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Posted 05/29/2012 12:26 pm
The dollar coin may be 88.5% copper but it sure doesn't have a dollars worth of copper in it. Same for everything thing else you listed. What makes the penny different is that you can get it for a cent but it is worth more than a cent.
I fail to see how you don't understand this.
Save a cent and get .03 in copper (or what ever).
Save a dollar and get .15 copper (or what ever).
The people who are doing this roughly fall into three groups.
1. People who think we are headed into massive inflation, similar to what pre-war Germany and modern Zimbabwe experienced.
People talk about food, clothing, blah blah blah if that happend, and sure, people will need food. But what if one blanket = three chickens. Now I have four chickens you need and you have one blanket. We need some way to make change.... All one has to do is look at history. When civilizations fell commercial trade did not stop.
2. People on fixed income who are sorting through cents to take out the copper. They are selling them to the people in group number one for a (small) profit. If you are retired or disabled you have a lot of time and it is pretty easy to go through several rolls of pennies a week. Sure getting $1.50 a for a .50 roll seems low. But what if you have $100 in copper rolls. That is now $300. Making $200 while watching T.V. is attractive to some people.
3. People who are coin roll hunting and are setting aside the copper either to sell to the people in group one or just keeping the copper for a day when copper is harder to find.
Both of those options make sense. In option one you are making money to buy more coins that you want. You are already going through the rolls looking for what you want so why not?
In option two you are holding on to coins that you think may be worth something in the future. If you think about it all of those expensive coins that were in circulation were "common" coins at one time. People spent, IHC, Flying Eagle cents, 1932 quarters, etc. all the time.
Now another thing. When you hear "melt" don't think of really melting. Now a lot of it happens but just as often "melt" means commodity price and nothing else. When I buy commemortive silver dollars for "melt" I am not melting them. I am buying them for a commodity price. I know many people who do this.
So it is pointless to talk about if the law will change on this or not. There is still a commodity value beyond the legality.
That is why people do it.
Is it worth the time. Not for me. I fall into group number three. I save them when I find them. What am I going to do with them? I'll probably sell them to a member here or someone on craigslist who will pay for it. Then turn it into coins I want.
Is it worth your time? Unless you are already coin roll hunting it is not worth your time. Somewhere someone did a calculation on how many of the fancy penny machines you would have to have running all the time just to make minimum wage. The answer was way more than is worth it.
You might as well get copper from wires and strip them, or pick cans up off the side of the road.
I fail to see how you don't understand this.
Save a cent and get .03 in copper (or what ever).
Save a dollar and get .15 copper (or what ever).
The people who are doing this roughly fall into three groups.
1. People who think we are headed into massive inflation, similar to what pre-war Germany and modern Zimbabwe experienced.
People talk about food, clothing, blah blah blah if that happend, and sure, people will need food. But what if one blanket = three chickens. Now I have four chickens you need and you have one blanket. We need some way to make change.... All one has to do is look at history. When civilizations fell commercial trade did not stop.
2. People on fixed income who are sorting through cents to take out the copper. They are selling them to the people in group number one for a (small) profit. If you are retired or disabled you have a lot of time and it is pretty easy to go through several rolls of pennies a week. Sure getting $1.50 a for a .50 roll seems low. But what if you have $100 in copper rolls. That is now $300. Making $200 while watching T.V. is attractive to some people.
3. People who are coin roll hunting and are setting aside the copper either to sell to the people in group one or just keeping the copper for a day when copper is harder to find.
Both of those options make sense. In option one you are making money to buy more coins that you want. You are already going through the rolls looking for what you want so why not?
In option two you are holding on to coins that you think may be worth something in the future. If you think about it all of those expensive coins that were in circulation were "common" coins at one time. People spent, IHC, Flying Eagle cents, 1932 quarters, etc. all the time.
Now another thing. When you hear "melt" don't think of really melting. Now a lot of it happens but just as often "melt" means commodity price and nothing else. When I buy commemortive silver dollars for "melt" I am not melting them. I am buying them for a commodity price. I know many people who do this.
So it is pointless to talk about if the law will change on this or not. There is still a commodity value beyond the legality.
That is why people do it.
Is it worth the time. Not for me. I fall into group number three. I save them when I find them. What am I going to do with them? I'll probably sell them to a member here or someone on craigslist who will pay for it. Then turn it into coins I want.
Is it worth your time? Unless you are already coin roll hunting it is not worth your time. Somewhere someone did a calculation on how many of the fancy penny machines you would have to have running all the time just to make minimum wage. The answer was way more than is worth it.
You might as well get copper from wires and strip them, or pick cans up off the side of the road.
Edited by allranger
05/29/2012 12:28 pm
05/29/2012 12:28 pm
