Saving Copper Pennies as an Investment

Pennies at almost 3 times their worth!

 

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Many foreign nations have completely eliminated their most minor denominations with almost no impact on commerce or consumer confidence in the monetary system.

 

What would it take to actually extract the copper from the pennies? Or is that illegal? If so, then how would the hoarding of pennies for this purpose be legal? If it isn't I am seriously thinking about starting to do this. Thanks for the great heads up Angie!

 

Once again you are most welcome Guardian. I do not know if you can extract the copper from pennies. I have never really thought about that. Good question.

 

In the United States, it is illegal to sell pennies for their scrap value. That, and the newest pennies far less copper content than before.

 

I've all but done it, but after one of my compadres tried to do it and the scrap dealer refused (citing illegality) I never followed up.

 

I've looked for a specific law, but all I could find was a 4-year old news article simply stating that it was illegal.

 

Yes I can not find any law either. I just know that it is not legal so I would never try it out.

 

Not worth the risk...

 

Seems kind of risky. But I guess you could just hold onto them.
I remember there being a dispute on whether US should get rid of pennies and start rounding up. But I think that idea got shot down.

 

Melt them down and help payback the national debt... I like that idea... Pennies are, imo a pointless currency for so many reasons... it just complicates the economy when things could be clear cut prices and such. melt the suckers down to repay our debt and get the country back on track...

 

The wife was telling me that we should save pennies the other day. Part of me thought it had to be illegal to try and sell them for scrap, and I was right. Might be a smart move to try and save them anyways, for when the US eliminates pennies as a form of currency.... But I don't see that happening any time soon even though pennies are a seriously useless form of currency. How often do you actually give somebody pennies when you're paying for something, aside from using them so you don't get back any pennies/coins?

 

This thread is relevant to my interests. Can anybody post a link stating the legality of this, whether in US or Canada?

 

If/when it was made an obsolete currency, it wouldn't technically have any face value, so then it wouldn't necessarily be illegal, unless a follow-up law or something in the bill making pennies a goner actually stated that.

 

I rarley use pennies. I save them in my coin jar and then take them to the bank to cash out. Nothing makes me madder than someone paying for something with all pennies.

 

There used to be currencies smaller than pennies - and we should very well keep them. It's bad enough that inflation is jacking with prices, but when gas can only increase in minimums of 0.05, who's going to spew when it goes up two or three nickels every day, instead of two or three pennies every day?

As far as I know, the government is reclaiming copper pennies, and replacing them with these new shielded pennies. I just today had some change given to me, where all the dimes and pennies were these new alloys.

 

The pennies could simply be sold to coin collectors at the copper value without altering them in anyway. This is very similar to the way pre-1964 quarters and dimes sell for 25x face value on eBay right now. The value would have to significantly increase however I think before we saw them treated as collector's items like the old silver coins. Given a fast enough rate of inflation this could potentially be a feasible scenario in the future.

 

This is a very interesting topic. So pennies as of right now are at 3x their face value because of the copper in them? Out of curiosity, does anyone know the amount of copper per penny? That would be an interesting fact to know. I might start saving pennies instead of rolling them just for the hell of it now. As before said, if they ever do get rid of the penny as a currency, which is likely in the future, then you could melt them down for the copper at that point.

 

Only the pre-1982 ones are worth 3x their face value. Or more accurately, the metal content of those pennies is worth 3x the value of the penny. Anything after that is made up mostly of zin with only a thin coating of copper. The newer pennies have about 97.5% zinc/2.5% copper.