Holy Cow, where did all the copper go?

As last weekend approached, I thought I would enjoy the weekend by doing some massive roll searching. So I bought 6 boxes of cents/pennies at 3 different banks. Yes, it is a sickness, and no, I do not think I will get rich doing this. The first two from bank X have been searched and yielded typical results. The next 4 boxes were a stunning discovery. These 4 boxes, two from bank Y and two from bank Z were ALL zinc pennies. No, not all brand new pennies, but all circulated zinc and ALL were dated 1982-2007. It was as if the copper fairy just took all the copper away. Again, this was 4 boxes from two completely different banks (not branches) one from the east side of town and one from the west side of town. Somebody or something took all the copper out of what I imagine was a HUGE batch of pennies. The boxes were actually dated the same (3/5/08) with the same CWI and inspection number so they all were boxed up on the same day but delivered to different banks. I was stunned and could not believe it So, what conclusions should I draw from this:

1. Somebody searched an enormous amount of pennies that all ended up in several boxes and it was an incredible coincidence that I got them, or:
2. Somebody within the distribution process has devised a mechanical way to extract copper from circulation.

 

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Sorry, my bad. I guess now one of us is going to have to move. j/k

And yes, there is a mechanical way to extract copper from circulation. Check out the website here... and here is a video of it in action.

I only had this happen once in my lincoln roll search. 10 rolls from a national bank were all zinc including the 82's. I now stick to smaller community banks and S&L's and ask only for "customer rolled" coins. Haven't been skunked since.

And what do I do this morning? Pick up 20 plasti-wrapped rolls from a Wells Fargo. We'll see how it goes tonight.

 

Sorry, you must have been the recipient of my Zincoln rejects

 

Face it. There are more and more people picking these coins out.

Also there are people on this forum http://realcent.forumco.com/default.asp
that literally do sort out boxes and boxes of cents.

I suppose it'll start to get like looking for silvers in Kennedy boxes!

 

I can see it now... lincoln searchers will now have to register with CT providing where they live and when they move into another neighborhood. :mouth:

 

I got a box like that a couple of weeks ago but the stuff I've got since then has been back to the normal mix of pre and post 82s

 

HI, don't forget that the 1982 & 1982 D that weigh 3.11 grams are copper. The zinc 1982 & 1982 D cents weigh 2.5 grams.

 

If they ever start letting people melt these again in the future, pre 1983 cents might get scarce if copper soars.

 

They will never let you melt them. They the all mighty them that is.

 

didnt they say that with silver years ago?

 

Broke my first rule and sure enough.... no copper. JUST SAY NO TO PLASTIC!!!!. Argggg :headbang:

 

Well, i think its the duty of the collectors to ensure that ample examples are saved from the smelter. Using machines to sort out the copper cents will surely miss key date coins. If they ever do allow melting in the future, many coins may be somewhat scarce even with huge mintages.

 

Ah, but there's the rub. Whilst the gov't will never 'allow' you to melt them, the after-market for copper cents is and will continue to thrive and someone, by hook or crook, is melting these coins.

This sort of prohibition on the part of the gov't hasn't worked for the past 5,000 years, why on earth would it work today?

Do a google on The Frogs by Aristophanes and spend a few minutes reading it. Quite a few references to the gov't debasing the currency and the relative merits of the old good stuff vs. the new junk.

peace,

rono

 

Whilst the government can prohibit the melting and export of the cents, they cannot do practically anything about hoarding the coins. Similarly in the 1960's the mint tried to take steps to stop the nasty "coin hoarders" removing silver from circulation, but what could they do about it? They lost the battle with the devaluation of the dollar that creates situations where metals evaluate against the value of the currency they represent.

 

Melting

Sometime ago I was surfing the web to learn more about the coppers and came across an article that reported a person in Texas (sorry Texans)
that buys coppers and sells them to Mexico for melting.
Sure wish I could find the actual page to prove it.

I am sure if there is one in Texas doing this there are more in other places doing the same thing. Whether or not it is legal doesn't really play into what we feel about how coins are used or abused. These people could care less if some great-never-been-discovered-yet coin variety crosses their path.

This is one of the reasons when someone advertises via the internet, be it on coin forums or otherwise, that they want to buy bulk wheats my defenses go up and I say... why?

jeankay

 

Gresham's Law at work. It's inevitable.

 

Queen Elizabeth I of England's great financial advisor, Thomas Gresham, and his oft quoted "Bad money drives out good". And do notice that has multiple meanings, but the same result. IE when the money goes bad, then so does the government. One of the fundamental foundations that kept Elizabeth I on an otherwise shaky throne was that her coinage was always sound making her government popular. Coupled with her cult of personality, she lasted 45 years longer on the throne than most expected she would.

 

That is certainly discouraging. I just bought a box of pennies from my bank that I'm going to start on tonight. Maybe I'll have better luck than you. Thus far, my earliest Lincoln cent roll find was a 1920-P. Fingers crossed.

 

I went through a box two weeks ago and found about 40% copper. One of my better searches...

 

I just went through twenty rolls today. I usually look for pre-1982 and wheats. I found 25% pre-1982 and four wheats. These pennies were from a local bank. Is there a way to tell if a 1982 cent is copper without a scale? What is the year that Canada changed their cents from copper?