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 Replies: 26 / Views: 4,331 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1980 Posts |
im just wondering, I have never been one to separate the copper pennies from the rest. but the pennies I have been picking up lately have been a much higher concentration of 98% copper. I'm guessing close to 90% of the coins I have been looking through lately are copper, one of the boxes I picked up yesterday so far appears to be all copper,
what is a box of copper pennies worth?
should I go back through the last bunch of boxes and separate them? (as I haven't returned any boxes in a while)
thanks for your input
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
you can't legally "melt" them until they are demonitized, which could be never. (or at least until the government has extracted the lion's share of the copper themselves).
the time spent waiting, storing, & handling pennies, in any sort of volume worth it to make a decent profit, could be better spent on other investments.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2541 Posts |
I know some folks sell them on ebay for a profit. I personally don't have the time to do it. The only coppers I'm hoarding are the wheaties I pull during roll hunting. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
I separate nickel nickels now. If I can get more than $2 per roll, I win >:I
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Valued Member
Canada
470 Posts |
it's worth separating in the long game only if you can afford it ... at 3 cents per coin it's like getting a raise in pay, and does not take long to accumulate 1000 lbs.
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Valued Member
United States
98 Posts |
It's an uncertain investment that will probably take a long-term perspective if you want to unlock investment potential. There's three questions you have to ask:
1) When/will pennies ever be legal to scrap.
2) How will scrap dealers handle the uncertainty of people mixing in zincs.
3) What will the price of copper be in the future.
I've accumulated a couple hundred pounds of them while searching rolls. Personally, I don't think it's worth the time invested unless you are searching the rolls anyway.
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
1980 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
937 Posts |
I guess his buyers must figure that with a copper cent being worth 3 cents that they can't lose... Of course for them to get their money back out of it they have to get the copper value out of the box, not face value.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
Has anyone had luck selling Canadian nickel nickels? I've been saving nickel nickel rolls and if things go well I'll put the lot on ebay once I get to $50 in face. |
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Valued Member
United States
93 Posts |
I save them for the copper and because they don't make them anymore  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1980 Posts |
its just that everyweek the bank has about 4 - 6 more boxes they hold for me and I'm trying to figure out if I should start collecting copper
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Pillar of the Community
United States
624 Posts |
There is a certain point where collecting becomes hoarding. I would feel pretty safe saying that there are a lot of copper penny hoarders out there. Many haven't the slightest idea about coin collecting, but merely watch the spot price of copper going through the roof and are speculating about demonitization of the penny (or they participate in the black market reduction of the pennies to bulk copper). The bottom line is that there are a whole lot of nice wheaties and copper pennies tied-up in basements or heading to a smelter.
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Valued Member
United States
306 Posts |
Quote:
The bottom line is that there are a whole lot of nice wheaties and copper pennies tied-up in basements or heading to a smelter. This makes me sad.  Pre-'82..I personally keep all wheats and S mint marks (unless they are completely trashed) and anything that is fully struck and in nice condition. Wheats get rolled by date and mm and everything else goes into a 5 gallon glass jug (In 10+ years roll searching and what not...I have 1 that is 3/4 full). Anything "collectable" i.e. MS-60+ or error or variety gets an airtite or 2x2. As for hoarding copper I have some...never really understood why people buy copper bars and such when you could just save pennies. I have a few boxes maybe someday I'll sell 'em. |
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Valued Member
Canada
189 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7840 Posts |
It depends on what your time is worth. It's worth it to " me". I pull copper out of the tills at my part time job whenever I hear the " coin roll busting" song.  Edited by oih82w8
04/17/2013 3:33 pm
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Valued Member
United States
134 Posts |
I don't go through a whole lot of pennies, probably around 20 t 30 rolls a week, and, yes, I do pull the copper, along with the wheats, S mint marks, reds, and other superior conditioned cents. I know it is not worth a lot of high volume folks' time to pull them, but I don't mind - just throw them in a large container. The coppers usually amount to about 20-25% of what I'm looking at and it's sort of a waste hauling them back to the bank.
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Replies: 26 / Views: 4,331 |
Posted 04/14/2013 1:49 pm
