is it really worth it for me to separate my copper pennies from the newer ones?

[snowdogg70]

hello all i have saved my pennies for many years and probably have over a 100 lbs of them and i would guess that about 80% would be copper . is it worth the time to separate them and cash in for copper scrap?

 

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[gleaner1]

hello all i have saved my pennies for many years and probably have over a 100 lbs of them and i would guess that about 80% would be copper . is it worth the time to separate them and cash in for copper scrap?

Do the math. By the time you separated them, spent all the time and money melting them, brought it to a scrap recycler, you would be breaking even, if not losing money. The whole subject is laughable. At the end of the day, if you got a bunch of copper cents, you got a bunch of chump change.

 

[stefen]

hello all i have saved my pennies for many years and probably have over a 100 lbs of them and i would guess that about 80% would be copper . is it worth the time to separate them and cash in for copper scrap?

Do the math. By the time you separated them, spent all the time and money melting them, brought it to a scrap recycler, you would be breaking even, if not losing money. The whole subject is laughable. At the end of the day, if you got a bunch of copper cents, you got a bunch of chump change.

Well stated...the only thing I could add is ..."Get A Life"

 

[Mzjavert]

I'm separating my copper and zinc pennies. The copper ones may not make me rich, but I figure my great, great neices and nephews will profit from them.

 

[gleaner1]

If I won a million copper cents on a game show, then surely it would have been the gag prize. I would decline the prize, and chalk it up as a good time. After all, its ten grand, I spend more on that for a good used car. And after taxes, transportation, counting, rolling, hassle bringing to bank, loss of work, it aint worth it.

 

[Red James Cash]

You never know whats around the next bend in the road. It takes all of ten seconds to check dates if you bring home change in your pocket, then toss them in a jar. I probably have roughly 20 -25 pounds.

 

[stefen]

If I won a million copper cents on a game show, then surely it would have been the gag prize. I would decline the prize, and chalk it up as a good time. After all, its ten grand, I spend more on that for a good used car. And after taxes, transportation, counting, rolling, hassle bringing to bank, loss of work, it aint worth it.

 

[Twisted One]

hello all i have saved my pennies for many years and probably have over a 100 lbs of them and i would guess that about 80% would be copper . is it worth the time to separate them and cash in for copper scrap?

Do you think there are many older people this day and age that wish they had held on to all of their pre '65 coins?

 

[N.J.THer]

If I won a million copper cents on a game show, then surely it would have been the gag prize. I would decline the prize, and chalk it up as a good time. After all, its ten grand, I spend more on that for a good used car. And after taxes, transportation, counting, rolling, hassle bringing to bank, loss of work, it aint worth it.

I would pour it into the machine at my bank...no counting or rolling involved. I would also hire the kid down the block to do it for 10% of the profits. The kid makes a grand and I get to detect while it is being done. I would have my kids do it but they are still too young...

BTW...My brother just won $10,000 on Tuesday in the megamillions...four numbers and the mega millions ball...so close but yet so far.

 

[[email protected]]

hello all i have saved my pennies for many years and probably have over a 100 lbs of them and i would guess that about 80% would be copper . is it worth the time to separate them and cash in for copper scrap?

Do the math. By the time you separated them, spent all the time and money melting them, brought it to a scrap recycler, you would be breaking even, if not losing money. The whole subject is laughable. At the end of the day, if you got a bunch of copper cents, you got a bunch of chump change.

Well stated...the only thing I could add is ..."Get A Life"

The combination of these two posts leaves a rude impression for what is a valid question being asked here.
Take the average detectorist on this forum and "do the math" on how many pennies are found. People are already going through the effort to count, clean, and roll their pennies.
The real copper ones are worth at least three times their face value.
Snowdogg70 is a Canadian and there has been talk of eliminating the penny here in Canada for some time now.
I personally hate pennies and can't be bothered to count and roll them but I do recycle copper and brass.
The thought of scrapping pennies appeals to me as it would be LESS work to separate them and head down to the scrap yard (I'm heading there anyway) than to count out 50 pennies per roll after you may have cleaned them, then stand for an hour waiting at a bank to cash them in.
If they eliminated the penny the non-copper ones would be worthless.
Does a plumber throw out his scrap copper pipe? Not too many, especially after the copper values over the last few years.
Well, we find pennies!
I wonder if you two would be laughing at those people who started saving their silver coins back in the 60's.
You get a life!!!!

