Is anyone collecting copper cents for their bullion?

[pendragon1998]

I'm currently going through about 19 lbs of mixed circulated cents. I'm about half done so far. The first task I've set for myself is to sort the cents by decade. As I do that, I'm also pulling out the stray wheat cent, canadian cent, etc. I've only pulled around 10 wheaties and 4 canadian cents thus far. Once I'm done, I'll go through the decades one at a time and evaluate for varieties. I'm also pulling out the best example of each year/mint and working on my 7100 album.

 

Thus far I've pulled out 650 cents from 1960 and 1970. At (approximately) 2 cents copper value per cent, that's $13.00 on $6.50 worth of cents. I'm hanging onto these for the far and distant future (I'm 24) when I hope copper is worth even more. Is anyone else separating cents out into zinc vs. copper and holding the copper coins for future bullion value?

 

I'm of two minds on whether I'll hoard the rest of the cents or if I'll just roll them and turn them in. I can only dream of having a grandfather who hoarded pounds and pounds of coins from back in 1906 - or a great-great...grandfather who hoarded them in 1806. I am tempted to just keep these all in glass jars and give them to my grandkids. Then again, these cents aren't likely to be worth much in 100 years.

 

Just some thoughts...I'm interested to hear yours.

[zrlevin]

I keep 'em.

[astrostu]

At this point, I'm not hoarding them except for any wheats that I come across. If copper were to start to soar like silver did in the '60s, that's when I'm headed to the bank to buy a few $hundred in pennies.

[chinook]

I have about 60,000 from 1959 to 1982 in OBW rolls. Wanna buy some?

[pendragon1998]

I probably have all that I need for my collection here, although I may eventually break and buy a roll or two here and there to fill slots in the memorial half of my collection. As for speculatively buying for bullion value - at this point, my desire isn't high enough to really start in on buying up copper in cent form. What I will eventually start buying, no doubt, are mid-grade circulated wheat cents. I doubt there's enough left in circulation to fill those holes.

[Coin]

We're in the final days of the so-called building/real estate cycle . A lot of copper in the wiring . I figure that the cost of copper will probably decline to lower levels in the next two years , so my thirty pounds of wheaties are still safe from the melting pots . .must check with the magic 8-ball...though...

[chinook]

We're in the final days of the so-called building/real estate cycle . A lot of copper in the wiring . I figure that the cost of copper will probably decline to lower levels in the next two years , so my thirty pounds of wheaties are still safe from the melting pots . .must check with the magic 8-ball...though...

 

China has already stated that they will be importing 23% less copper next year. High prices are a wonderful cure for high prices.

[jtryka]

I save copper cents when I get them. I just put them in a pitcher and when I have time I roll them up and put them in a mint bag. So far I've saved about 7,000 just from the stray one or two I get in change. They may someday be worth melting, just not right now, but at least they have intrinsic value.