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 Replies: 10 / Views: 5,400 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5362 Posts |
Recent published articles about the cost of copper on world markets and about the Royal Canadian Mint retiring coins to melt for profit got me to thinking. What percentage of the cents now circulating in the US are copper and what are they worth? The math is fairly easy - there are under 150 US pre-1982 cents needed to produce a pound of pure copper and copper is worth $3.10. To me that says a cent has twice its face value in metal value. As to how many copper cents remain in circulation, well that required a small study. I went to three banks yesterday and got $25 worth of cents. I got $15 in cents turned in by depositors and $10 in recycled cents from Brinks. I opened each roll today and counted what I got. Here are the results of my sampling. Depositor rolls - The theoretical 1500 coins was actually 1499. There were 3 rolls short one cent and two that had 51 cents - so I ended up one cent short. There were no Canadian or other foreign coins in any of the rolls and remarkably few real culls. I did find 5 wheatie cents in one roll (out of a total of 9 wheaties). The breakdown was: 1198 copper plated zinc 292 pre-1982 cents of which 9 were wheat cents (oldest dated 1936) Brinks rolls - The theoretical 1000 coins was RIGHT on the money - every single roll contained 50 coins exactly. So they count better than depositors. BUT there was a Canadian cent in one roll and each roll had no fewer than 2 and as many as 10 coins that were culls. Some were covered with dirt - others were heavily corroded and many had no dates at all. The brinks rolls actually got the table top DIRTY.  The metal breakdown was: 806 zinc 194 copper of which one was a Canadian and one was a wheatie (1944). If you do the math - the Depositor rolls averaged 79.92% zinc and the Brinks rolls averaged 80.60%. That is a surprising match in my opinion. I plan to re-test once a week to see if that was a fluke. To me these results demonstrate that copper cents are in fact disappearing from circulation. I have been watching this ratio since 1996 when it was 60-40 copper. As recently as 2002, it remained at least 50-50. But since that date it has fallen steadily. So I have a few questions. HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THIS FORUM ARE CONSCIOUSLY SAVING COPPER CENTS? HOW MANY JUST SAVE ALL CENTS? HOW MANY MEMBERS KNOW THAT CANADIAN 5 CENT COINS ARE PURE NICKEL AND ARE WORTH ABOUT 15 CENTS US EACH? |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1091 Posts |
Very interesting statistics. The Rate of copper should fall each and every year as the new coins are added to the pool. So 60-40 copper in 1996, it follows that, ten years of adding new coins the ratio should fall.
Personally, I save all change given to me. I give it a quick look when I receive it then into a pile it goes. When I need money for purchasing a large amount of coins, I go through the stack again, in case I missed something, and take the remainder to the bank. I've been to the bank with my coins stash about 3 times in ten years.
Didn't know about the Canadian Nickel, cool.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
560 Posts |
I've been collecting copper cents for a few months now and I'm averaging about 17% copper out of rolls. Yes, I'm sure the copper cents are disappearing, steadily.
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Valued Member
United States
470 Posts |
HOW MANY MEMBERS OF THIS FORUM ARE CONSCIOUSLY SAVING COPPER CENTS?
I am.
HOW MANY JUST SAVE ALL CENTS?
Not me. I only save copper cents.
HOW MANY MEMBERS KNOW THAT CANADIAN 5 CENT COINS ARE PURE NICKEL AND ARE WORTH ABOUT 15 CENTS US EACH?
I did not know that but then again I haven't seen a Canadian nickel in 20 years. Pennies, yes. Nickels, no.
When copper hits $10.00 a pound, I'll be rich.
Rich, I tell you !
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Nice statistics. However, I really think your wasting time with such an undertaking. For instance where you live may have a massive variation on your results. Of course copper coins are vanishing from circulation since they are not made any more and so many have been melted down, collected by coin collectors, thrown in Rivers, Lakes and Oceans. Put on RR tracks, shot at with guns, pressed to make things and even melted down in chem labs by students. I'm guilty of many of the above. Also, if you live near the Canadian Border you will acquire a lot more of their coinage than if you live in Arizona. In large cities there are numerous times when someone just takes a jar full of cents to a bank and then there is a sudden appearance of copper coins. I recently, just for the fun of it, put in about 20 Wheat Cents in with a bag of coins to be taken to the bank. In one area of Wisconsin I went to not long ago I found extensive amounts of old coins in my change. This is due to the area I was in has many small towns, no big ones for over a hundred miles, so the coinage recirculates substantially. As I said, the area you live in could make a large impact on your statistics.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7123 Posts |
Just carl
The things that you have noted which happen to the US cent coin are true and would cause attrition to the total number of US cents, but the sampling that Swamperbob is doing will give an indication for his area of a percentage of copper cents still in circulation for his geographic area.
Rick
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Pillar of the Community
United States
830 Posts |
Those numbers are quite interesting. I started saving all cents from pocket change a few months ago, separating them into "copper" and "junk" (my name for those coated zinc things). After reading this thread, I went in and counted them, and I, too, got nearly 80% "junk" and 20% copper.
I'm in New Mexico, if anyone wants to start tracking this stuff by area.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1203 Posts |
I haven't really done a study on this subject but would guess that if you were to find 20% copper in a roll of cents you would be lucky. I'm actually surprised that there are that many!
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New Member
United States
11 Posts |
I actively save the copper (pre 1982) pennies myself and have almost two full 64 ounce gatorade bottles full. I visit other forums also, and have seen many threads about people saving them, including buying boxes of pennies for the expressed purpose of wheats and pre 82 coppers.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
590 Posts |
Thanks for the info. I only have one Canadian nickel, now I know it's melt value. I thought about saving the copper cents but have yet to start. Can you take these to a scrap yard and sell them like you can copper wire?
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
5362 Posts |
Dewayne76 - you can't sell them for scrap yet. But over time, I will bet that will change. I can recall as a kid when the 5 cent silver War Nickels crossed 7 cents in silver value. I was in 7th grade. I started saving them even though all the older collectors in my family were against it. They thought I should buy proof sets! Eventually (in 4 years) the War Nickels had disappeared totally, but I had saved about 6,000, which is 150 rolls. I used my part time earnings as a fire wood cutter. I got most of them by going through the weekly receipts of an Ice Cream parlor owned by my friend's grandfather. When I got to college, I sold most of them and bought other coins I wanted more. I roughly quadrupled my original $300 investment. One of the coins I bought was an 1800 US silver dollar in EF40 that I paid $150 for. The second was an MS 1894 $2.50 which I thought was a great investment because of the mintage of under 5,000 coins. (It ended up not being so hot). The third was an AU 1955 Double die cent. The fourth was an MS 1893 Indian cent Double struck coin with the second strike 50% off center (two dates). The other coins were all Heraldic and Bust half dollars - 25 in all including a nice 1806 in EF struck 15% off center and an F-12 1815/2. Several of the halves from the 1820s are AU. I believe my $300 pocket change investment is now worth just over $10,000.
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Replies: 10 / Views: 5,400 |
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Posted 10/04/2006 07:48 am
