What would (1) wheat cent (95% copper & 5% tin and zinc) be worth if it were only valued on its metal content. (no dates or gades are necessary-just straight up metal value) Is there a formula or equation I can use to figure this out. More questions may follow. Thanks a lot
Yeah, it's not hard to do. Just take the weight of the coin 3.11 grams x .95 = 2.9545 grams of pure copper. Determine the spot price for copper, do the rest of the math and you have an answer. On a side note, what many have been missing is that even the current cent now cost the mint 1.4 cents to make. You see zinc has increased in value far faster than any of the precious metals. It has gone up in price 300% since 2003.
I was hoping you would respond to this request because I have seen you answer similar questions other forum members have asked. Thanks for the info.
To be honest, rather than just supplying an answer I always prefer explaining to the one asking the question how they can determine the answer to the question themselves. You don't learn anything by having someone else just answer a question - but you do learn if they make you figure it out for yourself.
I divide the current price per pound by 153.5 to get the approximate value of the copper. The other 5% is probably too small to be anything other than waste so I assign no value. This is probably close enough since even the NYMEX copper contract delivery specifications consider copper ingots to be warehouse-acceptable if they are within 2%+- the 25,000 pound weight specified in the contract.
See NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/22/business/22charts.html?ex=1145851200&en=ad8655d9dc1aa2d9&ei=5087%0A I hope that link is usable, I am not sure how to enter it. It was an article in the business section of the paper delivered today - but that might be the Sat. or the Sun. edition since they deliver part of the Sun. paper on Sat. Anyway the thrust of the article is that materials cost .8 cents and production costs .6 cent.
