I've Decided To Become A Pre-1983 Copper Cent Hoarder

It is illegal to melt, destroy or recycle any americain copper cent. And you could not sell it as copper bullion ether if you have zinc cents mixed in with it. I think you would be better off ether finding a way to seperate the 1982's or just hoard the pre 1982's. If you want to you could put all the 82's to the side and at the end of the box, you could weigh them all seperately (the coppers are heavier then the zincs). Or if you have a good ear you could do the ring test. (The copper would have a higher pitch sound).
I would recommend any of these ways better then just throwing all the 82's into you're copper hoard.

Most likely not. Even though the RCM stopped makeing pennies and started collecting them for melting, it is still illegal to melt them in Canada and it will probably never become legal for anyone other then the mint to melt them in Canada OR the US.

Just compare the rings of the two when hitting a solid surface. The pre-82's and some of the copper 82's have a higher pitched ring.

According to the reports published by the US Mint, no composition change is going to materially change the cent situation. By their accounting, about 1 cent of the cost is the workmanship, machinery depreciation, & related costs. Even if metal costs were zero, that would still remain. In fact, changing over to steel would raise the price, because it wears the dies out faster than zinc. Ditto the five-cent piece, which has about 5 c of metal & the same in workmanship & charges. Of course, the seigniorage on the dime, quarter, & dollar is sufficient that the Mint continues to show a positive balance of between 21 & 49 cents per dollar issued in the years 2010-11-12, so the cost is really meaningless.

Considering the annual mintage of billions of pieces, there are plenty which are just waiting to come out of the woodwork. I pick up a lot of them walking down the sidewalks, so I have a strong suspicion people fling them out of car windows. Suspend the coinage, without withdrawing them, & eventually they will find their way out of the sock-drawers of the nation, although that wouldn't bring forth the ones which have been tossed in wastebaskets. It might get to the point of banks allowing $1.01 on account for every hundred brought in, or merchants giving a small discount when paid in cents, but there's no reason for a shortage.

I don't understand coin collecting apparently. What would the point be in hoarding pennies unless they are special coins in some way?

The copper pennies have a higher melt value than face value. So you can save up a bunch of them and sell say a lot of 100 dollar face value for 200 or 300 dollars on ebay as you can usually get 2-3X face value for them.

Its not really collecting in the sense you would think of for making a dansco album of something, more of a way you can make some money off of things you find in your change. People are more interested in the copper the penny is made of then the penny itself in this c ASE

As for telling the copper 1982 from the zinc 1982 I just give them a good solid flip off my thumb the 82 coppers will ring out A lovely sound the 82 zinc will just make no sound at all

Yes, I've heard this a million times from people on this board, but the Mint STILL makes money off of "minting" halves. I thought "that" was what you were talking about. And dollars haven't been struck for circulation for more than a year and a half either, so whats your point?