What do you do with all your Lincoln Cents?

[Scott99]

Step four: Dump the zinc cents in the river so I don't ever get them back again

That must be where all the cents in my zinc bags must have come from... 80% of them are horrible. In any case, you missed quite a few big varieties! j/k

I look through everything to find the varieties, die varieties, and errors... then I turn the rest back into the bank. I don't sort out the 95% copper coins due to lack of space to store them. You do risk getting the same coins back turning them into your bank but it has never affected my ability to find valuable coins in the rolls I get from my banks. (but my banks don't roll their own coins, they send them off to/order them from different companies that count and roll the coins.)

[Roller]

There are at least 2 banks in my area that have coin machines free of charge to account holders (unlimited). You can bet that I have an account at both. But for that, I might have stopped searching altogether if I had to pay 10% to dump the rejects.

[admrose]

Step four: Dump the zinc cents in the river so I don't ever get them back again

Just don't bury them; I might find them with my detector. That's always a buzzkill.

[Arjohn]

Searching for me takes SO much time as I am still learning what to look for. I horde copper, I believe in the cent's demise sooner than later. I look through - separate and tube the very best, storing in jars the rest. I will pull a year or decade and look up what varieties exist for those times, search, then toss anything zinc that is not a real beauty coin..

[hasfam]

Search and sell. Search and sell. All day, everyday.

[willy13]

As long as you dump at a different bank, its hard to believe that one would be so unlucky to get the same batch of pennies back. There are just too many being used by consumers/business. Now searching halves is a different story...

[learningnumismatist]

I am pretty sure you cannot use pennies for their intrinsic value. By that I mean you can't melt them down or sell them as copper. I go through mine and if I don't need them for my date run and I don't see any variety at first I put them in a jar. Save them until times are hard and I need the money.

[Maineman750]

You can sell them for their copper value....check out eBay sometime. I was selling them for double face value when copper was up, but lately it's not worth selling them.

[Arjohn]

I have a dealer that pays 3X face for wheat..

[learningnumismatist]

You can sell them but can't get to the copper legally. There is a federal ban on melting them. This is a small excerpt from and abc special on hoarders. "But in the weird world of penny hoarding, getting to the copper is a very big problem. It's illegal to melt pennies an there is an obscure federal law that makes it illegal to transport more than $5 in pennies out of the country."

[Maineman750]

I'm quite aware of the laws....I was addressing your statement that "you cannot sell them as copper". You can...it happens all the time. Melting them is a different story.

[BadThad]

You can sell them but can't get to the copper legally. There is a federal ban on melting them. This is a small excerpt from and abc special on hoarders. "But in the weird world of penny hoarding, getting to the copper is a very big problem. It's illegal to melt pennies an there is an obscure federal law that makes it illegal to transport more than $5 in pennies out of the country."

Just like silver coinage, the ban will be lifted eventually.

[coincollectingenterprises]

From my experience, the fact that the copper is in coin form is the true value. When the cent is eliminated from circulation, due to inevitable inflationary reasons, the value of the copper cent, as a commodity, will go up to reflect the copper value, regardless of a law change. This is assuming that the value follows historical trends and data that have occurred repetitively over a variety of currencies and metals.

In addition: The copper cent is easily recognizable, those who don't know the purity can simply look it up via a variety of Lincoln resources, no material certification is needed to prove the intrinsic value, transportation ease, constructed to be safely handled (no jagged edges so can be held by hands and bagged without fear of ripping container (other than by over bagging and tossing around like a gorilla)), coins are already broken down to very small pieces (ie: buy $100 face value, 68 pounds, can easily use for smaller transactions at 3.11 grams per coin). This is without going into collector value and the inherit back up plan of the face value itself.

Plus they are pretty to look at and all sorts of neato.

Hi everyone. Long time no talk. Hope all is well!