Why keep the copper?

No idea why people are doing it except thinking it will be the next silver rush one day, when copper is like 20 cents a cent or some such nonsense and them trying to stay ahead of that curve.

I do hoard wheat cents that I find. I draw the line there though, because I don't ever see refining copper cents as a profitable endeavor.

I have no idea why people hoard the 1959-1982s except they have extra space for it.

 

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If this is done with full disclosure, I see no problem with it.

I'm not interested in buying such, but I commend the entrepreneurial spirit.

Though, I'm with Hoarder'92. I collect and hoard as many 99%+ purity nickel coins as I can as I see more upside in the future for nickel 'bullion'.

 

People hoard used tissues.

You don't need external motivation for hoarding.

 

1964-1970 period
Why hoard the 90% silver coins? Worth more than face value?? Yes (About $1.05 per $1 face) Can you reclaim the silver?? No (during that period it was illegal to melt down silver coins) What's the point?

That's why people hoard the copper cents. They are hoping history will repeat itself.

 

And they aren't thinking it through.

A roll of silver quarters "held its value" (as a very rough approximation). In the early 1960s, it was around half a day's good pay; today, it's still about half a day's good pay.

Today, a roll of copper cents will buy me -- 15 minutes' parking, or a quarter of a loaf of bread. I don't care if they "hold their value" decades down the line. If they're worth $10, but a loaf of bread costs $40, I still don't want to carry all those rolls of cents to the grocery store. Or carry hundreds of pounds of them to a scrapyard.

 

People out there hoarding cents since 1982 though... you'd think they'd take the hint that copper price is really never going to be worth the costs to refine the 95% copper cents back to pure copper. Maybe a copper cent is worth .03 melt now, the scrap guys still gonna give you a cent for it even if it gets close to 5 cents melt and they opened it up to scrapping. There's so much better and easier copper to recycle out there I don't see it ever happening.

 

As I said, hoarding is its own reward. The stories we tell ourselves about why we're doing it are just that -- stories. Rationalizations. But, humans being what we are, we'll defend those rationalizations to our last breath.

 

1. It's a cheap 'something to do'
2. Even if you aren't personally going to wait for the 'legal melt' possibility, there are plenty of people who are, and that's who will pay you 2 for 1 for them.
3. That said, if you're picking up boxes of cents at the bank in a CRH pursuing such a thing, you're out of your flippin' mind.

Personally, I do look at all mine, look for errors, etc., and give all the pre-zincolns to my nephew, who is keeping what he finds, without CRHing himself. He manages a comic shop so he he gets lots of change to look at.

 

Personally I'm putting my money into cardboard...