I think Brinks is culling out copper.

[canaboy123]

Now i search pennies but i dont cull copper cents (yet) but this monday my 2 boxes from bank of america both boxes had ZERO copper cents this is the second week in a row that both boxes had not a SINGLE copper cent. I still searched them and pulled out 9 BU 09s.



Whats going on!

 

[namster]

Id have to know more about their business model to say for certain, but I find it highly unlikely Brinks is culling copper "for a fee." They would have to do an enormous amount of coin for them to charge a fee that would be profitable for both brinks and the end customer. Im not seeing it. More likely you are down stream of someones dumps. Happen to be in the PNW?

 

[namster]

Of particular interest to me in this flow chart is the portion that indicates the Fed. I believe banks are periodically sending in halves to the Fed for storage since they are not longer "widely circulated in commerce." That would explain a lot of what I have seen in my local coin pool...or not.

 

[maipenrai]

Hey Madwest, no wonder I cant find any BRASS cents, they are all being culled! If I find any Brass pennies, I will be sure to keep them.

 

[blink]

Someone brings this up all the time, No they do not cull copper. Has it ever occurred to those who complain about it that perhaps they got some other CRHer's zinc dumps? Zinc dumps have to go somewhere and eventually get repackaged by companies like Brinks.

I can logically understand both sides of this argument.

A few observations:

I have now got boxes from 3 entirely different bank chains, at various times, that use the Brink service and each of them were void of copper
Bank 1: 6 boxes over 2 months
Bank 2: 4 boxes over 2 months
Bank 3: 3 boxes over 3 months

I searched 4 boxes by hand and there are 1982's throughout. But no copper

The boxes are now packaged in a thinner box

Did I mention not 1 copper...period

I assume a well tuned Ryedal has an error rate of at least 1%??


I just have a hard time not thinking something else is going on.

 

[mts]

Many people on here have said "yes brinks is culling copper because I get all zinc cents" and others have said "no brinks is not culling copper because I am getting (x)% copper per box." Others have also said that perhaps brinks is culling copper for a client and selling the copper to said client for face value plus a sorting fee. Has it occurred to those who are bickering that only a few brinks facilities are culling copper for clients. That would explain why some aren't getting any copper and some are. I think that only a few facilities across america are culling copper, please feel free to strongly disagree.

I totally agree. Logically, it makes no sense for people to be arguing that it could or could not be happening based solely on their own personal observations. It COULD be happening, but it may not be. If someone wants to pay Brinks a fee to sort copper, and the numbers add up for both parties, then the deal will be done. And I see no reason why the numbers can't add up for both parties. There are likely companies that are speculating that the value of the copper cent will go up to several cents a piece. Given that there has been yet another flurry of legistlation aimed at either dropping the cent altogehter, or at least changing the composition; now is the perfect time for this type of arrangement to exist.

I can neither confirm nor deny the claim. But I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it was happening. There is 2.5 cents worth of copper in those pre-1982 cents. If a speculator could buy them in bulk for 1.2 cents each or so then they could potentially make a pretty hefty profit some day. And no, they won't need to melt them to do so.

Let me put it this way.... if Brinks had a local walk in facility where I could buy $50 bags of copper cents for $60 I'd do it in a heartbeat.

 

[madwest]

Hey Madwest, no wonder I cant find any BRASS cents, they are all being culled! If I find any Brass pennies, I will be sure to keep them.

I do tend to use the technical and layman terms somewhat interchangeably and do lump bronze cents with brass cents.

The first one cent coins were Copper (100% Cu, except for trace impurities) from 1793-1857
Next, they were NI-brass (88% Cu, 12% Ni) from 1857-1864
Then, they were bronze (95% Cu, 5% Sn) from 1864-1942
Then, they were steel (Zn coating over Fe, C alloy core) in 1943
Then, they were brass (95% Cu, 5% Zn) from 1944-1946
Then, they were bronze (95% Cu, 5% Sn) from 1946-1962
Then, they were brass (95% Cu, 5% Zn) from 1962-1982
Then, they were zinc (Cu coating over Zn core) from 1982-present

The vast majority of copper cents that are being hoarded are actually brass (followed by bronze).