I see a lot of "mints" selling, and a lot of people buying, copper rounds. This is something that has me scratching my head. I can understand buying copper as an investment but, do you really need to buy copper for the sake of buying copper? I mean, every time you throw away an electrical appliance (worn out electric shaver, hair dryer, television gone dark, etc., etc.) aren't you throwing out copper in the cord, and in the inside of the appliance? I don't buy copper rounds, but I've got a bucket in the garage that I keep "scrap" copper in - I cut the cords and peel the plastic coating off and save the copper. If it's something with green board in it, I also take that in to the recycling center (there's silver and gold in that green board). I paid for the copper in the appliance once, why would I throw that out (or send it to be recycled for "free") and then turn around and pay someone for a copper round? Should I buy a furnace and a crucible and "mint" my own rounds? Would that make it acceptable?
Never really appealed to me. I almost bought a tube of 1 oz rounds just to have some, but instead decided to throw that money towards more gold as I came to my senses.
Chris , I love medals that were made to commemorate an event usually somewhat officially , and I can see a copper round if someone really like the art . But buying an oz of copper just for the copper doesn't seem prudent to me at least . JMHO
I buy them because I like a particular design, and they are cheap. I'm certainly not buying them to get rich with the "future" copper bull market.
Eh, they are cheap. As a metal play the markup over spot is simply outrageous so it is silly for that purpose. However, for a cheap example of a design you like there is not any harm.
There's a third reason to keep a few on hand. They make a great hefty, moderately-impressive (but cheap) item to throw in a $25 or $50 coin deal, i.e., flea market transactions. A lot of collectors have only marginal knowledge of them, and even more have never held one in their hand. Great giveaway to seal the deal! Otherwise, I can't think of many reasons to "collect" them. I will confess, I thought about buying a tube of Ron Paul copper rounds, think someone on CT had them available a year or two ago.
Gotta agree. Some people really get into collecting all the different designs for whatever reason, maybe they simply like the design and like collecting them, who knows. Then there's the collectors who buy all the hype about copper being the last frontier and if you collect today, you will be on the ground floor when the prices spike upward tomorrow. Is that foolish, I don't know not for me to say but I will say I wouldn't collect them rounds for nobody's business.
Personally I don't collect copper rounds, but I have friends that do. They say it is a great way to collect various designs in an affordable manner.
i bought a tube of each Zombuck that came out so far in copper 1 oz rounds, i give them away to kids in family at xmas an b-day's, they love em! 1 boy about 10 yrs old was so excited he is now collecting halves an golden dollars, to see these kids faces when i hand them out and to have at least 1 kid interested in coin collecting was worth every cent i spent on all the tubes of copper i bought...
Now there's a great reason . But I also like the idea of giving Buffalo nickels and Indian cents , even wheats cents . What was even nicer was when my Niece's little 5 year old girl wanted to get me some coins for Christmas . Her father took her to a local coin shop and with her own money bought me a Buffalo and a Indian cent , I love those coins and smile every time I look at them . The Buffalo is dateless but it's priceless to me .
In my opinion, the perceived market for copper rounds is all smoke and mirrors. An invention of bullion makers to take advantage of people who will buy anything if it looks like a coin. The strange thing is ...they were right and are making money hand over fist. Where else do you see someone selling something that cost $3.00 a pound for $1.50 an ounce? I'm amazed that folks spend hard earned money on something so inflated but my hats off to the bullion makers. Fortunately, I'm to smart to bite on that deal but it's proof that people with buy anything if you stamp and old coin design or a buffalo on it. What's next? aluminum rounds ...sshhh...they just might start making them. Darn ..they already do. I guess I missed that boat as well.
They DO make aluminum rounds, LOL -- all those hundreds of designs of Mardi Gras tokens ("throws") of the past 10, 20, 30 years. Some of the really old ones sell for $50+. And they don't even weigh an ounce! Gotta have a complete set! Now they come in various colors of anodized aluminum, now my set's not complete, so they'll sell you a few leftovers (after Mardi Gras).
I hear you, but then we have to assume folks buy it purely for the metal content. I believe for most part that isn't the case.