I know that the 95% copper cents are worth about 2cents apiece for their metal value, but would it be worth it to save all the copper pennies until copper gets REALLY expensive? (any input here is great, even opinions, especially since nobody can predict the future) As of now, I see no demand for copper cents, other than a few fools or scammers selling rolls for $5 on ebay (probably the same people selling 1 pound investment bars of copper for $50 when the spot is about $3.15...investment my butt!) but then again, for two rolls of pennies to someday be worth $3 or $4, well, that's a large return (percentage wise, anyways)
i keep all of them i find. i just put them into a 1 gallon ice cream bucket and put it in my closet. if copper does not rise like expected, you can still get your 1 cent back you paid for them. if copper does rise, you will have a pretty good stash of them and maybe sell them. a roll of pre 1982 cents are going for about $1.05 a roll right now for current melt value.
I save them. I don't know what to do with them yet, but there is no downside and it is possible that your description of copper as the "new silver" will not be far from the mark in a few years.
At this point, copper coins weigh too much compared to their melt value for them to be traded easily. I figure if the price starts rising, then a copper bullion market may develop like there is for silver. Also, 1lb = 16 oz x $3.15 = $50.40. Seems fair to me. EDIT: Oh, $3.15 a pound! :headbang:
Well I supposedly cleaned the bank out of pennies ($15, small bank, at closing, before the refill truck came). The only good finds were some UNC 60's & 70s, 4 1959, and 2 S mint circulated. They were about 90% pre 1982 cents, and they're sitting in rolls right now. I thought it was illegal to deface currency, so how does a market for melt value coins still exist? Do they send a record of how many coins were melted, or is it one of the things that the gov't overlooks? (not that I'm complaining)
You would need hundreds of thousands of coins. There must be easier ways of getting a load of copper surely?
Bama: The zinc cent was started in 1982, with a copper coating. But, they made both the original & the new type of cent for that year. Frank
First, yes it is (to my knowledge) illegal to deface US Currency. However, coins are not currency, that is paper money. [Webster's dictionary: Currency: the money in circulation in any country; often, specifically, paper money.] The defacement of coins was passed around the turn of the century because of the coin shortage caused by people creating 'love tokens'. The melting of silver coins was declared illegal around 1964-1965 because of the coin shortage, however, (I don't know the date) obviously this was reversed, or we would not have the lively trade in silver coins that we have today. Also, remember the 'Great Silver Melt' of 1980, when the price of silver went nuts. Therefore, coins can be melted. I remember that they were discussing passing a law to prevent the melting of copper cents back around 1982, but the price of copper dropped, and then it became a dead issue. Frank
thanks Treashunt. got a big old glass pig that i have been filling up with pennies for years. a whole bunch of pennies in them in multi muti thousands. I for one though it was illegal to deface or alter american coins. A lady brought in a santa clause quarter for her grand son. While i will be the last to defend these modern coin clads, it was still sad to see it in a way. Then you have those gold plated quarters. It is my understanding that one can actually counterfit coins as long as they are not reprensented as an orginal much like a painting but am not real sure . It just does not seem right to me.. but that is just me
"It is my understanding that one can actually counterfit coins as long as they are not reprensented as an orginal much like a painting but am not real sure . It just does not seem right to me.. but that is just me" Huh? No, I don't believe that it is legal to 'counterfeit' coins. Probably what you are referring to are the modern copies of coins that have grown by leaps & bounds. They have to comply with the Hobby Protection Act, and have the word "Copy" stamped on them in a clear place. But: "To Counterfeit is Death" . While they don't put people to death today for mass murder, it is still illegal.
Actually to look at this perspective, melting pennies down seems to be extremely ridicious. You might as well dig underground to steal real copper wires. For most countries, price increase of copper actually means trouble because what people who do next is to steal copper wires and sell them to metal scrapyard. On the other hand, the only place that apperciates a price hike other than people who hoard plenty of copper, is mines. Their cost production is pretty high and to offset it, higher price metals actually mean better future for them.
Treashunt is right as far as my understanding. There is a difference between replica and counterfeit. It is legal to make a replica coin with the word "COPY" on it. There are guidelines about the size that the word has to be and such. Counterfeit is made to deceive, to be passed off as authentic. It is always illegal to produce counterfeits. However it is not illegal to own counterfeits that have been produced... kind of backward logic, but.... The laws on defacing money are concerned with altering the money to try to pass it off as a different value. Essentially, you can do anything you want to your money. It's yours. There are just things that, if done, it becomes illegal to try to circulate the money. Melting coins is legal. It is not defacing. It is destroying. There is no law preventing it, however, if necessary to preserve the money supply, the government can institute a law. This is unlikely considering all of the talk of ditching the cent anyway. It would not take hundreds of thousands of coins to make it worthwhile. If you could get 2 cents a piece for them, 100 rolls or $50 would yield $100. You cannot get full copper scrap price/pound for them, though. The coins are 95% copper. This puts them into the category of #2 copper, which gets a lower price. #1 copper must be at least 98% pure, clean copper. I keep them. I believe that they will disappear from the money supply and in time will gain in value. Look at the old wheat backs. There are so many of them still out there, but they've been hoarded up. Rolls of circulated, common date wheats can sell for as much as $3/roll. I have seen those copper investment bars on eBay. 1 pound of pure copper stamped, blah, blah... at ~$50, and I have seen people buying them at that price. The buyers - well.... The sellers - Genius! Would I ever buy one. Not a chance, but, hey, if there are people who will buy it... more power to 'em. Makes me wish I had a home smelting kit. I might throw some cents in there... a bunch of pre-82's with some zincs in a proportion to make 92.5% copper 7.5% zinc, and market some 1lb. "Sterling Copper .925 fine" bars for $35. A substantial discount over .9999 fine copper. Stamp some neat pictures of Marilyn Monroe, astronauts, Santa... and they're also "art bars" not just a "wise" investment, but beautiful to behold.
I too save all the pre-1982 cents I go through, only that since I'm going through $100+ of cents every week to look for varieties, wheats, etc I probably won't keep that up indefinitely. As to downside, the only unfortunate thing is that there is a non-zero inflation rate so that you are constantly losing value if you only wind up turning in the cents for face value down the road.