 

[mlayers]

I save all my copper cents also. It is only pennies right now but one day they may be wourth more. Just like the silver coins....Matt

 

[gleaner1]

Copper cents will always have face value. Bullion value is like a tiny little teaser, a carrot dangled in front of the jack-ass's nose. Is my cent worth two cents or three? Numismatic value? Not really, too many minted. You see, the bullion value is the kicker. You cannot take your fifty five gallon drum of copper cents (that weights close to 4000 lbs, and is worth about $5500 bucks face, I did the math) to the smelter. He aint gonna do it. Its not pure copper. Its contaminated with 5% zinc and its illegal as hell. It costs a lot of money to purify copper for commercial use. If there ever comes a time when we can make a decent profit from covert melting and trying to sell the crude ingots to the scrap guy, we would surely have been well into our dirt nap. Anyway, it takes a million cents to make ten grand, and man, that weighs about 6800 lbs, about three and a half tons. But the math is sorta fun.

 

[snowdogg70]

hello all i have saved my pennies for many years and probably have over a 100 lbs of them and i would guess that about 80% would be copper . is it worth the time to separate them and cash in for copper scrap?

Do the math. By the time you separated them, spent all the time and money melting them, brought it to a scrap recycler, you would be breaking even, if not losing money. The whole subject is laughable. At the end of the day, if you got a bunch of copper cents, you got a bunch of chump change.

Well stated...the only thing I could add is ..."Get A Life"

The combination of these two posts leaves a rude impression for what is a valid question being asked here.
Take the average detectorist on this forum and "do the math" on how many pennies are found. People are already going through the effort to count, clean, and roll their pennies.
The real copper ones are worth at least three times their face value.
Snowdogg70 is a Canadian and there has been talk of eliminating the penny here in Canada for some time now.
I personally hate pennies and can't be bothered to count and roll them but I do recycle copper and brass.
The thought of scrapping pennies appeals to me as it would be LESS work to separate them and head down to the scrap yard (I'm heading there anyway) than to count out 50 pennies per roll after you may have cleaned them, then stand for an hour waiting at a bank to cash them in.
If they eliminated the penny the non-copper ones would be worthless.
Does a plumber throw out his scrap copper pipe? Not too many, especially after the copper values over the last few years.
Well, we find pennies!
I wonder if you two would be laughing at those people who started saving their silver coins back in the 60's.
You get a life!!!!

thanks i kinda got a rude from these responses too but thats ok the world is full of rude people , i have just learned to live with it, as far as saving my pennies im going to keep saving them doesnt really cost me anything and if the copper keeps going up it just maybe worth it. after all as china population grows so will the need for copper in the new homes for pipes and wires

 

[NHBandit]

I was saving them since it costs nothing and being retired my time is free. Last week I saw an ad on the local craigslist from a guy wanting to buy them and I swapped him $40 face value in copper cents for 2 Silver Eagles (valued at about $70). I also see then sell on Ebay regularly for around 2 cents each in quantity. So while it may be illegal at the moment to scrap them or melt them down, to me they are worth saving. These rude guys who respond the way they do to these legitimate questions would gladly swap $100 bills with you for $200 each all day long but they aren't smart enough to figure out you're doing the same thing with cents if you have enough of them.

 

[snowdogg70]

I was saving them since it costs nothing and being retired my time is free. Last week I saw an ad on the local craigslist from a guy wanting to buy them and I swapped him $40 face value in copper cents for 2 Silver Eagles (valued at about $70). I also see then sell on Ebay regularly for around 2 cents each in quantity. So while it may be illegal at the moment to scrap them or melt them down, to me they are worth saving. These rude guys who respond the way they do to these legitimate questions would gladly swap $100 bills with you for $200 each all day long but they aren't smart enough to figure out you're doing the same thing with cents if you have enough of them.

i feel the same, i cant lose money so why not? what if copper jumps more fro $4 to $8 or $12 a lb?