Does Copper Bullion Make Sense?

Well you can get 95% copper from circulating coins at 50% of the melt value. Yes gold is more compact but where can you get it at 50% off? Copper is fine for bullion but it takes some space. There is w market, and when the penny is discontinued, its off to the scrap yard. If you want to meet some copper bullion enthusiasts check out realcent forum.

i have been reading all of the comments and all are true and make sense.

i want to melt some copper down and sell some ingots online. doing the math in my head it makes sense.
150 or so pennies is about 1lb of copper.
if you check ebay for example there are sales for copper ingots etc. i.e. one listing had 10lbs sold for $120. seems like that is a good profit margin, no?

so in very simple terms, if I were to melt copper and sell it like that, is THAT worth it?

OR am I wasting my time, thinking, "no one will buy the ingots I melt down?" there is SOME value in copper. right?

so based on what I am asking here, not trying to get into a debate about silver, gold or its merits or stackability...

just want to see if what I want to do is going to profit me or not.

Thanks ALL!

i figured it was illegal. just checked again. lol

but how would I have bronze?

if they are 90-95 copper.. help me understand how they become bronze after you melt them?

The problem here is that "copper" pennies are not made of pure copper, they are bronze - from a base-metal-trading perspective, they are "contaminated copper". To get anywhere near that $12/pound price, you need pure copper, and to get pure copper, you're going to have to refine your bronze.

The Law of Entropy implies that it is much easier to make an alloy than to unmake it. We do not have magic-black-box technology where you can put a piece of metal alloy into the box, press a button, and pull out two or three pieces of pure unalloyed metal, for free. This is where certain coin-metal-content-calculator websites are wrong: you do not calculate the "metal value of a penny" by calculating the metal value of the copper, zinc and tin inside a penny, and adding them together. You more properly calculate the metal value of a penny by calculating the metal content of the primary constituent (in this case, copper) and subtracting the cost you would need to put in to refine the copper and remove those other unwanted elements.

You don't have this concern with actual precious metals like gold and silver, because refining costs are only a small fraction of the value of the resultant metal.

This is why a slab of pure copper costs $3.80/pound, but a slab of melted recycled bronze costs just $2.50/pound. And "coinage bronze" isn't really bronze, due to the presence of high amounts of zinc; the zinc technically makes it a "brass" rather than a "bronze", and brass is even cheaper, typically $2.00/pound or so.

You can theoretically still make a profit by melting bronze pennies and selling them as scrap - there is, after all, $1.45 face value in pennies in that $2.50 pound slab of metal. But again, with base metals, "refining costs" are a major component of overall costings. Add to this costings the illegality, which means the commercial scrap metal dealers in the US won't want to be a part of your scheme. You'll have to either set up an illegal bootleg metal refinery and do it all yourself, join a criminal conspiracy with other like-minded criminals, or illegally smuggle the coins across the border to Canada or Mexico, where US anti-coin-melting laws don't apply - all of which adds to your costs.

The general outlook for copper pricing is expected to increase so its not a bad time to do so if you have source and space for it. At the current values (and space requirements) it doesn't make sense vs other options as mentioned (silver or gold if metal is what your after). Might be a good time to just hold onto copper such as coins you happen to come across vs normally dumping it as not worthwhile.

Experts Predict Copper Prices Set To Soar Over 75% By 2025, Thanks To Renewable Energy Transition, Supply Disruptions. he price of copper is expected to rise by over 75% by 2025, driven by supply disruptions and increased demand for the metal, largely due to the global shift towards renewable energy. These factors combined are expected to push copper prices to an estimated $15,000 a ton in 2025, a substantial increase from the record high of $10,730 per ton reached in March 2023. Goldman Sachs anticipates a deficit of over half a million tons in 2024 due to mining disruptions, which could drive prices to $10,000 per ton by the end of the year and even higher in 2025. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/sav.../ar-AA1mrypo

Is there a copper ETF? If there is and let's say all of the above comes true, does it make more sense to put your money into the ETF versus trying to deal with the tremendous volume of copper needed (and associated hassle) to make trying to profit worthwhile? Asking for a friend....

Copper takes up too much space. In my opinion, stick with physical gold and silver. If you want to invest in copper, get a good copper mining stock. That's copper Two Cents worth.