Copper Hoarding - What's The Realistic Run Up?

To answer the initial question of the thread from my prospective, I wounld't pay more than face for copper and don't believe we will see coppper much above what it is now. Maybe .50 cents more this year at most. I also don't believe the ban will be lifted in the near future.

I'm not saying that it's not smarter to just sell coppers now instead of hoarding. That may be the case

I just think it IS worth the effort to pull them from circulation.

Honestly, I think it would take $7.50 lb copper to start seeing the copper cents start disappearing. At that point, good luck to the government enforcing a no melt ban.

Copper is already around 4.50 a lb and going up, and there is a difference between hoarding copper and buying it. Right now all you have to do is roll search and you if you do a box a week you are going to get around 500 and 1000 copper pennies a week. They aren't that hard to store either, whether you roll and box them or just keep them in a jug. Pennies will be gone soon. It costs so mo much more to make them than they are worth.

Lastly, even if they don't go up that much in your lifetime, you can pass them down to family members and maybe one day your great grandchildren or a distance neice can turn them in for a small fortune and buy a house or go to college (can you imagine what that will cost in 100 + years), and all it cost you was 10 or 20 bucks in roll searching a week. If you can't afford that you might have the wrong hobby.

good point. I hoard copper like a mad man. I probably sort $1000 in pennies a month. I usualy pull anywhere from 25% to 30% coppers. My only real concern in how long can I got putting away $300 a month before it turns my rare coin buying to a stop.

argumentum ad hominem?

As to the dodged main question... Two weeks ago 100% zinc (pure 2010D). Three weeks ago about 95% (very sad). I wouldn't call these typical...yet.

Good one Tim

I don't hoard copper. I accumulate cents :) I date/mint wrap everything I can get my hands on. Why? I think the 60's and 70's will be similar to the 50's and even more so if they lift the ban because I feel like the memorials will go first. If they lift the ban, I'm not selling, at least not as copper. Send my 60/70 Reds to the can man? No way!

Also when I'm old(er) and start to look for errors and varities, it's a whole lot better when you have lots of rolls same date/mint.

If the feds are pulling, I need to hurry. If not, I need to hurry.

Well, I never see people say silver searching is a bad idea, so I have a little devil's advocate situation for you.

person 1 gets a $250 box of dimes to silver search. average finds are 1-2 roosies which are about $2.50 each, so minus the 20 cents you paid for the dimes is about $4.80 profit for 2500 coins

person 2 buys a $25 box of pennies and pulls on average 600 copper pennies, worth 18.00 minus 6.00 paid for the pennies. That's a $12 profit. Now I know due to melting rules and such lets just say you can get 1.5x face. That's 9.00-6.00 which is still $3 profit per 2500 coins.

To me, hoarding/selling copper cents isn't far off from dime box searching. You're much less likely to get skunked, the upfront money is 1/10th the price, and the return is nearly the same. heck if you can get 2x face for copper pennies, you'd on average be making more than the average dime box.

Stretch that out over a 10 box run. You'd on average make $30 from copper pennies at 1.5x, and say you find a silver dime per box, you're at $25. you paid $250 for the pennies , but had to put up $2500 for the dimes. even ay you find 2 dimes in 5 of those boxes and don't get a skunk, then you have $37.50 in silver. I just see the penny searching as more productive.

The only silver searching boxes that I could see being better are halves, but those seem to be feast or famine now. You may get 10 skunks in a row, or you may get 1 good box, etc.

I really think copper pennies may be the most cost effective, for profit roll searching you can do.