I remember the penny crunch of 1980 when the copper value of a penny was worth more than the penny itself. Banks were paying $1+ for a roll of pennies to get some in circulation. My question is; would it be worth while to save circulated pre 1980 copper pennies in better grades? I have several rolls stashed back where I did this over the years when rolling up my loose change to take to the bank. I was thinking that if these era coins were supposedly melted for the metal content, that may make them a little more scarce, and thus worth a little more. What you do you folks think? Thanks in advance.
Copper never actually got up high enough to make a penny worth more than one cent. The high water mark for copper was around $1.46 if memory serves, which is just short. There was a cent shortage at the time and premiums were being paid so that businesses could make change. Remember that a penny was worth nearly four cents in our money now so it was more important to be able to make change. There's really little sense in saving any coin until its value exceeds its face. Of course if you wait you'll be competing with millions of others and the fed so you won't be able to get them. If you want to invest in copper it would be more cost effective to buy stocks or futures or even slabs since you'll get more for your money and they are easier to handle. There are some huge surprises brewing in all modern coins and this really includes the cents to an extent. In addition to the many rare varieties which have been overlooked for decades there are even regular issues being overlooked. Significant numbers of all the cents have been saved in rolls and bags over the years despite a huge drop off in savings rates in 1965 as mint marks disappeared, silver was removed from circulation, and regular mint and proof sets were discontinued. Worse yet the government promised the 1965 date would be used for the foreseeable future and the roll market for earlier BU coins was collapsing under these loads. Collectors left the hobby in droves and few bothered to continue their collections past 1964. These ubiquitous rolls and bags of the earlier dates have been flooding back into circulation for decades. The less common later dates have been trickling back. While probably there are still plenty enough of most dates to go around, those who actually collect the later coins have found some important anomalies. For instance all of the 1968 mint set cents have carbon spots!! On some these spots are still very small yet about 95% of these coins are essentially ruined coin collectors' eyes. 1984 cents (zinc) are little better and the individual damage tends to be even more severe. In the not so distant future it's entirely possible that some later coins will only be found nice in circulation. Oh sure, this is an outside possibility but it's a certainty that future collectors are going to wonder how we allowed these situations to develop and they will treasure some of the coins we've ignored so long.
