It's only worth 1 cent. The copper value is not almost 2 cents. The copper value if you were allowed to melt it is 1/2 cent. Because a cent is alloyed, it is not pure grade A copper which is what the spot price is and why almost everyone thinks there's almost 2 cents worth of copper in a penny. You must extract the copper out of the penny. Allowed copper brings 25% of the spot price, you would need copper to go to $6 a pound to break even on the copper value of a penny. Copper is around $3 a pound and it's not going to $6. The highest it has ever been was $4+.
