"A nickel has the value of five cents and a penny has the value of one cent. Now it is your choice to hoard what make you more sense.
If you're in the USA, you may wish to consider hoarding pennies that are dated prior to 1982. That was the year that the one cent coin started being a zinc core with just a plating of copper. Prior to that, the penny was mostly copper. It wouldn't take much of an increase in the price of copper to make that interesting.
Thanks so much Peter for the good advice. And yes Ginger I know how much they are both worth but I did not know if either one was better in the terms of investing.
You should always consider your investment constraints and unique needs before, you need to lay them down before you ask anyone for investment advice, but Peter made it pretty clear, that should help you in making the right decission Good look
I have plenty of old pennies. But how serious are you when the copper in pennies is worth more than the penny? I'm not too sure.
Well, it is fairly easy to figure out. Just using some rough numbers. There are about 148 pennies to make a pound in weight. Prior to 1982, the one cent coin from the US (we can go into coins from other countries if someone is interested) were 95% copper. So, just round it up to 155 or so pennies for a pound of copper. Take a look at this article about the current conditions for the copper market. They peg the price at $4.40 per pound. Something about that calculation tells me that pre-1982 pennies are going to be vanishing very quickly.
Cool it has to be. But many think on the other way with correct assumption. Fortunately I am not from USA. Thanks
I like pennies because they are worth more. And nickels are 75% copper so go call your scrap dealer and he will only give you half the amount but with pennies they are 95% copper so you will get full price for them. But it also comes to whether you want to take the time to sort the pennies. With nickels they all haves the same composition so there is no need to sort.
This now makes me wonder though, isn't it illegal to melt down legal tender for metal purposes? I thought it was. If it isn't that's another story. But if it is, how would you go about doing this then, and where could you sell it without getting in trouble or being penalized for it?
That's what I thought. So in reality, what does it matter to be saving up 1982 and prior pennies for the copper content if you can't even sell the copper content? Is there a reason? Do people believe it will be legal later down the road to melt down coins and currency for the metals they contain?
US goverment might want the copper back - Buy back from the US goverment? Sometime in the future copper will rise, it must. To bring copper back into the economy, maybe pennies will be allowed to be melted for metal. I'm not sure, just a rough guess. But they probably will be able to be melted in a few years.
