It won't be too long before the cent is gone and you'll be able to melt them legally. The problem is copper cents are uncommon in circulation, so it takes too much effort to get the copper.....even with a sorting machine made for the purpose.
Nickels are much easier to hoard and they will have to change composition soon enough, then they will be meltable too !
Nickels are much easier to hoard and they will have to change composition soon enough, then they will be meltable too !
Nickels are currently worth just over face value to melt them. A couple of years ago they had 10 cents worth of metal in them. They must cost 8-9 cents to produce including labor, shipping, and overhead costs....so they are on their way out.
Storing them isn't as bad as you might think, I'd guess a 6 gallon milk crate would hold $1,000 or more in rolled nickels. It can never drop below face value. So a $1,000 in nickels is going to weigh about 220 lbs....pretty heavy crate !
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Base Metal Coin Melt Value Calculation[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Generated on December 16, 2011.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Values Used:
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Total Face Value:[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, He<br>lvetica]$100[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Coin Type:[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]1946-2011 Jefferson Nickel[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Copper Price: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]$3.3153 / pound[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Nickel Price: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]$8.4319 / pound[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Answer:
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Total melt value is $101.29.
(Exact value is $101.29028396459. $46.472893673945 worth of nickel, $54.817390290645 of copper.)
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Statistics:
» There are 16.5347 pounds of copper and 5.5116 pounds of nickel in $100 face value of nickel(s).
» A roll of nickel(s) has 40 coins and is valued at $2.03 when copper is at $3.3153 / lb and nickel at $8.4319 / lb (exact value is $2.02581).
[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
Storing them isn't as bad as you might think, I'd guess a 6 gallon milk crate would hold $1,000 or more in rolled nickels. It can never drop below face value. So a $1,000 in nickels is going to weigh about 220 lbs....pretty heavy crate !
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Base Metal Coin Melt Value Calculation[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Generated on December 16, 2011.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Values Used:[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Total Face Value:[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, He<br>lvetica]$100[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Coin Type:[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]1946-2011 Jefferson Nickel[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Copper Price: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]$3.3153 / pound[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Nickel Price: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]$8.4319 / pound[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Answer:
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Total melt value is $101.29.
(Exact value is $101.29028396459. $46.472893673945 worth of nickel, $54.817390290645 of copper.)
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Statistics:
» There are 16.5347 pounds of copper and 5.5116 pounds of nickel in $100 face value of nickel(s).
» A roll of nickel(s) has 40 coins and is valued at $2.03 when copper is at $3.3153 / lb and nickel at $8.4319 / lb (exact value is $2.02581).
[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
Saw a special on I believe Nightline news that there are a bunch of people making trips to banks getting as many pennies as they can every week and sort out the copper pennies. They showed one guys with tons of 5 gallon buckets full of copper pennies in his basement in case the US allows them to be melted in the future.
32:1 seems a bit too high for junk silver coinage, unless you timed it just right when it was like $48/ oz briefly....
killing the cent coin will have little effect on copper prices, zinc would be effected greater.
I don't see any great interest developing with new collectors if the cent dies.
The half dollar ceased to be produced for circulation around 2002 or 2003 and nobody even knows about that.
The state quarters and national park quarters are the new catalyst.
killing the cent coin will have little effect on copper prices, zinc would be effected greater.
I don't see any great interest developing with new collectors if the cent dies.
The half dollar ceased to be produced for circulation around 2002 or 2003 and nobody even knows about that.
The state quarters and national park quarters are the new catalyst.
I'd guess under 10% pre-1982, and actually more like 5% or less for 1959-82 issues and well under 1% wheatbacks.
I don't have reliable data, but I rarely see a wheatie.
Try these guys.....
www.realcent.org
it sure will, you can melt silver ( or gold) coins legally. I think you can even melt copper-nickel clad coins ( dimes and quarters, halves, Ikes, etc ), but you'd lose heavily doing it.
Who cares if it's legal anyway ? We are all outlaw gamblers or cokeheads and such anyhow. or at least former outlaws....or wannabes ?
I don't worry about breaking any laws.
