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 Replies: 11 / Views: 1,633 |
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Valued Member
United States
91 Posts |
I understand (through a lil birdy) that "pennies" from 82' and back will be the interest of a NEW collector, due to their copper content!  This collector is the US Government!  Which is suppose to use them for the newer pennies as clad. . . H you M M M . . . I guess it is a logical, by the government, to make that decision due to the cost factor involved in the older pennies and the newer ones. I tested out this "birdie" yesterday and purchased 10 rolls of pennies wrapped by a government contractor and the oldest pennies I found were 1 - 1973 and 1 - 1982. The remaining were1983 and above. Any opinions as to this? |
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Moderator
 Australia
16808 Posts |
I find it astonishing that your government has never systematically tried to withdraw the old, high-metal-content-value coins (silver and bronze). Every other country that changes the composition of it's coins usually does so.
If roll hunters and penny sorters can make money by filtering out the older coins, the government could, too. The profit the government would make from selling (or recycling) the scrap metal would more than pay for the costs of setting up and operating such a scheme.
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 States
54 Posts |
It can't be that hard to make a sorting machine that differentiates between different metal types.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2120 Posts |
O.O <Runs to the bank to buy 50 brinks boxes>
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2424 Posts |
is wondering how credible this birdy is...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2120 Posts |
I wonder if or when this will be officially announced.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1934 Posts |
I'd be surprised if the US government got into recycling copper cents as some mission.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6326 Posts |
There "IS" a precedent for the government to do such a thing......they've melted down plenty in the past !
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Valued Member
United States
105 Posts |
In this day and age, as far as I know anyway, and speaking as a bank employee... once the coin leaves FED hands it does not return. Coin that is not held onto private citizens is either in bank vaults or in armored carrier vaults.
If this were to happen, that the Gov was gong to recycle old coinage, what would be the process of getting the coins back to the FED. Back in the 1930's what was the process the FED took to reacquire gold coins?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4212 Posts |
Maybe it's where you are. I'm in a small town in Id. and average 7-10 a roll.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
687 Posts |
It's not the government extracting the copper - just look on ebay if you need proof. It's Gresham's law in action. Due to the low value of copper compared to face (and the melt ban on pennies and nickels), it's not a quick process. |
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Valued Member
United States
232 Posts |
Personally, I kind of doubt it. It would seem to me that the cost of such a program would include:
- Buying machines to sort the pennies
- Hiring staff and other expenses to actually run the machines
- Transporting pennies to the sorting place and sorted pennies to the fed or the melting pot
- Melting the pennies and purifying the copper
Plus administration and security for all of the above.
I can't imagine this would be cost effective or popular enough to be worth trying.
John Paul
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Replies: 11 / Views: 1,633 |
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Posted 05/06/2010 9:16 pm
