Copper Coin Hoarding ?

Barely six months ago copper touched $4/lb, after two years of prices being in the $3/lb vicinity... It wasn't until the media discovered we'd been in a recession for a year and everything finance-related went berserk *rolls eyes* that copper tanked to 2005 levels.

So, after 2009 I figure Treasury will either re-alloy the cent to Al or steel, or get rid of it, and after a couple years it'll be legal to melt them again.

In the meantime, I'm not too worried about the future value of copper unless someone discovers a cheaper and more efficient metal to transmit electrical power through. For now, cash is doing a heck of a lot better than the mutual funds in my 401(k).

And copper melts at around 1800F, which is a bit much for your kitchen stove, but not out of the question on a waste-oil furnace rig. If you want to talk science :) Ingots might be worth more or less than cents, since cents have a known copper content, and most scrap dealers don't have the facilities to test the composition of an unknown alloy... depends how they would classify it.

I save copper pennies. I have over $1,200 worth. I like the Canadian pennies better. They are 98% pure. I see copper pennies them being bought and sold as "junk copper" in the not too distant future much in the same way that junk silver is now.

Even if and when the melt ban gets lifted, I feel a lot of them won't get melted for that very reason. Look at how many pre '65 silver coins are still around... They didn't all get melted down.

Copper is a semi precious metal. Like precious metals, it preserves buying power in an inflationary environment.

Unlike pre '34 gold and junk silver, or silver and gold eagles, I can buy copper at face value. Even if copper goes to less than a dollar a pound for the next hundred years, it is still 1 cent, exactly what I paid for it.

Interesting forum, never heard of it until now:

http://realcent.forumco.com/default.asp

A quick look around there and you'll see what copper hoarding is all about.

Listened to the Diane Reams show on public radio going to work this morning and they had a forum of economists on who were discussing the current economy and the causes of the downturn.

One of the interesting comment that pertain to this thread was on the rush to invest in commodities during the peak of the bubble. To a man, they felt that commodities (metals especially) had been grossly over priced fueled by an unsustainable demand caused by a hyper hot consumption rate. This consumption was fueled by the American consumer who leveraged himself into bankruptcy. The U.S. has 4.5% of the world's population and consumed 10 trillion dollars of product in 2006. Compare this to China and India with 40% of the world population and who consumed 2 trillion dollars of product in the same period. The U.S. consumer drives the world economy and until they come back to the market, demand for industrial materials will continue to drop or be flat at best. They estimated 2 to 3 years before we see any substantial growth. They also speculate that we will never see demand like that again. Tighter credit requirements will remove many people from the line of consumers.

I think I am putting my copper cents in the bank and looking for better investments.

Jim

cheap way to make bullets I guess if you have the molds.(no, I dont have 'em)

Chaos, I would guess they were referring to their usage which in large part was shipped right back the the U.S. consumer.
Jim

I just checked out that forum also; saw a few names that I recognize from here! Anyway, it will make for some interesting reading later.

This is true. APMEX, one of the largest online retailers of bullion, sells common copper cents in a similar manner like junk silver.

Ok enough posting...I have two $25 boxes sitting at my feet needing to be sorted. I have a good feeling about these boxes...