Part of my sustainability project for coin collecting is that it be affordable, to this end, I have been buying a few rolls of cents and searching them, mainly to separate copper from zinc, but also to pull wheat cents and s mint marks. I have also been checking for certain errors, and accumulating the new commemorative cents. What I do with the zincolns is easy, they go back to the credit union the wheaties I just hold for now, the copper has me thinking about some experimentation, perhaps trying some home smelting, and making some bars, or fashioning a die and coining some tokens myself. I will need to do some research, I had heard that it is illegal to melt copper us cents for export, I have heard conflicting information about any alteration of US coinage, but I do not see any indications that hobo nickels are being seized by the gov't, so I think that the spirit of the law is that since it cost the mint so much to make them they do not want those coins taken out of circulation and create a shortage that will cost more to alleviate. I have not seen any evidences of any coin shortage, such shortages have occurred in our historical past, such as during the Jacksonian era and the civil war, turbulent times, so it may be that the laws are intended for exporting. One thing that I remember a few years ago, but I have not seen it much lately is men wearing copper bracelets, they were worn to alleviate rheumatism, but wether they were efficacious in that regard I doubt since I do not see them being worn anymore. copper cents could be easily used for buttons, a little four hole punch could make them to be easily sewn on shirts or coats. Coins have been used for jewelry for years and in many cultures. The book "skeletons of the zahara", mentions the bedouin tribeswomen using coins in bracelets, headbands, necklaces and for ornamentation for the domestic animals. Back in the late sixties, early seventies there was a shortlived fad of taking soda bottles and heating them and then stretching them out, perhaps another experiment could be to see if copper cents could be so treated. My fathers main collection were the us large cents I never saw the collection, I heard that when his second wife divorced him she sold the collection for a song, one of my sisters asked for his lincoln collection, which she now has, I had went through them, sorted them into rolls, this was done very early in my duties as executor, so there probably were things that I did not understand the value of, he did have one excellent brockage example, that at the time I had no clue what it was. In my roll searching the one thing I have been searching for, and have yet to find is a 1983 copper cent, from research I have heard that a few copper planchets from 1982 were used in 83, but so far I have not seen any, even for sale. The way I check is when I am separating copper from zinc, I pull the 82 and 83 cents and weigh them later. Another little random thought was how consistent the mint is in the production of cents, working with other metals, where thicknessess and weights can vary quite a bit our US mint puts out a pretty consistent product. Think of it, if you get a 98 % on a test in school you get a solid a grade, if the mint were to produce coins 98% consistently the error market would be so flooded there would not be any premium for those errors. And another thing, tho I am told there is no special value for them, I like to find old copper cents with luster and red color in rolls, it is pretty neat to me, I put the best examples in 2X2's and am saving them. When I go through rolls I like to think that I will find some rarity, very improbable I know, but anything is possible, so far the oldest coin I have found is a 1915 cent, in pretty rough shape, the oldest au-58 red lustrous coin I have found is a 1959, so there are plenty of holes to fill. To me copper cents are a fun way to indulge the hobby and to engage in it and save money for other more expensive purchases, and also it offers other ideas for projects for the future that may also be fun.
