 rolls of these high-copper modern cents, but I don't think many of them actually sell. I've seen estimates from roll hunters that about 15% of their rolls are the copper ones. The question is: are people actually hording them, and are people actually buying them? The underlying question: I went through several jars of old pennies and separated and rolled by year. I have about 50 rolls of these 1959-1981 pennies and I'm not sure what to do with them.
Hang on to them, if you have the room. I save them too for God knows what reason. I think eventually they will sell for a premium one day. But, there are probably half a million other guys like us doing the same thing. I personally would separate the semi-key dates and any "S" mint memorials. They may be the only ones that sell above melt in my opinion.
There's already a premium associated with copper cents, about 1.7-2x face. http://completed.shop.ebay.com/Bull...=copper+cents&_catref=1&LH_Complete=1&guest=1
I don't see who would pay 2x face plus shipping on the bay, when you can get rolls at the bank for 50 cents. Yeah you have to sort through the zinc ones, but you can cash 'em back in for what you paid for them.
I started seaching boxes a few months ago for wheats there are so few I decided what the heck!, I'll keep the pre 82s as well. It can't hurt and ya never know. There must be lots of people out there hoarding because there isn't as many 59-82s as you may think. I don't know the exact percentage but as a guess I'd say 30% or less.
As of now it is unlawful to melt them as well as nickels which are also once again worth more than face value. I'm sure there are people that still do it though.
I've gone through 4 boxes. Pulling the pre 82's, the wheats and cents with nice eye appeal toning. Putting together a 1941-2010 toned cent set. Averaging about 24% pre 82's. Takes 153 cents to make a pound. When you go to the bank to buys rolls, don't ask the teller for "rolls of cents". The teller won't know what you're talking about. He/she will instead ask the inevitable question "you mean pennies?" Uhh...yes? I don't plan on getting rich doing this, just something to do on a cold winter weekend day. It's kinda fun. Never know what you might find.
When I roll search, I keep about half of the early copper ones that I find. My theory is as the copper pprice goes up, more and more will be melted, which will lead to less of them to find, which should really drive the price up. That's what I'm hoping at least.
In Canada, our cents were 98% copper up until 1996 therefore when I roll search, about 45-50% of my cents are copper.
