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 Replies: 28 / Views: 2,247 |
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Valued Member
United States
161 Posts |
I've been looking through rolls of cents for a couple months now, and I've been saving all the copper cents I find. I have two sandwich baggies full of copper cents. Now, what am I supposed to do with these? Do I sell them now? Do I sell them for melt value? Do I save them to sell in 50 years? What do you do with copper cents?
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
You save them until the price of copper goes up,way up and then you sell.Two bags are not a whole lot so keep saving them up,i have around $400.00 worth of them at face value,i will hold on to them as long as I can and hope they go up in value either as melt value or as collector value as the Wheaties have. Have you found anything good yet? And welcome to CCF. John1  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4867 Posts |
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Moderator
United States
16677 Posts |
Roll them up and take them to the bank. Welcome to the CCF.
swcoin.ecrater.com
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1026 Posts |
I roll them and put away, one thing these are real money and worth something unlike the US dollar.
Keep them for the hard times ahead and also if copper goes up in value you have nothing to lose as you got them at face value.
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Rest in Peace
United States
3039 Posts |
Is it better to save say $100 worth of copper cents and hope the melt value goes up (if it's ever ok to melt them) or take the $100 and buy a numismatically valuable coin and hope that it goes up in value ? It's probably a toss up. Either way there's a "hope" involved.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19931 Posts |
I'm hoarding them, I have a 5 gal pail nearly full. My goal is to sell them when copper goes up, I'd like 2x face.
Lincoln Cent Lover!VERDI-CARE™ INVENTOR https://verdi.care/
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Rest in Peace
United States
3039 Posts |
Doesn't copper have to be about $3/lb for cents to be worth 2x face ? Less any smelting fees when and if melting becomes legal.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1151 Posts |
Is the melting of copper coins only illegal in the US? Could I send them to someone, say in Canada, and have them melt them?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2520 Posts |
The copper cent is the only circulating US coin that has a melt value that is greater than face value. At Fridays prices ($2.20 Lb for copper) each copper cent is worth 1.45 cents. I also pull every one I find from circulation. I don't expect to get rich doing it, but someday I'll go through them and look for varieties.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3294 Posts |
I am pretty sure that not only is the melting illegal, it is also illegal to take more then a $5.00 of them out of the country at once as well. Talk about an unenforceable law. I am sure the border agents of the United States will be conducting long examinations of vehicles to stop the copper smugglers. What a joke.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2049 Posts |
Quote:
Keep them for the hard times ahead and also if copper goes up in value you have nothing to lose as you got them at face value. Bruce nailed it. If we get hit with high inflation, copper prices go up, then so does the intrinsic value of the copper cents. So it works as a hedge against inflation. If deflationary forces remain strong, and copper prices remain low, you still have cash that was obtained at face value. It will not go below being worth 1 cent, and in a deflationary recession/depression, cash is king. It works as a hedge against deflation as well. There are other forums for base metals where members talk about these things all the time and where there is an active buy sell area for copper cents. PM if you want the website. Quote:
I am pretty sure that not only is the melting illegal, it is also illegal to take more then a $5.00 of them out of the country at once as well. Talk about an unenforceable law. I am sure the border agents of the United States will be conducting long examinations of vehicles to stop the copper smugglers. What a joke. It is illegal to melt copper cents and nickels too. You're right about the $5 limit on how much can be moved out of the country by person, however you can ship up to $100 out of the country for coinage/numismatic purposes. http://www.usmint.gov/pressroom/ind...lease&ID=724You're right though, I just don't see them going out of their way to enforce the $5 limit. Also, if someone were to melt these, how would you be able to trace them back to being copper cents if it's now in the form of a copper ingot? |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
One thing that is interesting is that the way the law is written, it outlaws not the meting of "nickels" but five-cent pieces. This means that it also makes the melting down of the 1942-45 War Nickels illegal as well even though they have no nickel in them. If the cent is ever discontinued an disappears from circulation you can expect the no melting law to go away as well. Then if the price of copper rises it will become profitable to melt down those copper cents if you have them. It wasn't that long ago that a $50 bag of cent had a melt value between $150 and $200. A lot of people say "it's not worth it, they are only worth one or Two Cents over face. That's a 200% profit. Back in the 1960's when silver disappeared it had less than a 10% profit margin and it didn't get over that 200 - 300% mark up until the late 1970's. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19931 Posts |
Conder gets it!
It really doesn't matter if it's illegal to melt them, they will trade as bullion anyway. In fact, they're even better as coins because the weight and purity is guaranteed. It's all a win-win situation, no matter what, each coin in my little hoard will ALWAYS be worth at least 1 cent....I cannot lose.
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Valued Member
United States
323 Posts |
badthad is right, as always haha
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Valued Member
United States
369 Posts |
I keep the high ef/au+ copper cents aside and roll up the rest by decade.
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Replies: 28 / Views: 2,247 |
Posted 07/12/2009 09:23 am
