copper cents

I pay for most of my store transactions with cash and enjoy seeing what i will get back in change. I have collected copper pennies for around 10 years and have gathered quite a few. Has anyone else noticed that they are getting harder to find? Does anyone else on this site collect them?

 

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I don't save them because there is little value to the copper. They are 95% copper but the copper prices we see are for pure copper. The cost to refine cents to make it pure, makes it a waste of time. I may be wrong in 10 to 20 years.

 

That's my understanding.

My guess is that there are a larger number of beginning collectors these days.
I don't know about others in here, but I rarely get change anymore.
In my case that's because most stuff I pay for is done with a credit card.

I can remember the time (early 60's) in Montana and Alaska when I'd have a bunch of silver dollars in my pocket.
Pants pockets didn't last very long in those days

 

Back in the 90's I ran a baseball card shop. Once a week I would
buy 10 rolls of cents along with other coinage. Sorted thru the rolls
for the copper cents. From two rolls of cents I averaged 38 copper pieces.
Quit collecting the copper cents around 2003 when I filled my second
5 gallon jug. By then I was finding around 20 per two rolls.

 

They are getting harder to find all the time. I have been saving pre 83s for years. One day I'll sit down and put together a few copper memorial cent albums. It's a low cost way to feed my coin habit.

 

I’m working on setting some free (back into circulation). Lol

 

I pull the pre 1982 copper cents from circulation and put 50 in a roll. Then I sell them in my antique shop for $1.00 a roll. It’s not much but it’s fun and it doubles my money.

 

I like to make change to see what might find its way to me. But I don't save the copper cents. As others have noted, it's not worth it. Also, keep in mind that the Zincolns are produced in vastly larger quantities than the copper cents were. Every year, that population grows while the copper cent population diminishes at a slower rate given collectors and hoarders. In present times, billions of cents are produced and saturate the field with Zincolns. It's less a case of Copper cents vanishing and more the case we are getting more and more Zincolns.

 

Bad money drives good money out of circulation.

 

Yeah, but new money drives old money out of circulation, too, if only by diluting it in the overall population. The composition of the five-cent nickel hasn't changed in almost 80 years, but the vast majority of nickels I see in change (what little I handle any more) are post-1980. When you look at the mintage numbers, it makes sense.

Edit: but of course people like you and me hasten things along. That's why my profile says I'm a Gresham's Law enforcement officer.

 

I just did a quick check and rounded the figures. From 1941 to 1981 just over 95 billion copper cents were minted. From 1983 to 2006 a little over 260 billion zinc cents were minted.

Yes I’m missing the first 32 years of Lincoln Cents but the mintages are low. And I didn’t add the last 16 years of high zinc cents mintages.

In a 40 year period of copper cents and a 23 year period of zinc cents there is a large spread of 165 billion more zinc cents minted than copper.

You can add in the first 32 years of copper cents and the last 15 years of zinc cents but the spread only grows. Zinc Cents are being produced at an alarming rate as compared to copper cents. 17 years less production and 165 more is more than I care to think about.

Yes, copper cents are becoming more difficult to find in circulation and one day a copper cent that’s circulating will be like finding a Wheat Ear Cent today.

 

Nickels are probably the only denomination that applies but then the design change helped that along.

 

Hmmm nope! I can’t lol! Dad’s. But that’s good… $$$

 

Well, there is one factor weighing against Zincolns taking over: their built-in self-destruct mechanism. A hundred years from now, "cents" won't be "circulating" at all, I expect -- but the number of surviving copper cents might well be higher than the number of surviving Zincolns.

 

Yes as one says, they don’t care for “zincolns”. They will preserve as the copper ones. Soft etc. Have to protect them better I would think.

 

Comparing them together, zincs show the wear but with an older ones can find nicer than the zincs.

 

It's illegal to melt copper cents. I never could understand why. If we can melt silver and gold coins, why not copper ones?

 

It’s illegal to destroy any currency to be honest. Or used to be!

 

I think that the LWC population is approximately 72 billion over 50 years of production. Contrasting that against latter LMC/LSC zinc productions, it only takes 8-10 years of production to match. Thankfully, copper cents stand the test of time.

It takes an act of congress. Until that happens...if ever...it'll be illegal to melt cents.

 

I agree but I won’t be around to see it. Lol