Tried my luck with 3 boxes of pennies

crazyjarhead

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Sep 10, 2007
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When to 5 local banks here for halves but no halves ??? So I ended up getting three boxes of Brinks pennies. Ended up with 40 plus wheats. The oldest was a 1927 and the rest were between that and 1958. Most were in the 40's. Had a few 30's but all in all not too bad. I did a few boxes last year and they were in the paper wrappers so easy to dump and re-wrap. These were in that plastic wrappers and took some time breaking them open. I took them to a local coinstar machine and I wonder if it was worth it. Cost 7 dollars plus hauling those heavy boxes around. Still something to do on a boring winter day. Ron

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Diggin-N-Dumps

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Sep 9, 2009
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SFBayArea said:
Well, the coppers are only worth that much if you can melt them but it's illegal to melt U.S. pennies in the U.S. You also cannot export them in large quantities either. That's why you don't see 3 times face for them on Feebay. Despite the price of copper going up, prices for copper cents are about 1.6 cents each on Feebay. Unless you know mobsters who are willing to melt them, they can't be counted in term of realtistic melt value. You'd have to hold on until they make pennies obsolete due to inflation or a repeal of the law which will happen at some point in time.

However, it's perfectly fine to melt Canadian coppers here in the U.S. since there are no laws here that say melting of foreign coin is illegal in the U.S.. I didn't export them here either. Just found them through CRH. I hold onto all pre-79 Canadian cents since they have the most copper at 98% (more than U.S. copper cents).

I always see in the posts how people talking about how "Melting Pennies" is Illegal. And I Understand how this law works.

What I dont understand is why people still dont think its a waste of time to save them. I see it as, Copper is Copper, Yes they are in "Penny" Form , But its still a "Precious Metal"
And Yes, I dont plan on melting anything so BigBrother can come knocking on my door telling me what I can do with "MY" money that "I" earned.

But I could careless if the person I sell them too wants to melt them down as scrap :dontknow: Thats not my business, nor do I personally think he is doing anything wrong (Just my Opinion)

All Im getting at is I save copper for the same reason some people are saving the silver coins they find..Not because im waiting for them to lift the ban on melting them, Having them melted down into bars or whatever doesnt change the price of what the metal is at the time

Im just throwing in my "Unmelted" 2 Cents
 

mts

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May 18, 2009
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Diggin-N-Dumps said:
SFBayArea said:
Well, the coppers are only worth that much if you can melt them but it's illegal to melt U.S. pennies in the U.S. You also cannot export them in large quantities either. That's why you don't see 3 times face for them on Feebay. Despite the price of copper going up, prices for copper cents are about 1.6 cents each on Feebay. Unless you know mobsters who are willing to melt them, they can't be counted in term of realtistic melt value. You'd have to hold on until they make pennies obsolete due to inflation or a repeal of the law which will happen at some point in time.

However, it's perfectly fine to melt Canadian coppers here in the U.S. since there are no laws here that say melting of foreign coin is illegal in the U.S.. I didn't export them here either. Just found them through CRH. I hold onto all pre-79 Canadian cents since they have the most copper at 98% (more than U.S. copper cents).

I always see in the posts how people talking about how "Melting Pennies" is Illegal. And I Understand how this law works.

What I dont understand is why people still dont think its a waste of time to save them. I see it as, Copper is Copper, Yes they are in "Penny" Form , But its still a "Precious Metal"
And Yes, I dont plan on melting anything so BigBrother can come knocking on my door telling me what I can do with "MY" money that "I" earned.

But I could careless if the person I sell them too wants to melt them down as scrap :dontknow: Thats not my business, nor do I personally think he is doing anything wrong (Just my Opinion)

All Im getting at is I save copper for the same reason some people are saving the silver coins they find..Not because im waiting for them to lift the ban on melting them, Having them melted down into bars or whatever doesnt change the price of what the metal is at the time

Im just throwing in my "Unmelted" 2 Cents

Agreed. As long as their perceived value is more than what I paid for them, then I'm going to keep them. Ban or no ban, people are willing to pay more than face value for them. And if the ban gets lifted, the price will only go up... :icon_thumleft:
 

blkcwbyhat

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Dec 3, 2010
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MTS,
I never thought of that! If they lift the ban,the penny price would skyrocket to collectors! Everyone here makes me think,its hurting my head!!!
 

mlayers

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Oct 29, 2007
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Not bad Ron for a cold day. Today I had to go to 5 different banks to get some half rolls. I got 10 from one bank that is all they would give me. I was very lucky I got 23 silver coins 3-90% and 20-40%. I will be hitting that bank again Monday......Matt
 

SFBayArea

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Aug 28, 2009
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Don't forget.. you can melt Canadian copper cents here in the U.S., provided you received them through CRH.. Those should have a realized sale value closer to melt. Canadian coppers have disappeared now in Canada in less than 5 years as sorting facilities up there similar to Brinks are culling the copper coins and distributing junk steel ones.
 

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