No Copper Cents

[tmawhit]

I was in Tampa, FL last week on business. As usual, I rounded up some boxes of pennies to search. I managed to find a 1996-P Misaligned die clash, Type 1, but out of about 60 dollars in pennies, I did not find one (I'm serious) not one copper Lincoln.

They were all 1982 and newer Copper plated Zinq.

What is up with that?

Tom W.

[legend]

People are pinching copper pennies....

If you go on EBAY and type in Copper bullion you get a hint. There are beautiful one, ten, hundred and thousand ounce bars for sale. I was going to buy some, but then out of the blue some trader I was dealing with starts talking about someone he knew having just sold six million dollars of copper to a Chinese concern, and well, I smelled a fed near where he was, for sure.
I have a coin differentiator that automatically sorts coppers out fast, so I have no problem culling them out. It appears others are culling them too, and perhaps not to put them in five gallon jars like me. I love pennies, and they are worth more if everyone else melts but me. I hope this helps your puzzlement.

[1sgret]

Either that or the Luck of the Draw Tom! I have to agree that it is alot of hoarding of copper now days.

[tmawhit]

That is really something. I'd heard that some are melting them, but now I know (at least in Tampa) to what extent.

Thanks for the education.

Tom W.

[unc-usf-fsu]

I live in the Tampa Bay area and I have to say that all of the Fed boxes I get have no copper in them at all. Now if I get customer wrapped then I find plenty of them. I have talked to a few other collectors around and almost all are pulling every copper they find and hoarding them. Not sure on the melting aspect. I know I currently have pulled about 500 dollars worth give or take a few rolls.

Adam

[1sgret]

One other possibility is that the counting rooms are pulling/culling the copper coins for the Fed's from the coins received from the banks for recycling. (Just a thought)

[koinmon]

I'm also pulling the coppers, storing in 70 lb jugs.

[corroded]

I started to save copper awhile back and pulled out around 200 rolls, but stopped doing it. Now I just save out the ugly copper cents--parking lot damage, pitts, bent, corroded, etc. I felt strange about saving out those 200 rolls, I have four 5 lb peanut butter jars crammed full. I just have the feeling Big Brother will somehow know i have tehm, so i am just sitting on them. I really get upset over what Chinese are doing. My copper cents have not left the house --- yet.

[tmawhit]

So far, there is no shortage of Copper Lincolns here in the DC area. Sometimes it seems that every other cent is a 1982 copper (slightly exadurated). I'm going to keep my eye on it to see if they start disappearing here to.

Hopfully, all of this hoarding an melting will push the value of the Copper Lincoln errors up. They surely are becoming more rare.

By the way, I really like the Tampa area. Business trips there just don't seem like business.

Tom W.

[dvn]

A while back the same thing happened to me also. Interestingly, the $25 box was from Clearwater, FL because I got it at a BofA while visiting my daughter attending college there.

After I got back home, it too did not have any copper dated coins. Somebody had pulled them.

Billy

[jcuve]

So far, there is no shortage of Copper Lincolns here in the DC area. ...Tom W.

No hoarding copper in the New York area either. I have been finding plenty...

[legend]

Watch your asses.

That conversation I had with someone about copper melting was just a week before they rushed legislation into effect banning us from selling our copper at melt. This marked the first time in recent history that the government of our capitalist country acted to restrain trade....precluding us from exercising our option to make money on money we saved.
The last time they did this was 1933 when they banned gold ownership for commoners. The recent case of the 1933 fifty dollar gold pieces is but a continuation of those government efforts to do whatever they wish to us muggles that they want to.
It would have been fair if the feds had said "sell us your copper pennies and we will give you fair price, the melt copper price, when we buy it". But they showed what they were gonna do by simply forbidding us to melt it for sale, and then they started culling the cents for themselves. There was one dealer of copper in the midwest who was cleaning up.....millions every year, by melting the pennies, and they knuckled him under as well.
So save your coppers, and maybe one day they will make hoarding pennies illegal as well, and make us all turn them in, too. Like gold in 1933. After all, it is a problem when people don't trust paper and barter gold, silver, and their asses (mules) instead.

[JeanK]

Sometime ago, on another coin forum, a new member was offering to pay 2 1/2 cents each for wheat cents. This offer came on the heels of another story I had heard about a guy in Texas who was buying wheat cents and selling them in Mexico so the melted coins could be made into bowls and sinks and other what-nots.
Mexico did have a thriving copper mining industry, but I do not know if it is still a profitable industry. One would surmise that purchasing U.S. copper cents would be much easier than mining the copper.
I will be keeping any and all copper coins when them come to me for saving. There is no sense in giving the unscrupulous more ore for their forges.

By the way, is there a law stating we cannot pound the coins into other shapes?
I would sure like to have a nice copper sink to use next time I remodel a kitchen or bathroom. Right now they are priced out of my range.
Jean

[AgCollector]

Here is an interesting message board for those interested in this topic:

http://realcent.forumco.com/

Also, the government has currently a ban on melting, as has been done periodically such as in the late 1960's for silver coins, and in the 1970's (I think) for copper cents. Actually it's more interesting that normally it is not illegal to melt coins, not all countries have that as the status quo (like Canada).

When copper prices ran up, people were selling copper cents as scrap to metal yards. Now, they still are sold on eBay, as "copper bullion" but not being melted. Why would you melt something with well-known purity into an unknown copper bar?

example eBay auctions:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1000-lbs-1-2-Ton-U-S-95-Copper-Pennies-1959-1982_W0QQitemZ250407281728QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCoins_US_Individual?hash=item3a4d6fe440&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A1|66%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

http://cgi.ebay.com/5000-copper-Lincoln-pennies-50-00-worth-1959-1981_W0QQitemZ170342405209QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCoins_US_Individual?hash=item27a932d459&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A1|66%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

[AgCollector]

...By the way, is there a law stating we cannot pound the coins into other shapes?
I would sure like to have a nice copper sink to use next time I remodel a kitchen or bathroom. Right now they are priced out of my range.
Jean

What is currently forbidden is to export more than $100 in cents, as well as melting them and selling as scrap. But, there is no penalty for defacing them as long as your intent is not to defraud someone- like all those "elongated penny" machines.