I am thinking of getting into collecting pre-82 pennies. I have a few rolls now, but they seem like a sleeper, since they are going to get rid of the penny soon, and those real copper ones may go up in value some day. How much is a fair price for a roll of them? I want to buy some and sell some, so the "blue book" and "red book" prices have to be different.
Go to the bank, buy a box and buy them for one penny each..... it will take some searching, but there's LOTS of pre 82 pennies in a $50 box.
Not worth the time to roll search pennies IMO, but it is a potential collector's play. I picked up a few pounds of 98% copper Canadian pennies last year since they have already discontinued their penny, and the metal is more pure than US pennies which are 95%, and they are legal to melt in the US. For US pennies I just parse them out of my change, same with nickels.
I save the pre-82's I find, but I really get chits and giggles out of finding 100+ year old Lincolns.
SO your only talking about the 1909, 1910 1911 and 1912 cents you find in circulation, cause that's pretty narrow.
Pick them out of circulation---don't go and buy them and spend an insane premium. A couple of the online bullion dealers are dealing in copper now but the premiums are nuts. People actually buy them though. Coinflation.com gives you pretty current pricing on copper and shows you what the copper penny is worth as far as metal value in corresponding to copper spot price. Obviously there are a few pennies that pull a premium just in collector value but thats few and far between. If you are interested in putting away a bit a copper you might also consider getting a Ryedale penny sorter-it will sort out the copper from the zinc pennies for you.
It seems the market rate is 1.4 cents each. Sort yourself if you have free time, otherwise buy them cheap.
Wow, that's only 1% of face value! You must be really smart to get them for that price! And here I thought I was doing well getting them for face value at the bank. I have a lot to learn I guess
I'm not at all sure that they're getting rid of the penny soon. People have been saying that for a long time, and it hasn't happened. In fact I doubt it will in the next 10 years. If it does, though, I agree there's some money to be made on copper pennies, though I think they're a bad investment long term.
Copper is pretty expensive to refine for how much value you get out of the end product. I doubt premiums can go much lower. Melt value is one thing, but it's not everything.
Sure. A roll of pennies contains 50 cents. You said you were able to get them for .50 cents, or.5 cents, or 1/2 of a cent, per roll. .5 is 1% of 50, therefore 1% of face value.