Advice - Bucket of Coins 60s 70s 80s

I think the source of conflict here is that these sites talk about "melt value" of cents, but calculate that "value" based on the weight of copper in the coin and the price of pure copper.

The problem is that you can't just melt a bunch of cents and then sell the copper for that price, because (a) melting cents is illegal and (b) copper contaminated with tin or zinc is worth a lot less than pure copper. In that sense, talking about "melt price" is misleading.

But, as I said earlier, these do seem to trade at a slight premium in some markets, for whatever reason.

 

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First time I've been called an idiot on this page. I thought part of the idea of this forum was for collectors to help educate each other. Name callers should move to Facebook that's a much more fitting format.

 

It's a free country.

 

Perspective is everything.

The copper in the pennies is worth a couple cents each but they are illegal to melt and even if they were legal most people would have to sell them to greedy scrappers who retain most of the value as profit and to cover expenses. But the simple fact is that if you need this quantity of copper then it's worth 2c. I can assure you many are being used for washers, conductors, floors, and various other such purposes that are perfectly legal. And some are being used for more quasi-legal purposes like bronze for castings in art classes or home projects of various types. The law is set up principally to stop a market from forming in scrap copper that would rapidly cause huge increases in the number of zinc garbage to be made by the mint.

One man's garbage is another man's treasure and pennies are worth a lot more than 2c if you need to bridge the gap between a contact and an oversized connector. And this goes many times over if your stranded with nothing but change and a dead battery.

 

Most of the valuable coins from the era are either Gems or varieties but it might be worth looking for '82/ '83 dimes in BU. Errors are also potentially valuable.

Putting together collections of these is the best possible use for them and the knowledge gained is probably far more valuable than anything you'll find. The contacts you can make as a collector are even better yet. It pains me to say it but absent an interest in coins it probably is not worth the effort to give them too much more than a cursory glance. There are lots of "rare" coins in your hoard but they might never have a premium because so few people collect it.

 

Or, as those of us of a certain age were always warned not to do, using them to replace a burned-out fuse (with something that offers no protection at all against over-current). There was a day when houses had fuses instead of circuit breakers.

But heaven help you if you try to carry much of a load with a Zincoln...

 

Starting with sorting wheat cents then looking at the dates and mint marks would be a good choice

 

It wouldn't take much to melt it which might well cause a fire. With enough load the zinc itself would burn.

The only thing I've ever used zincolns for was to soak one in vinegar briefly for a zinc supplement and save a trip to the drug store. Of course zinc in such large quantities as a penny is highly toxic and enough to kill a baby. I ingested only a small percentage of it.

 

I'm torn between revulsion and admiration.

I'm guessing there wouldn't be enough heavy-metal-type impurities in the zinc to cause problems from a one-time dose, but I sure wouldn't want to make a habit of it...

 

I figure with all the garbage they put in the food now days it was probably one of the better things I ate that day.