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 Replies: 12 / Views: 1,571 |
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Valued Member
United Kingdom
55 Posts |
Hello everyone,
Was looking through my coins for key dates etc after reading the penny key dates thread, and turns out I have hundreds of common old pennies. Along with those in circulated conditions I have a lot of extremely worn/damaged coins which you can barely make out a word penny or a head or brittania etc. I was thinking, what is the value of the circulated pennies, especially from the 30s to 60s? And what are the key metals of the coins? I'm thinking mainly copper, but if anyone has any idea on percentages that would be good. Also I thought what would the scrap value of the coins be? If the damaged coins and common dates are less valuable than the scrap I guess its best to scrap them in bulk I guess. But just a thought really. I remember reading "new" two pence coins are worth 3 pence in scrap, I imagine theres more metal in the old pennies. What do you all think? Maybe I might get slated about suggesting destroying coins :p but I'm mainly talking about the worn ones that are so smooth theres hardly any markings on
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Pillar of the Community
United States
807 Posts |
French bronze, the alloy used in British minors from the 1850s onward, is typically 95% copper, 5% tin & zinc (generally more zinc than tine). One might find details in the British Mint Reports, some of which are available through Google Books, but that pretty much covers it. The older pieces will contain a trace of silver & gold, but the newer ones likely will not, owing to the electrolytic refining of copper.
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Valued Member
United Kingdom
127 Posts |
Looking at Spink circulated don't have any value. Most pennies from the 30s - 60s only have AU or UNC value (which isn't much) and for 50- 60s UNC even lower. There a few key dates Edward VIII (probably none existant apart from a museum) 1950 George VI proof, 1952 (very rare) 1954, only two known Also very famous 1933 penny, other than that you can't even flog them on ebay as they just don't sell. I don't know about scrap value though |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4212 Posts |
I use Tony Clayton's site for general values, but take this as very unofficial.
In F, the '50 is 7.
The '51 is 18.
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
18011 Posts |
I knew someone who collected foreign and pre-decimal coins for charity, and he used to sell junk old pennies and halfpennies for scrap. Not sure who bought them but there's a lot of money in copper - that's why there are so many thefts of copper wire and pipe. Three old pennies weigh an ounce.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
I have a lot of them too. They just dont sell, but I would refrain from sending them to the melting pot. I personally like the lowball (and the look of the old cleaning job) pennies.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2180 Posts |
The alloy varied a bit (mainly during World War II) but I think you can assume 95% copper across the board (some might be 95.5% but it's near enough to 95%).
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Moderator
 Australia
16868 Posts |
You can find scrap metal values for obsolete British coins, quoted in US$, on CurrencyDebasement. Currently a predecimal penny is worth US$0.06511 scrap, or about 4.2 pence - clearly far above the 5/12ths of a penny the bank would theoretically give you if you deposited one. A bronze 2p coin is currently valued at US$0.05122, or 3.3 pence; they are likewise worth more in scrap than face value, which is why they're marked in red on this CurrencyDebasement page. I should point out that while it is legal in Britain to (literally) melt predecimal coins, melting decimal coins such as the bronze twopence is not legal. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Valued Member
 United Kingdom
55 Posts |
Ah right cool I did wonder aha. I also heard thats why they changed the old 50 pence coin? Is there silver in the old 50p coin?
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Valued Member
United Kingdom
55 Posts |
Thanks guys for the links and info, or those extremely worn coins it may be an option :). Dont think I could bring myself to melt a coin in fine condition :p. Think id prefer to try and sell them 5 pence each before I melted them down :p
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3692 Posts |
Sap to the rescue, as usual. Thanks, Sap.
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Moderator
Australia
16868 Posts |
Quote:
Is there silver in the old 50p coin? No. Britain never issued a circulating decimal coin that contained silver. But yes, rising metal prices is the reason why Britain shrunk all the old cupronickel denominations (5p, 10p and 50p) back in the 1990s, and why they've switched from cupronickel to plated steel in more recent years. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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New Member
United Kingdom
35 Posts |
I phoned European Metal Recycling (EMR) earlier in the year as I had a similar issue with about 150kg of pennies. At the time they offered me £2.40 per KG which was about half the copper market price. At only just over 2 pence a coin I decided to keep them.
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Replies: 12 / Views: 1,571 |
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Posted 08/13/2013 3:09 pm
