Copper Penny Question

As we know, the copper in pre-1982 pennies is worth about 3 cents per penny. Is there a market for pre-1982 pennies? Should I be hanging on to them, or is it a fool's errand to try to sell them for the copper?

 

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Alot of people have hoarded these, Thinking there might be a future in this!
HUMMMM, Let me think about it!!

 

there are some shops that will buy them.

 

You never know what the future will hold!
but I do keep Au/Bu one I find & re roll them

 

Right now it's illegal to melt them down for the copper but if copper gets high enough the government might allow it, or just call them in, instead of a gold recall we could have a "copper recall". The Trading With The Enemy act could make it illegal to hold copper bullion.

 

It is entirely possible that foreign markets could open up and start buying US copper coins in bulk. I do not think that is illegal. Of course then what they did with them would be outside US jurisdiction. China has opened up the privatization of precious metals which will likely drive demand in Asia for silver as gold is out of reach for a lot of people.
Who can say, but I think the Hunts are gonna be rich !

 

Travelers may take up to $5 in pennies and nickels out of the country, and individuals may ship up to $100 in these coins.Violators of these regulations face up to a $10,000 fine, imprisonment of up to five years, or both. ( Treasury's words)

For greater amounts, one has to get an exporter's permit and approval of the U.S. to do so.

 

So if people in China buy $100 worth of pre 1982 cents for say $150 and spend $25 a shipment, that's $202 worth of copper. Not a bad return, I think. I wonder how the number of shipments can be limited, if they are ?

And if it's possible to offer cent lots to Asia on eBay ? Even if they pay 2x face that could be huge profits. That is if copper reaches $4+
at $3.11 it may not be worth it.

 

If history is any guide to the future back in the day when they had a ban against melting silver coins, it lasted until 1969, by which time the silver coins had all generally been pulled from circulation and the new Johnsonmetal clad coins were circulating in high enough numbers that there was no longer a coin shortage.
It was about 5 years after 90% silver was no longer used for coins that melting became legal. It has now been over 25 years after copper has been used in cents and melting is Illegal.

Could it be because there are so many copper cents still in circulation? While the silver coins were pulled much faster?


Now we generally see in the area I live in, about 20-30% copper cents in circulation, so they are not being pulled as were the silver ones. This is mainly because most people could readily see the difference between silver coins and Johnson sandwich coins. The few people who are semi-knowledgable collectors have told me things such as, "pennies were made of copper before 1943, after 1943 they are made of lead, the pre-1980 pennies are copper, and the last copper pennies are 1981." Both statements sort of wrong but could be taken as partially right if viewed in a cockeyed sort of way.

Once those copper cents are more or less no longer in circulation, if history is a guide, then it will be legal to melt them.

Or since even our Johnsonmetal coins are mostly copper be something that probably never would happen?

I think it is now legal to melt them overseas, the way it is done is that they are exported as numismatics and then melted, if refiners pressure congress that they are 1. Losing business because of a law that is being evaded anyway. 2.That the gummint is also losing tax revenues.

I think that it will not be until copper is trading for at least 7 dollars a pound that melting will be made legal, and I do not think copper will hit 7 for at least 5 years, maybe ten or more. The reason I think that is because I do not think that refiners will want to bother with copper until it is worth more, and the taxes will also be negligible until copper is much more than it is today.

 

1. There is a market for pre-1982 cents - albeit quite small. You can throw them on ebay right now, but with their charges and Paypal charges, you're basically spending a lot of time rolling pennies for nothin'.

2. Is it a fool's errand? Hardly.

3. If you're pulling them from change, then put them aside. They'll take no space and they might be worth something someday.

4. If you're buying boxes and boxes of "pennies", and god-forbid you're looking at each coin in the roll.

Then there's nothing I got to tell you. (Go To #1 above - do not pass "Go", Do NOT collect $200....)

 

LOL. I look at every coin in every roll > LOL > Beats Oprah and I'm kinda limited on what physical things I can do. I did find a decent 1972 D Cracked die today though.

It's all good !

 

Here's a little bit for the argument of saving copper: here


"For the entire globe, the researchers estimate that 26 percent of extractable copper in the Earth's crust is now lost in non-recycled wastes."


Interesting read.

 

I guess I am saving them now. Of course, if the melt value goes up, then I imagine a lot of people would be taking them across the border $100 at a time. If you could get $250 for $100 face by taking it across the border, I imagine there would be a run on it ?

 

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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]$0.0192948[/FONT] is the melt value for the 1909-1982 copper cent on May 17, 2010. Then you have to add the refinery charge, and one estimate I found on the internet was that a pre-1982 cent would have a real dollar value of under 1.5 cent. Not sure if this includes shipping.
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Who knows, it might spike up with increased demand from developing countries and whatnot. Yes, at the moment it isn't feasible to melt the coins, however 10 years from now it might be a different story.

Plus with such a low price of investment (1 cent a penny), it doesn't bring much harm in saving them. I could see if they were 50 cent pieces or quarters, that would be expensive to save them. But pennies are so inexpensive, I have no problems in saving them whatsoever.

 

I don't know. It seems anything that has a real value of double what it costs you is worth saving, for sure. I mean if I could get silver right now for $9 an ounce, I would hock everything I own. LOL Even sell all my wife's stuff too.

 

hahaha good point, it's strange not to save something worth twice its value!

 

Is Hoarding Pre-1982 Copper Cents Pointless! is a thread I started with a poll attached.

 

Per slade's well known song - Run Runaway.... As already mentioned.

 

It may not run away, but I am convinced that every copper coin I buy at face, doublles my money. That is better than the bank or brokerage rate by far. AND my stop loss is at my purchase price. Like I said before, I wasn't hoarding them, but it makes sense to grab all I can.