copper pennies

I had a local guy wanting to sell 100,000 copper cents. His angle was that they were only "lightly" searched for errors and cherries. He also tried to say he was selling for less than spot, but his math was all wrong. Its 700 lbs of coins so it's not easy to transport and store it. From a numismatic or bullion perspective I feel like it's going to be a hard sell unless you find that right buyer.

 

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I agree with many of the above posts. I've been hoarding (mostly)copper pennies for nearly 20 years. I do it for the pure love of copper pennies. At the risk of coming across bumptious, I do not hoard them for any future financial gain, as I already have enough "coin". Gold and silver coins do absolutely nothing for me.......but I melt at the sight of a bright glistening copper penny. My bank gives me $300 (twelve $25 boxes) in pennies every Monday . Having maintained a business account with them for many years, I meet no resistance with this weekly request. January is the only month where I do not search through my pennies while watching tv at night, as I put 50 unopened boxes in storage every year..... since 2001. All of my pennies are kept in a locked room in my basement. I have no idea as to how much money in pennies(face value) I have, other than it is in excess of 100K. I could carry on in great length here in regards to my hobby (addiction), but will spare you the details......other than the following:

- I find approximately 20% in copper.

- Approximately 16 wheats per $25 box.

- Approximately 1 IH per 60 boxes, but had one box with 458 of them a few years ago. No MS or rare dates unfortunately.

- I can pretty much tell what I'm going to get ( heavy copper or many wheats etc.) after inspecting only the first 2 rolls.

-It takes me approximately 2 hours to polish off a box, while also following tv programs .

- Error coins are not my bag, so I most likely have let a few nice ones slip through my fingertips over the years. I separate and keep my circulated copper pennies in one box, bu '59 - '82 pennies in another, '83 - '89 bu in another, unc nicely toned in another, Canadian in another and oddities in another box.

 

Do you mean 100,000 cents ($100), or $100K (ten MILLION cents)?

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I think you meant $1000 , Jim

 

Yes. 700 lbs of copper cents is approx $1020.

 

Now you have me thinking about the total face value, Jeff. Every January since '01, I have saved 50 unopened boxes($25 ea.) and have marked the year on each box. Plus there are vast quantities of loose(not counted) boxes of circulated copper cents. It'll take me a couple of hours to get a rough estimate, but will do so this Saturday . Thanks!

 

Being copper cent blanks were manufactured to strict tolerances - if they were legal to melt - I doubt many cents would actually be refined. It would be too costly. They would be dumped in bulk as is into the melt pot and additional metals added to produce an intended copper alloy.

 

I'm not so sure about that. The vast majority of copper is used to make wire and tubing, and both of those are most often 99+% pure copper. You can't turn 95% copper into 99+% copper by adding metals, except of course more pure copper.

I'm not a metallurgist, certainly not a refinery chemist, but I'd think that once you've melted the metal, blowing air through it to carry out the zinc would be a no-brainer. Copper's melting point (1984°F/1085°C) is a good bit higher than zinc's boiling point (1665°F/907°C). As refining processes go, this one looks pretty easy.