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Message:: [QUOTE="Omegaraptor, post: 8647055, member: 76105"]I also found this from a very very old post on the PCGS forums: "The reason Classic Heads come scummy is that most of them were melted for their copper. What was left was the odd piece or two that was saved or stragglers still in circulation. Historical records show that during the War of 1812 the price of copper soared from 20 cents to 80 cents per pound. At 80 cents per pound, a cent was worth nearly twice face value as metal. As the price of copper soared, manufacturers and traders grabbed up any copper they could find, including cents and half cents. This lead the Treasurer of the US, Thomas Tucker, to recommend the MInt cease distributing copper coin on Nov. 13, 1814. However, it was already too late and the Mint didn't listen anyway. In 1816, Congressman Elias Root raised a bit of a stink about this (see Annals of Congress, 14th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 694 - 695) but by then the price had dropped and no one paid heed. In all, an my best guess is that 7 - 8 million cents and perhaps 1- 2 million HCs disappeared into the melting pot. But then this was only one of the melts of copper coin. During what I've called "The Great Mint Melt" from 1857 - 1880, the Mint records detail the melting over 38 million LCs and 1 - 2 million HCs were melted by the Mint for use as copper in new cents or as alloy of silver and gold. In sum, we're lucky there's any early copper left at all."[/QUOTE]