Just a quick question. I have seen where a certain coin site is selling pennies made from I think 1982 and earlier. hey are selling these with the topic of how much the melt value is. I was not sure you could melt these types coins. This may be a dumb question, but if I don't ask I want know. Thank's. Ray
My understanding is...it is currently illegal to melt them. But, I know a lot of people are stock piling pre-82 cents for the day when they can be sold for melt. Who knows when that day will be.
Since all pre-82 copper cents are composed of a mix of copper and zinc, you should not assume that the current price for Grade A copper applies. If it were legal to melt them (which it is not) refiners would only pay about 25% of the Grade A price because it costs them money to reduce the coins to pure copper. Since there are about 182 Lincoln cents to the pound, if Grade A copper is selling for, say, $3.60/lb. you would be getting about 90c for them. Yes, this is a great deal! Isn't it! Chris
Actually if I'm not mistaken copper pipe solder is made out of 95% copper wouldn't that count as anything? Sent from my Z750C using Tapatalk
Thanks for all the information, I was just not certain how this was. I am a long time Morgan collector, right now working on a full set. I also collect the AE and most all the modern commemoratives and some of the older ones, along with several other silver and a few gold coins. I am going to stick with what I know. Again thanks for the info, Ray
