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Copper Getting Harder To Find...

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Pillar of the Community
cladking's Avatar
United States
2271 Posts
 Posted 07/27/2008  11:57 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add cladking to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
The zinc coins do rot and many of them self destruct as well. Any problem with the plating and air gets in and they begin oxiding. It will go very slowly as long as there's no moisture but it doesn't take much and the process speeds up again.

Some of the nicest specimens with razor sharp strikes have the copper sheared right off the the lettering leaving it exposesd to the elements.

The number of zinc coins saved each year appears to be highly erratic. Some years there were apparently vast numbers saved and other years are in short supply. But every year is likely to have quality problems. Many of these rolls are in poor shape already and would be spent if the owner knew.

Mint set quality is generally pretty good but some of these haven't held up either. The '84-D is a case in point. The '89-D is going to be one of the worst for the best specimens turning to dust.

Eventually the government will wake up to the fact we haven't needed a one cent coin in a very long time and will destroy the cents left in circulation. By that time they'll be all zinc. And most zinc not in circulation will be mostly rotted away. Don't get me wrong, the penny is too worthless to get everyone to bother to turn them in so they'll always be common but what condition will the be in if tey're already a fright now?
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
Pillar of the Community
hockingzig's Avatar
United States
1450 Posts
 Posted 07/27/2008  2:20 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add hockingzig to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
I agree. Most of the zincs pre-2000 are awful. First, many of them were really poor strikes and the rest either have zinc showing through the copper or have big black and/or green splotches. I don't think they will last 10 years in any kind of shape except maybe in air-tites.
Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts
 Posted 07/27/2008  6:50 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add just carl to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Not much of a shortage around me. The metal recylers get lots of them amongst the spools of wire and piping.
Valued Member
United States
429 Posts
 Posted 07/28/2008  11:53 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add penny pincher to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
It comes down to many different factors, as we have read:
1. Location
2. Location
and
3. Location

I live in a smaller city (about 100,000 people) and there is only ONE coin store. The next closest is 2 hours one direction and 5 the other. So as you can tell, we do not have the biggest selection to choose from and if you do not use the Internet then you are screwed. My shop has had rolled coin offered once in the last three years and I ended up buying them all for $1.50 a piece. If they offered more then I would buy them, but they don't so I end up roll searching for a lot of my collection. When I go through I get every red cent I can find and keep almost everything pre-1982 that is problem free.

No one knows what the future will hold for these coins and if copper hoarding will be for not, but until then it is a very cheap thing to collect. Besides, if it was not worth doing then why are there companies out there collecting them and illegally melting them? If there are more companies/individuals doing this than we know then MAYBE the price of copper will eventually go up.

I think another part of it is like a fair amount of what our grandparents did in the great depression and held onto what ever they could. There are some of us also that feel the effects of the recession we are going through and want to have a little something to sit on. This last week I took in about $160 worth of cents and traded them in to leave town for the weekend and feel fortunate that I had that change sitting around to do so.

Everyone has there own reasons and my biggest one is that hopefully I can trade/sell them to other collectors and gain pieces to my own collection. Almost every day someone new is joining this forum and asking where and how to start and depending on their location it is tough to get certain coins. Just reading through some of the other posts amaze me of the generosity of the members here and how people just send off a coin to someone to help fill a hole and expect nothing in return, personally I hope that I can get to that point. Right now copper is not that much but if someone came onto the board saying they can not find common date 1950-1970's LMC's and I could find a dozen or so just sitting around and send them to that person how cool would that be.

Now I am starting to ramble, so I will just shut up and let someone educated have the floor again.
Pillar of the Community
eaglefoot's Avatar
United States
6326 Posts
 Posted 07/29/2008  08:30 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add eaglefoot to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
I've never been a copper hoarder......just "Classic coins" and also a silver & gold hoarder...
And with Cents....I'm only interested in pre-'58.....that makes my life easier !...
Edited by eaglefoot
07/29/2008 08:34 am
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