Is it worth it to save copper pennies?

[changedman]

I've been saving 1981 and earlier pennies for a while, and now I'm getting a lot more now that I'm roll hunting.
My thought has been that the copper content is worth 2 cents, so you're making money by saving them. However, right now it's illegal to melt them. This may change down the road, since (from what I understand) it is no longer illegal to melt old U.S. silver coins. The problem with hoping you can sell the copper as scrap metal is that buyers will need to inspect the pennies to make sure they are really 1981 or earlier. I've also heard that the government may at some point quit making pennies and make the ones in circulation worth 5 cents. This seems like a long shot to me.
This is all obviously a very long term investment, and I'm wondering if this effort really worth it. I've heard of people hoarding literally tons of copper pennies, but I'm certainly not going to store all that in my house.
What are everyone's thoughts on this? Do you recommend storing copper pennies or not?

 

[jeff of pa]

no opinion just this info;

right now every copper cent is worth $0.0198429
which makes $100.00 worth of Copper pennies
worth $198.429
and it is illegal for everyone but the mint to melt them

 

[2Cents]

I sort mine out and save them.

 

[obediah]

Was it or would it of been good to save Silver in 1965, it is a question that has no real answer beyond your personal objective; of course anyone who saved Silver in 65 lost quite alot of returns on his ca$h tweenst then and now or say 2005 +/- .

My dad invest alota money in 1955, $1500 in Martin Marietta, when he died in 1992 mom sold it all for 84K, if he had invested it in Junk Silver in 1955 (it'd all be %90's) there is no doubt would have made some money to sell it in 1992 but it would in no way even be more than a couple of K.

 

[user.aaaaa]

I've been saving 1981 and earlier pennies for a while, and now I'm getting a lot more now that I'm roll hunting.
My thought has been that the copper content is worth 2 cents, so you're making money by saving them.

i recommend to know "garbage days" for neighborhood,
and save vacuum cleaners.. and other stuff which have electric motors...
with copper coils inside..

 

[maine_Jim]

$1500 was a lot of money in 1955. It would only be worth about 13x face today so I think the stock was nice bet. Just think if you then took that $84,000 and dumped it into google the day of the IPO! Wow! Silver doesn't look so good when compared to this. Silver doesn't generally make a huge return on investment of course finding it a face sure helps!

http://tinyurl.com/googleIPODay


Opening day $85 a share (2004) * 988 shares = $84,000
Today at $467.49 * 988 shares (2010) = $461,880.11

Man I wish I dumped a few bucks into google back then...

Maine_Jim

 

[jrf30]

$1500 was a lot of money in 1955. It would only be worth about 13x face today so I think the stock was nice bet. Just think if you then took that $84,000 and dumped it into google the day of the IPO! Wow! Silver doesn't look so good when compared to this. Silver doesn't generally make a huge return on investment of course finding it a face sure helps!

http://tinyurl.com/googleIPODay


Opening day $85 a share (2004) * 988 shares = $84,000
Today at $467.49 * 988 shares (2010) = $461,880.11

Man I wish I dumped a few bucks into google back then...

Maine_Jim

Jim, your google comparison is WAY off. You forgot splits. If you had 988 shares in 2004, you would have numerous THOUSANDS of shares now, at the $467 per share price. :-)

 

[maine_Jim]

Ohhh - wasn't aware of the splits. Any idea how many happened?

Maine_Jim

 

[Shortstack]

In 1977 or 78 I had a chance to buy shares in a little start up company at $1 (one dollar) per share with a 500 share minimum buy. It was recommended by an agent with Beare / Stearns by phone when I called their "800" number. I saw their ad in a copy of The Penny Stock Journal. I was not able to budget that money at the time, so I had to pass. That little start up company was Cellular One.



As far as saving pennies...................KVM recommended saving all pennies minted before 1982. He didn't go into any big details of "why".

 

[Rich Hartford]

If I were saving copper cents,which I'm not, I'd just melt them down myself. Whose going to know. The chance of getting caught is like winning a mega million lottery. I'm sure that there are plenty of people out there melting them in spite of the law.
I'm not encouraging you to break the law. Just saying what I would do in the unlikely event that I was saving cents.
HH
Rich

 

[CHAINCHOMP]

i sometimes get determined to save them, then i amass a large pile and think "wow, i did a good job! i wonder how much it is so i could see how much i earned?!?!?!" then, i put it thru my counter, and im like "wow, its $100.00, boy i sure wish i had some extra money to blow off", the next day im at my cu with 8-10 zippered bags of copper pennies dumping them in and watching all of the time and work i invested into saving these go right down the counting wheel! but, yes personally i think it would be a good investment if u could save them, as ive tried, but cant do it, so anyone who can i would call them a winner! keep it up and happy hunting!

 

[maine_Jim]

I've got some $50 bags of them tucked away. I'm dumping them next week. They take up too much space. I'll take the proceeds and invest it in something less bulky. Maybe some day I'll regret it. Right now it is just not worth the effort. I did get a couple wide AM 2000 cents and filled a whitman or two plus a bunch of wheats while I was searching the cents. Also it led me into searching halves and that paid off pretty well for a while.

Maine_Jim

 

[Pipster]

you can sell em on fee bay you make about $10-20 over face value it is better than just running em back through your local coin counter

http://completed.shop.ebay.com/i.ht...ns_US_Individual&_dmd=1&LH_Complete=1&guest=1