Copper penny stockpilers how much is "enough"?

usandthem

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May 19, 2011
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In the past year I bought about $1000 worth of silver with the profits I made from searching pennies. I probably found about $300 dollars worth of collectable pennies. I also have about $400 dollars in copper stockpiled for better times. All of this was done while watching (listening to) TV with my wife in the evenings. I enjoyed every minute of it.
 

canaboy123

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Sep 22, 2011
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There a waste of time and money, I can make more searching for silver then bothering to sort of pennies,maybe we can talk in 15 years
 

usandthem

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There a waste of time and money, I can make more searching for silver then bothering to sort of pennies,maybe we can talk in 15 years
What makes you think I don't search for silver as well. I search everything. In my area, at this time, pennies are whats making me the most money. There's no money wasted in my penny searches. I drive by six banks every day on my way to work. Some are dumps, some are pickups. No money wasted on gas. My dump banks won't take rolled coin so no time is spent re-rolling zincolns. I've got a system that works for me. It's not all about the money. I collect coins and I enjoy the hunt.
 

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sheepdog_tx

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... I search everything... No money wasted on gas....no time is spent re-rolling zincolns....I collect coins and I enjoy the hunt.

That right there pretty much sums up how we should all be. Enjoy it without sinking too much investment in resources. We are got more time than money, even if you make alot.
 

Silverfinder99

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Im not a CRH but after reading your post I think I'm interested in it now. Tell me, where do you sell pennies? I never new you could do that. Do you just sell them at your local recycling plant? Please forgive me if that's a dumb question but like I said im not a CRH and don't know anything about it but it does sound interesting. Thanks
 

fistfulladirt

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Im not a CRH but after reading your post I think I'm interested in it now. Tell me, where do you sell pennies? I never new you could do that. Do you just sell them at your local recycling plant? Please forgive me if that's a dumb question but like I said im not a CRH and don't know anything about it but it does sound interesting. Thanks
BEGINNERS GUIDE TO COIN ROLL HUNTING!!! + TERMS
 

Silverfinder99

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Thanks but I was really interested in knowing where you can sell a penny for 1.6 times face value as someone earlier stated he did and actually stockpiled them for that purpose. I've never heard of being able to sell money that's still in circulation for more than face value. I did know that the older pennies are worth more than face value because of the copper and the modern price of it I just didn't know there was somewhere you could actually sell them for scrap copper.
 

Coin Town

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Silverfinder99 said:
Thanks but I was really interested in knowing where you can sell a penny for 1.6 times face value as someone earlier stated he did and actually stockpiled them for that purpose. I've never heard of being able to sell money that's still in circulation for more than face value. I did know that the older pennies are worth more than face value because of the copper and the modern price of it I just didn't know there was somewhere you could actually sell them for scrap copper.

Ebay
 

thripp

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Thanks but I was really interested in knowing where you can sell a penny for 1.6 times face value as someone earlier stated he did and actually stockpiled them for that purpose. I've never heard of being able to sell money that's still in circulation for more than face value. I did know that the older pennies are worth more than face value because of the copper and the modern price of it I just didn't know there was somewhere you could actually sell them for scrap copper.

I have sold two boxes on eBay for 1.8 times face value shipped, but after shipping and fees it was about 1.5x. The going rate on realcent.org is 1.4x shipped, so anyone who pays 1.6x now isn't looking hard enough.
 

Silverfinder99

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I have sold two boxes on eBay for 1.8 times face value shipped, but after shipping and fees it was about 1.5x. The going rate on realcent.org is 1.4x shipped, so anyone who pays 1.6x now isn't looking hard enough.

Very interesting guys, I'll be looking into this to see if it's something I might try. I didn't ask earlier but I'm assuming this is perfectly legal?
 

fistfulladirt

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Thanks but I was really interested in knowing where you can sell a penny for 1.6 times face value as someone earlier stated he did and actually stockpiled them for that purpose. I've never heard of being able to sell money that's still in circulation for more than face value. I did know that the older pennies are worth more than face value because of the copper and the modern price of it I just didn't know there was somewhere you could actually sell them for scrap copper.
I understand. You would be selling US cents for their copper content, although it is currently not legal to melt the coins here. In other words, from what I understand, you cannot go down to your local scrap yard and sell copper US cents for more than face value.
 

Silverfinder99

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I understand. You would be selling US cents for their copper content, although it is currently not legal to melt the coins here. In other words, from what I understand, you cannot go down to your local scrap yard and sell copper US cents for more than face value.

Yeah that's what I figured but the EBAY thing makes since as long as there are people out there who hold on to the dream of the government doing something that would actually help the citizens its supposed to be looking out for.
Which brings up a thought. Since our dollar is losing value everyday because we don't have the gold to back it up why doesn't our government stock pile all these old pennies to back the dollar up since the copper content is more than what they're actually worth. It wouldn't be a total fix to our declineing dollar but it wouldnt hurt. Whats y'alls thoughts on this?
 

thripp

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Yeah that's what I figured but the EBAY thing makes since as long as there are people out there who hold on to the dream of the government doing something that would actually help the citizens its supposed to be looking out for.
Which brings up a thought. Since our dollar is losing value everyday because we don't have the gold to back it up why doesn't our government stock pile all these old pennies to back the dollar up since the copper content is more than what they're actually worth. It wouldn't be a total fix to our declineing dollar but it would hurt. Whats y'alls thoughts on this?

There's only about $350 million copper pennies in circulation so it wouldn't make much of a difference.
 

Silverfinder99

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There's only about $350 million copper pennies in circulation so it wouldn't make much of a difference.

Yeah I see your point but still assuming that they're worth 1.6 times face value (it fluctuates I know) that's approximately 560 million(if I did my math right) of actual precious metal backing our sluggish dollar. I know it's not a huge chunk but the good thing about it is the government already owns it and the work of mining it has already been done so in my mind it should be as simple as dumping all copper pennies they get back from circulation into a vault. Right?
 

clarknau

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Silverfinder99 said:
Yeah that's what I figured but the EBAY thing makes since as long as there are people out there who hold on to the dream of the government doing something that would actually help the citizens its supposed to be looking out for.
Which brings up a thought. Since our dollar is losing value everyday because we don't have the gold to back it up why doesn't our government stock pile all these old pennies to back the dollar up since the copper content is more than what they're actually worth. It wouldn't be a total fix to our declineing dollar but it wouldnt hurt. Whats y'alls thoughts on this?

Since the copper pennies in circulation are currently being used by businesses and citizens, the government would have to make zinc pennies as replacements since there would be a deficit. Manufacturing new pennies would out way the benefit of stockpiling copper pennies.
 

Silverfinder99

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Since the copper pennies in circulation are currently being used by businesses and citizens, the government would have to make zinc pennies as replacements since there would be a deficit. Manufacturing new pennies would out way the benefit of stockpiling copper pennies.

Not necessarily, in my opinion the penny as currency is worthless. Look how many you see every time you step out of your vehicle in any parking lot. People just don't care about them and I think we could round our purchases to a nickel without causing to much chaos. I really think they need to just quit making them altogether. Let the zincolns do there job until they turn to powder and in the mean time just start round purchases to the nearest nickel.
 

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