Is It Worth Keeping Copper Pennies?

No.

At $2.2492 a pound of copper, they only have a 52.27% increase in value over face (for each 1c copper penny, it has a melt value of 1.5227 cents).

With this in mind, it would take a LOT of pennies to make any real money.

Where do you get that much silver? I CRH half dollars & have found 4 from a box of 1,000. Then zero from about 15 rolls turned out they were from a fellow collector who wrote the year on each roll in small pen. Funny.

Problems with hoarding "copper" cents.

-The 1982 and prior years cents are only 95% copper.
-There just under 150 copper cents per pound (NOT a pound of copper - but a pound of coins).
-Scrap dealers buy scrap by the TON.
-There are about 300,000 cents per TON. ($3,000 and 2,000 pounds weight).
-It would take a lot of time to sort through cents to pick out the "copper" coins.
-A ton of cents would take up a lot of room and could potentially damage your house floor.
-A ton of cents might break your automobile suspension (transportation would be a problem).
-Scrap dealers will not pay the spot price of copper for scrap (the coins) that is not 100% copper (just like a precious metal dealer would not pay the spot price of gold for 18kt gold).
-Scrap dealers will not take the time to buy cents because there is too much chance of being cheated by the seller by substituting non-copper cents or other coins into the mix, and it would take too much time to sort through each coin.
-Scrap dealers that would be willing to buy, would discount the price drastically, probably to 65% or less of spot price.

And last, but not least:
-Scrap dealers are currently PROHIBITED from buying 1¢ and 5¢ coins.

Now, in a SHTF scenario,

Copper cents or any metal coin will have some value. Coins may become a commodity for trade. Paper money - NOT. Cents, however, will be the bulkiest and least convenient (takes too many to accumulate a certain amount of wealth). (There are only about 181,500 nickels to the ton ($9,075), and 160,000 quarters to the ton ($40,000).)

If you can get copper cents for 1¢ each, and you have the time and suitable storage space - WHY NOT?

I would not, however, buy copper cents for anything over 1¢ each.

In a word. No.

I see no harm to keeping a few boxes of them-really more for the fun of it than for potential profit. This is provided:

1. You have the space and don't have to move them regularly.
2. You don't need the $25-$250 you have "invested".
3. You can get them at or close to face value.
4. You accept that they may still only be worth face value in 5-10 years.

As was correctly pointed out, they are illegal to melt and the profit potential is rather modest even if they could be, to say nothing of the bulk.

I agree with the last two replies. Keeping copper cents is a long term play at best. Keep them if you can, but expect that the odds for big profits are not with you.

Thanks!