copper hording?

I was doing a little research and I don't see how hording 1944-1982 penny's makes any sense at all. Considering that 1944-1982 penny's are 95% copper and 5% zinc which makes them BRASS not copper. Current price for brass is $2 lb. since 1lb of penny's is 200 penny's ($2 face) what is the point??? Also $2lb is the price for clean bright yellow brass which is market value. When you start looking at scape prices for brass you are losing money hording these penny's. Scape prices are $1.50 lb for yellow brass and less then .73 lb for contaminated brass. So unless you are scraping MS grade penny's ( which would sell for a premium over face) you would get .73 cents for $2 face value. Not a good investment in the least.

 

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The key is the 95% copper. Much different from common brass.

 

When they refer to "clean" it doesn't mean that it looks beautiful. It refers to not being combined with iron or other materials or metals. 1944-46 and 1962-early 1982 cents are considered red brass not yellow. Yellow brass has a higher zinc contentent than 5%. These cents are clean red brass no matter how brown they are in appearance. If you took these and epoxied them in a chunk with iron filings it would then be scrap brass or dirty brass. However, I don't advocate the hoarding of brass or bronze cents for future melting. I have stockpiled any date of memorial cents that would grade AU or better in hopes that they might turn toward the direction the wheats have gone now that the memorial design has been replaced. Even if melting was legal, would you melt your cash of wheaties? I think not. They are and will be worth more than melt.

 

I really don't see much in the Penny/Copper hording as well. I like copper as a possible last resort metal.
But, you can buy a nice 1 oz coin for $1-2. I read, it takes like 450 melted pennies to make 1 oz of 999. Copper.

 

That can't be true. 150 copper cents ways roughly 1 pound. Even after the zinc/tin is removed, that's still way over 1 ounce

 

my bad but red brass is still only $3.13 lb so once you figure in you're time sorting your still losing money. it would be better to spend your time collecting aluminum cans.

 

I have no idea about refining metals, but do you have source for that? I can't imagine that it takes around 3 pounds of 95% copper Cents to produce 1 oz.

 

I got it from some seller on ebay...

 

Ebay sellers, consistently, the most reliable and infallible sources!

 

You'll need a few buckets to make a profit!

 

Sounds similar to what people used to say about hoarding silver.

 

The seller was incorrect with his explanation, but the numbers are in range if you are melting post 1982 zinc lincolns. Each post 1982 weighs 2.5 grams +/-, and are 2.4% copper, so each cent has .06 grams copper. One avoir. ounce ( copper is not a PM, so not troy ounce) = 28.35 grams.
28.35/.06 = 472 cents, plus or minus.

 

Again we are talking BRASS not COPPER. if you want to horde COPPER then it would be better to horde copper pipe then penny's. you can get a pound of copper pipe with less effort then colecting a pound of penny's. Plus There is more value in minor die varieties of penny's then there is in the metal.

 

Indeed. In addition to copper pipe, uninsulated copper electrical wire is another alternative. Both have practical uses if the investment strategy doesn't pan out.

 

Honestly? I doesn't matter to me in the least. I search boxes and boxes of Lincoln cents. I keep anything pre 82 and why not, NOBODY knows what will happen in the future. You can look at all the models and stats you want, you still have NO IDEA what will happen tomorrow. If I'm roll searching it makes perfect sence to me to just throw them in a bucket. The single most important thing to remember is I enjoy it! There are many others that enjoy it as well. That is what this is supposed to be about isn't it?

 

Pre-1982 cents are bronze, not brass.

 

I keep all pre 1982 cents I find. I don't roll search I just keep the ones I get in change or find on the ground. If they ever are worth a significant amount of money then I'll sell them, if not I can still spend them. I don't think that copper will ever increase in price as fast as silver did. Silver has been valued by man and treated as a precious metal since the dawn of civilization. Copper has no such history, copper was used for tools.

 

Bronze = copper and tin 1864–1942 1946–1962 cent's are bronze (95% copper, 5% tin and zinc)
Brass = copper and zinc 1944–1946 1962–1982 cents are brass (95% copper, 5% zinc)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(United_States_coin)

 

Which brings us back to the contaminated brass issue (or contaminated bronze which ever way you look at it) So if you are not separating the dates into bronze and brass coins then you get less then $0.73 a pound. which equals a net loss from face value.

 

You can still remove the zinc from the copper. Granted, it will cost a bit more, but by the price of copper today, it would still be profitable.