For people who hoard these, what do you see as your end game with them? Melt into bullets Edited: No political remarks allowed ~see rules, Sell a pallet full on ebay? https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coin-talk-rules.34131/ I realize the value they have but has anyone actually made cold hard cash off doing this? Who is on the buy-side?
I have to many pre 82 memorial cent bags and big water bottle full of cent. Will they cash out ??? Maybe but would lose a cent on it.
A pre-1982 cent contains less than 3 grams of copper; thus, a pound (454g) of copper requires about 153 cents. The current commodity price of copper is USD 2.90, for an advantage of USD 1.47 per pound... minus the costs of melting down the coins, extracting the zinc, finding a buyer, and shipping. I suppose you could try to sell the zinc, too... though you'd need over 2,850 cents to yield a pound of pure zinc--currently at about USD 1.06, minus all the costs, of course.
As another poster here frequently points out, the commodity price of copper is for "Grade A" purity metal; cents are lower-grade, and impose additional refining costs. But let's ignore that for a moment. Suppose we have hyperinflation, the dollar collapses, whatever. A hundred pounds of copper cents will retain their value -- of approximately 150 "pre-collapse" dollars. They might be worth ten million hyperinflated dollars, but you'll still need a wheelbarrow to haul in enough cents to pay for your groceries. Hoarding cents is relatively harmless as hoarding disorders go; they won't rot (at least not the copper ones), they won't burn, and while they certainly can crush you to death, boxes of them stack a little more stably than newspapers or clothing. But they aren't going to bring you wealth in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.
The price you quote is for Grade A (pure) copper. Reclamation centers do not pay this price for alloyed copper, which is what the Lincoln cent is. If you call the reclamation centers in your state, you will probably learn that they will only pay about 25% of the Grade A price for alloyed copper. Therefore, you would be losing about 80c on every pound of Lincoln cents. Chris
Yeah, plus your Special Assessment after the criminal conviction. And the prison guards will take your aluminum foil hat, too.
As we can see, it's not profitable if people were allowed to refine and sell the copper. At least not yet with the price of copper. Right now the only thing profitable would be to sell in bulk over face value, which some do on ebay or elsewhere. For all the work involved, it's not worth it to me. For example, selling 100 face of copper cents for 120 or 130 if I'm lucky after all fees involved isn't worth my time. I do think it's a good idea to have a small hoard, since it has intrinsic value and isn't merely token coinage.
Evidently, since the US is still producing cents that cost more to make than their face value, the Federal Government does not see a huge profit potential in these coins. I don't see why the local hoarder should unless, of course, they have a problem with hoarding.
I expect to see the copper cents in circulation for a while to come. People get tired of hoarding them and release them back into circulation, not to mention all of the coins in cup holders, etc that end up back in circulation after a while.
