Rotting coinage

[Alan Applegate]

Modern US coinage, like everything else seemingly, has been devalued. And it is worth just about what you'd get out of it, if you melted it down.

Once upon a time, you could wash paper money, dry it out, and even iron it. Try that with a new bill, and see what happens!

 

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[Jason in Enid]

Hay wait a minute !
Here is a golden opportunity. With all the zincons rotting away, You should be saving good speciments.
The more that rot away will add value to your prime collection. When you get those shiny new ones in change seal them away for future profit. Also stash the new shields. Think about it! Frank...-

Market doesn't work that way. If it did, then our old coins would be worth 100xs more because the mint is constantly destroying every old coin that comes in from the banks. The vast majority of old silver coins and especially copper cents have been lost to the smelter.

 

[Dave Rishar]

The vast majority of old silver coins and especially copper cents have been lost to the smelter.

Are they actively retiring copper cents? Back when I was CRHing pennies, I was reliably getting 20% copper out of bank boxes. There'd even be a wheatie or two in there usually.

The disparity between coppers and zincolns may be explainable by mintage figures. The yearly totals are readily available but I was unable to find the totals by material and to be completely honest, adding them up by year is not a task that I'm willing to do. It might be an interesting project for someone who's handy with a spreadsheet and has a few hours to spare.