Worth one cent

I agree. Pre-82 copper cents weigh 3.11g so lets just say 50 in a roll all weigh the same, 155.5 grams. Since the cents are 95% copper (Red Book, just sayin') then down to 147.725 grams. Todays spot copper was $3.1090. With 453.59 grams to the pound, this equates to each gram, today, being worth .00665579 cents. Multiply by the 147.725g equals roughly 98.3 cents for 50/roll. Dividing by 50 gives you.019664533 cents per penny(cent).

Still purty durn close to 2 cents each, but as you say, you can't melt them, you can only turn them in for face value and that's where your losing proposition takes wing and flies. Sorry for the exercise in futility.

But I still think a red au58 from the '70s is worth more than face value....Spark

 

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Inferno aqua...heap big trouble...Bud say no drink...

 

Oh Lord, where do I begin and stop here? I’ve got so many. I’ll try to pick a few, maybe I’ll wait for a really good find.

 

There is X amount of copper in a cent by weight, but that's not the price you are paid when you turn it in. (Assuming it was legal.)
A scrap yard or smelter pays 25% for alloyed copper which a cent is.
The spot price ($3+) is for Grade A copper which a cent is not
The copper value of a cent is equal to 1/2 cent as I showed in my last post.

 

The whole copper cent melt thing...

 

So-called “copper” small cents are NOT copper; they are bronze. Look up bronze prices, not copper prices.

 

Yeah your right. Happy easter

 

My 1st Spike Head...A pocket change find from a couple of days ago.

I know it's fairly common, but I have a list of errors/varieties I would like to find myself. A "Spiked Head" cent is near the top. Now after a year and a half of looking I can finally cross this one off the list!

Of course I will always be looking for a better example.

 

I capitulate. For some reason, the smelter thing didn't register then like it did just now.

So the quandary remains:
1. I don't want to release these worn-out or environmentally damaged pre-'82 bronze (Thank you, VKB) cents back into the wild, thinking of other, newer collectors who might consider them collectable, or
2. No reason to keep them but no way to melt them. They are not worth sending back to the mint for destruction, which they probably would not even accept, or maybe a Federal Reserve bank?

Banks will accept worn-out or damaged currency and cull it out for destruction, do they do that for coins? I will research this, but unless someone else has a better idea,

I guess I need to bury them and thank them for their service, let mother nature finish what she started...Spark

 

These all cost me one cent. Haven’t searched these yet. Still adding to the pile as I search my hoard.

 

Bud is letting me use the computer so this question is from me the ( Village Idiot ) and not Bud.
Question..Did you pay ONE CENT EACH for the coins or DID YOU PAY ONE CENT for all the coins? Had to ask grew up dumb.
<- BUD

 

I've done this twice, once each the last 2 years mostly MD finds but other bent, broken coins that machines won't accept. It's called :Mutilated coins. The bank should replace them at face value. There was a time not long ago when they stopped accepting this, but then they went back to accepting. I don't know for how much longer.

 

Good question. I paid one cent per wheat cent in that bin and one cent per coin in that plastic jug. So a few dollars there, I guess.

 

That would

That would be so cool. Great idea.

 

That would

That would be so cool. Great idea.

 

Just saying that coins that good. Someone must be sneaking in front of you dropping proof coins. When i find a cent on the ground. They all like then ran though a road grader

 

These and another $500 face value were pulled out of circulation back in the 1970s when I was looking for wheaties. If I get to a time in life where sitting is about all that is possible, I'll search through them for errors, etc. Just hoping the eyes hold out.

 

Bud said that you had paid one cent per coin but I said "NO", he paid ONE CENT for all the coins...I hate it when Bud is right!
<-BUD

 

Found this today metal detecting. Looks a little better in hand for a 1961-D.