Copper Hoarding - What's The Realistic Run Up?

Of course there is no way to know how high copper will go. It all depends on how quikly worldwide demand expands in relation to available supply. China was stockpiling copper and the price went up. As the US economy incres forward ,copper is inching forward again. If you do the math a penny increases by 1 cent in metal value for about every $1.50 rise in copper price so for copper cents to be worth 5 cents in copper,copper prices will need to be about $7.50. All I know is, over the 5 years I have been "harvesting" copper from circulation the percent of copper to zinc cents has declined from an average of 30% per box to about 20% now. The window of opportunity is closing and I, for one, will harvest while I can and worry about the"investment" aspects of it when I have it in hand. This opportunity will not come around again nor will it last much longer. If you are searching cents anyway,how much more effort does it take to throw the copper aside? Just my opinion but people will run across town for a 10% discount on something and here you have a 50% discount,probably due to grow,as I said, it is a no-brainer for me. I am approaching 3000 rolls.

Well I am not sure about hoarding lincolns, or any other copper coins as we know the US govt bans the melting of coins.
However, copper pipe and tubing is a whole other story.
Just checked todays scrap prices, $3,48 a pound. So one would have to figure out how many Lincolns it would take to make a pound.
I would do the math, but it is too early in the morning for me to think.

isn't it 2 rolls?

Some of the investors on the talking head financial news programs have suggested hoarding copper pennies as an alternative to actually purchasing silver or gold. This way there is very little effort or expense in metals investment. Of course if the .gov doesn't allow melting for a long time, you'll be stuck with coins at face value. As Alan Greenspan once said "your savings will be confiscated through inflation."
Although there is a law against melting copper cents I would dare to say a lot are getting melted anyway. I would also say that there are a lot getting melted legally in foreign countries.

Correct. Even though one cannot melt copper cents, they can and do trade as bullion. I would not buy any right now (for more than face), but I am keeping what I find.

Here is the way I see it. It is a copper penny or cent if you will. It is now and will always be worth at least one cent until the day comes that the penny is demonetized. Right now there is a melt ban on copper U.S. coinage thus making it illegal to melt or sell them for melting, Still, only worth one cent regardless of metal content. It may never be legal to melt copper cents or it could become legal next year, who knows what the clowns in D.C. will do next. If you want to hoard copper cents, hoard them, it is not going to hurt anyone. However there are much better investments out there that can earn you a steady income with being so heavy and taking up all that space, nor would they be required to be loaded up into trucks and hauled off to market to be sold in order for you to realize any type of monetary gain.

Exactly!

Let's say that five gallon pail holds 25,000 cents (a conservative estimate because my one gallon wine jug has a little over 5000 cents in it).

The choices are to cash it in for $250 (minus a percentage that many places charge now) or hold on to it for a few years to receive $500 or more for it.

Seriously, a five gallon container is not that big at all.

It always comes down to the question "Can afford to hold on to them?"