Huge 60s Red Cent Find Begs Copper Bullion Question

[MintPeace]

Hi Treasure Net CRHunters,

First post here, which I have two purposes for writing 1) to share the recent scores from a $25 box of Lincoln cents and 2) an inquiry regarding copper bullion. I began CRHunting this year and am really enjoying it as well as the coin collecting hobby at large. Thank you all for your posts, it's a wonderful forum here.

Most of my finds have been typical stuff, wheats, rosies, 40% halves, etc., but recently I scored a big lot of shiny red cents, along with a 1904 Indian Head in the Southern California region (see photo) off one box. While updating a few cents for my personal collection was great, I was additionally excited to find such a large amount of great condition Lincoln cents in the sea of otherwise old gravy stain brown pennies. Which brings me to the question of copper bullion.



A friend told me that some 1982s and all prior were worth holding on to for copper bullion. To wit, began picking out all copper (which I nicknamed Copperhams) in addition to all wheats and errors from Allen & Potters book. After I had a huge pile and vetted them for errors, I tried selling a $10 bag of Copperhams from 1959 to 1981 on eBay but got no bids, no watchers, and a lowly 2 views which was in my estimation, a Copper Bullion experiment tantamount to huge waste of time. The Copperhams went back to the bank in my next deposit. So question to the CRHunters is, for those who don't waste time with Copper Bullion, at what date do you begin picking out shiny red pennies? 1958? 1970? 1980? Case-by-case basis?


Thanks y'all

Mint Peace

 

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[Peyton Manning]

when I found out that pre 82's are worth more than double face I started collecting them

 

[MintPeace]

They pile up, fast, what do you do with them?

 

[Peyton Manning]

theoretically if you have $100 worth and melt them you can get $200 scrap ( not that I would ever melt US coinage)

 

[enamel7]

What was the starting bid you had them at? Maybe that was the problem.

 

[FormerTeller]

theoretically if you have $100 worth and melt them you can get $200 scrap ( not that I would ever melt US coinage)

Only one problem - it's illegal.

I'd save any pre-1970 red cents and sell them eventually at a coin club or coin show. Join a coin club if you haven't already; you'll be surprised what kind of stuff the members will buy.

Selling pre-1982 cents is possible, but it may take awhile to find a buyer at the price you want.

 

[MintPeace]

@ enamel7, very thorough troubleshootin, bid was at $15. Tried to make $5 from sorting and offering a $10 bag of 1959-1969 cents. Skunked, LOL
@ FormerTeller - visiting local shows, great advice and best practices, thank you!

 

[omga747]

If you want to sell them on ebay, your best bet is to save up $100 face. This is about 68 lbs., which is just under the 70 lb. limit for a flat rate post office box. They seem to sell pretty well for about $150, but after fees are all said and done you're left with less than $130. Still, 30% profit isn't bad, but it's definitely a bit of a hassle and those boxes have to be sealed really, really well.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

@ enamel7, very thorough troubleshootin, bid was at $15. Tried to make $5 from sorting and offering a $10 bag of 1959-1969 cents. Skunked, LOL
@ FormerTeller - visiting local shows, great advice and best practices, thank you!

Add shipping onto that and the price becomes cost-prohibitive. As others stated, I believe you'd do better selling in larger lots which will decrease the price per cent. At current copper prices and after ebay fees and other expenses, I'd expect to net 1.1 - 1.2 cents per. Maybe a tad more if you're fortunate. and maybe a tad less if you aren't.

 

[Twitch]

I keep all red copper cents, because I think they're neat.

 

[Omega]

I sell copper pennies for 1.4x face to a local guy, was getting a CTU or 2 a week, Ive really slowed down now though, got a lot going on.

 

[CRH]

You should search those BU cents for DDO,DDR,OMM,RPMs, you might find something that can fetch a pretty penny!
-CRH

 

[enamel7]

You should search those BU cents for DDO,DDR,OMM,RPMs, you might find something that can fetch a pretty penny!
-CRH

I agree.

 

[Holmes08]

I say avoid ebay i have NEVER had good luck there, however i have found several individuals who live NEAR me that will buy them for 1.3 cents a piece and someone willing to give me silver for 25 dollar boxes. Long story short check Criagslist ! ! !

~Holmes~