Is Hoarding Pre-1982 Copper Cents Pointless!

I was recently contemplating the concept of separating out the pre-82's. However, my mental stumbling block is finding an outlet to sell them. While all the opinions expressed in this thread are quite interesting, the only suggested method of selling them was on ebay. (and with the fees and shipping, the profit margin shrinks too low.)

Will dealers buy them? Pawn shops? Scrap yards?

How could you effectively sell them?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

If I wanted to make a profit from pre-1982 95% copper memorial cents , I would save and roll all the XF-AU's from that period. Once I had a $25.00 bank box full of rolls , I would list it on eBay with a reserve price of $50.00.

The cost of reserve pricing on there now is like $2.00. I would only need to post 1 photo of all the rolls in the box so as to avoid paying an additional 15cents for more photos.

Offer to split the shipping with the winning bidder 50/50 which will cut your realized sale price by $5.00 from medium flat rate box priority mail.

If the item sells then you would take off approximately 18% more for eBay & PayPal fees.

That would leave you with a profit of about $8.00 ( more if it gets bid up over your reserve price ).

 

I would say the best way to save yourself from a waste of time would be to save what you can and sell it when you can. Save some up, sell on ebay, then take the money and put it into more bullion or junk silver coins, as both will serve the same purpose you are trying here, just more reliabley.

 

Don't worry about how to sell them. This is the time to collect them. If the divergence between face and intrinsic value continues to widen, a market will eventually develop for them.

 

That's absolutely the point, if you could go back and get all the wheaties you wanted at face value today, wouldn't you?

 

Just a side note to those of us who do save 1959-1982 cents: Even if you do not realize it , by saving them you are actually holding out hope that there will be a future.

 

Without going through 5 pages of posts - has anyone mention if and how to melt them into ingots - even if small ones?

 

That would not be a legal activity.

 

Interesting as we always talk about the "melt" value of silver coins and the fact that many silver coins were indeed melted/smelted since they stopped being a central part of circulating coins. Hmmmm...

 

The law only pertains to cents and nickels. It was just past like in 2006, IIRC. I think the law is funny, because it was intended to keep people from melting the coins to keep them in circulation. I think it is funny because now we have hoarders, which are removing the coins from circulation. Seems the law didn't succeed in what it was attempting to prevent.

 

They historically did the same thing with silver when they decreased its content than further removed silver from circulation altogether. They only put a law against melt long enough to withdraw as many as they wish, than they lift the law and you will be able to sell them at melt to any junk yard

 

Please help me out - which reduction in silver content are you speaking of? I only know of the 40% halves - but dimes and quarters went from 90% to zero - well, in modern history anyway - LOL Also, when was the "do not melt"ban in effect for silver?

Sorry, been collecting since the 50's - but appears my knowledge is old too.

Thanks!!

 

Specifically, the new regulations prohibit, with certain exceptions, the melting or treatment of all one-cent and 5-cent coins. The regulations also prohibit the unlicensed exportation of these coins, except that travelers may take up to $5 in these coins out of the country, and individuals may ship up to $100 in these coins out of the country in any one shipment for legitimate coinage and numismatic purposes. In all essential respects, these regulations are patterned after the Department of the Treasury's regulations prohibiting the exportation, melting, or treatment of silver coins between 1967 and 1969, and the regulations prohibiting the exportation, melting, or treatment of one-cent coins between 1974 and 1978.

usmint Here is a link from where I found this information for you.

 

One huge difference between the 67-69 ban on melting silver coinage and the more recent ban against melting copper cents is that today all circulating US coinage contains copper. Knowing and trusting Mr. Dickens assessment of the general characteristic of the law, I would guess that the worry is that lifting the ban on melting copper could raise the price of copper used in coinage and then it would be possible that all coinage would end up being more intrinsically valuable than the nominal (face) value.

Probably not, imo since the use of copper for coins is a fraction of its use. The rising value of copper would be more due to the unreasonable practice of attempting to secure political support thru redistributing money according to political loyalties than to people pulling pre 82 cents for smelting.

Just as a note, this message is not politically partisan since many examples can be furnished of political actions that both major parties have enacted that took money from the people and gave it to those that support them.

One recent proposal is to allow the director of the treasury to bypass congress and change metal composition for coinage as he sees fit. This would be a huge mistake since it could be used to benefit politically connected companies, and would further intrude the political fly into the public business ointment.

 

Not to me!

I keep pre-1982 and nice clad, spot free AU to BU. I posted this earlier, before I looked to see if there was a hoard thread. Pays to pay more attention to existing threads, me thinks.:smile

 

So I have read threw this whole thread and I go with hoard them which I have been putting them aside every time I go threw a box of pennies. I go threw boxes of pennies just for fun to find wheat pennies but save all the pre 82s as well. I know have about $150 in pres. Now for putting these aside on spare time and the time spent doing it I consider having fun this is a decent profit in my opinion.... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250708061591&ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT So say ebay and paypal take 20% thats about 45 dollars and then pay for shipping is another 10 dollars so that leaves the seller with 170 dollars left for 100 dollars in pennies. In my opinion getting $70 for spending my time having fun in my home is a pretty good deal!

 

There are a lot of new members here on CoinTalk so I think on this mischief night I will revive this thread

 

Funny how our tastes can change. I no longer hoard 1959-1982 copper Lincoln Cents. I will save special specimens but no more bulk saving. I spend more time selling now than searching/buying.

 

I keep most of them for those squishing machines. The new pennies wind up with silver streaks. I figure that if I can corner the market on pr-82 pennies, I can sell them at a premium wherever a squishing machine is located.

 

that is pretty awesome wish that would work while roll searching for silver!!