Is Hoarding Pre-1982 Copper Cents Pointless!

Even though I spend them or cash them in, if you want to take the time to sort them, it could be worthwhile. There's currently 2.5 cents worth of copper in each one!

The weight and hassle keep me from doing it though.

 

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I just roll searched $50 in cents and, I only keep 70-s and anything prior. IMHO, sure they are worth 2.5c each but the reality to me is that I highly doubt there will be much profit in bringing them to be smelted. Just the gas to drive to have them smelted, the taxes and premium will take a very large portion of your earnings.

 

You can sell them on Ebay for a premium right now...

 

Yea, I guess that IS a problem. Let's assume if you took $100 worth of pre 82's in to melt. That's $100 worth of pennies, 10,000 coins.
How would the person accepting them be able to ell if the were what you would say? The only way I could think is that there would
have to be some sort of machine to feed them through.

Then you have the collecter. WHat if I wanted to purchase someones hoard of pennies? Is someone who buys them going to actually sit
there themselves to go over each coin to make sure they are not getting ripped off? Does that mean that I should engineer and crate a
personal portable penny sorter?

 

$200 Face sold for $355

$100 Face sold for $177.51

Here are some links for all the nay sayers believing copper cents aren't for keeping!!!

 

Wow....those are some good returns.

 

"Don't Be Silly, earn interest and put them into a Savings Account!!!"

Huh?!?
Have you seen interest in savings accounts lately vs bank costs and inactivity fees?

Heck, you make more on hoarding just by saving the fuel to make a savings deposit!
J/k, but it's not too much of a stretch...

 

My theory is that when more and more start to get melted for their copper value, they will become harder to find and more valuable. Not sure if that will ever happen but i sure hope it does!!!

 

I go through a box of pennies twice a month , I always pull atleast 20 wheaties mostly 40-50's along with some random foreign coin. To me it works out good to roll hunt copper and silver because I do this while getting paid 10.50 an hour lol. I have about thirty pounds of U.S. copper cents and plan just holding onto them unless I need to sell them. Also instead of ebay try selling on craigslist, just be careful and always meet in a safe public location when doing transactions. One guy offered me .60 cents a roll on there, I declined the offer but it does show there are people out there willing to pay over face for circulated copper cents.

 

20 wheaties in a box would be WAY above average here in Texas.....my boxes are more like 5 to 8.

 

I regret not saving more Wheaties when they were still in circulation back in 57-58, before the Memorials came out. I refret not saving more of the 1960;s when they came out with large and small dates. Well, not gonna happen again. Since the copper melt is 2.6c for every one i hoard, my ultimate goal is to stash back 1,000,000,000. I have a long way to go, but every one gets me nearer my goal. Then when the ban on smelting them is lifted, I am gonna be rich !! I can start a registered set of whatever I want with profits from the sale. lol

gary

 

Where can you store a billion cents? and can you afford to take 10 million out of your current buget? lol OK, OK, I know it is an exageration, but I couldn't let that go...

 

I will hold on to them unitl storage becomes a problem. I don't spend cash very often so I don't get too many. Ocassionaly I'll find one on the ground. I don't think it's worth it right now to actively looking for them by roll searching. You're better off looking for silver.

 

Sure, but the problem I have is that in the last 3 boxes of dimes, I have found only one silver one a 1948 P. I haven't found a single Silver Quarter in more than a year. But I find a few copper cents in every roll. Albeit fewer all the time, but they are still there. The whole point of roll searching is to find something. And it's nearlty impossible for me to find silver, so copper I will collect.

gary

 

The one sure thing in the markets right now is copper. Simply put.....the mines can not, and will not meet the demand that is coming from China. Sure, none of Us know how much more copper will rise, but hoarding those copper cents can`t hurt.

 

It's just something some of us do. I have a huge wine bottle and I am filling it with pre-82's but most are wheatback cent pieces. It's not for the melt of copper, it's to put aside some great looking older cents. It's strange that the poll which is trying to gain information tries in the choices to say that ppl are idiots if you collect Lincolns ie;

Yes, Hoard them and guard them with your life!!!

I don't guard them with my life but I do collect them.
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No year is reminted after the die is destroyed, unless it's a copy from China. There will always be more collectors than some of the coins. I believe there will be a demand for copper cents some day. Maybe 200 years from now. I just feel that saving the copper cents accomplishes something. After all, it doesn't cost you anything at all. If you get in a bind, you can cash them in for face value or even sell them on eBay for a small profit.

It just seems to make good sense to save copper cents.

gary

 

Description Denomination Metal Value Metal % of Denomination
1909-1982 Cent (95% copper) * $0.01 $0.0295306 295.30%


- just an update from CoinFlation

 

I just pulled 462 more from the last box. The melt ban will be lifted soon, because cents are no longer made from copper and the trillions of new cents make the limited mintages of copper ones seem trivial in comparison. That should also hold true if the cent is dropped from production altogether. You know 2 boxes ago, I counted 2100 - 2010 D cents in the mixed rolls. Not like a few months ago when the rolls were unopened bank rolls of them. It has made searching very much more challenging than it has been. Also so many zincolns rot away, that you wonder if any of the rare ones like the 92 D CAM will be found in the future. I read that 5% of cents are lost to damage every year.

gary

 

Nice facts 10gary22!