Copper Cents. I am no expert. This is just my assessment. Please do not hoard copper or make any financial decisions based on my posts. To save : 1: Current value is a bit under 2.5 cents per cent. In 5 years this may double. The government allowed the melting of copper pennies in the past and may do so again in the future. The government believes a coin's lifetime is 30 years. copper cents are past that period but still seem to make up about 20% of the cents in circulation. If the government allowed the melting of cents they would have to produce the 20% in addition to the current new cents. It would cost a fortune. I think that when the % of copper cents drops to a very low rate, the government will consider removing the ban. If the government allows the melting of cents in the future, the return will be very high. 2: Copper cents in circulation will continue to decline as the value of copper goes up. With the number of hoarders growing with the value of copper and the age of the cents will remove all but a few % in the near future. 3: You may be able to sell them at a 70% profit over face with the melting ban in place. A small market has developed for the coins. 4: You can always cash them in at face value. Just take them to your bank. 5: They use little space. Store them in a bucket or in bank boxes. Not to save : 1: The government might never remove the melting ban. It is possible that the government may never remove the melting ban. 2: Sorting is time consuming. By my estimates about 2 hours per box of 2500 cents. A machine can be bought or easily constructed to sort cents by weight. to speed this process up. A gravity fed machine could sort 2400 cents in 20 minutes. 3: The return would be higher in a mutual fund or something. If you have over $1000 to invest then yes. If not, can sell your future copper hoard to reinvest when you have enough. Don't hoard them forever as an investment unless you just like to have buckets of coins. 4: Your 401k contribution is not maxed out. Don't save cents for copper. Put that money in your 401k. I'm sure I missed some things. Please post your arguments for and against saving cents for the copper.
If you choose to save, hand sorting provides the opportunity of perhaps finding key dates or errors. :yes:
Takes me about 35-40 minutes because I look for S mints and wheats etc. Otherwise I could do them in about 25 minutes. And really when you get more than a few of them they do take up a lot of space. I have about 48 gallons of them now and sort of slowed down on mining recently. But the last week I have had lots of luck with boxes and CWR in finding IHC, two rolls of wheats etc.
I say save them. If worse comes to worse, they are still worth a penny. If there is still a ban in 30 years, just dump them. If not, then sell them for their copper. I personally don't see any problems with hoarding copper pennies. Plus, I usually go through coins for the fun of it, not really as an investment.
I save pre-82 copper pennies and all nickels. Why not? I just keep whatever I find in my pocket change. Spend the worthless change, keep the change that has value.
I recently started saving them aswell. I take out the wheats and look for any errors then back to the bank. Would be nice to melt them all one day and make a good amount but either way my kids love helping me and its a way for us to spend time together with something we all enjoy.
Great post donwonbob! I really enjoy hearing about coin collectors getting their family involved. Especially the kids. Family enjoying time spent together is such a precious gift. Cherish every moment.:yes:
I save all the copper cents I come across, I have about $30 face value in coppers, it's not something I actively search for but I keep them when I come across them. Someday they will be demonetized in my opinion, and then I'll sell them for scrap.
