Hoarding pennies

http://www.kitco.com/ind/VanEeden/may082006.html

Dave Allured wrote:
http://www.kitco.com/ind/VanEeden/may082006.html

Indeed, it's not like loading 90% silver half dollars into the hopper.

On Fri, 12 May 2006 09:38:22 -0600, Dave Allured wrote:
http://www.kitco.com/ind/VanEeden/may082006.html

I was with him until he got to "So if you could find a pre-1982
penny...". Random sampling of 8 in my pocket has 3 of 'em.

On Fri, 12 May 2006 10:51:10 -0500, Edwin Johnston wrote:
Dave Allured wrote:
http://www.kitco.com/ind/VanEeden/may082006.html

Indeed, it's not like loading 90% silver half dollars into the hopper.

So sort 'em now, put 'em in 5 gallon pails with covers, in the basement,
and let 'em sit for a generation or two. Wish my dad had done that in
'65 with silver...

On Fri, 12 May 2006 09:38:22 -0600, Dave Allured
wrote:

http://www.kitco.com/ind/VanEeden/may082006.html

Wow, talk about clueless

"The average lifespan of a coin is about thirty years, so by now most
of the pre-1982 pennies have long since been reused by the US Mint to
make new copper-plated zinc pennies. If you can find a pre-1982 penny
it would make a neat conversation piece but I am afraid that as a
money-making scheme, trying to hoard pennies is about as lame as
hoarding paper dollars."

When did the mint start melting down the old cents to reuse the metal?
I must have missed the memo.

Pretty interesting that pre-1982 pennies are so rare in change they
are a 'conversation piece"!

I also had no idea that it would cost $10,000 to carry 3.4 tons of
cents to the smelter. Talk about expensive cartage fees!


Reclining Buddha

The Original Couch Potato!

Dave Hinz wrote:
So sort 'em now, put 'em in 5 gallon pails with covers, in the basement,
and let 'em sit for a generation or two. Wish my dad had done that in
'65 with silver...
=================
Any idea how many pennies fit into a 5 gallon bucket? IMHO need quite
a few to make a 'double your money' plan feasible.
===================

On 12 May 2006 09:48:51 -0700, wrote:
Dave Hinz wrote:
So sort 'em now, put 'em in 5 gallon pails with covers, in the basement,
and let 'em sit for a generation or two. Wish my dad had done that in
'65 with silver...

Any idea how many pennies fit into a 5 gallon bucket? IMHO need quite
a few to make a 'double your money' plan feasible.

Well, let's see. 5 gallons is 18,927 cubic centimeters. Let's say
19,000 to keep the math easy. A penny is 19.05mm in diameter and ~1.5mm
thick. So, .286 cubic centimeters per penny. Figure it won't pack at
100% efficiency, so let's say it takes up .3cc or so each. So about
$600.00 per 5 gallon pail of pennies? Unless I slipped a digit or two, I
think that's about right.

Now, at today's prices, 60,000 pennies would weigh 3.5g * 60000 or
210 Kg, or 462 pounds. So your 5 gallon pail of pennies costs you
sorting time, plus $600 , and is (at right now's $3.80 per pound times
95% copper) worth $1670 in melt value. Is it worth a grand to spend
time finding 6000 copper pennies from random-run? Dunno. Automated,
hell yes.

If my dad or grandpa had put away even one gallon of silver coins
back in the 60's...

Today there might not be a market in "melt value for copper coins", but
how high does copper have to go before there is?

Reclining Buddha wrote:
On Fri, 12 May 2006 09:38:22 -0600, Dave Allured
wrote:

http://www.kitco.com/ind/VanEeden/may082006.html

Wow, talk about clueless

"The average lifespan of a coin is about thirty years, so by now most
of the pre-1982 pennies have long since been reused by the US Mint to
make new copper-plated zinc pennies. [...]

And then (as was discussed in another thread), he talks about the
composition of the "penny" changing in 1837 - which it didn't.

And if he's going to go into detail about the composition of the cent,
he could at least mention the change from the large cent to the small cent.

And there's no contact info (other than his publisher) on his web site,
so he obviously doesn't want people correcting him.

--
Jim Seymour

On Fri, 12 May 2006 19:41:57 GMT, e wrote:
In article , Dave Hinz wrote:

So sort 'em now, put 'em in 5 gallon pails with covers, in the basement,
and let 'em sit for a generation or two. Wish my dad had done that in
'65 with silver...

a smart man helped his entire family because he read and
thought. i was damn lucky and know it.

So that's the plan then. Worst case, my kids find the buckets-o-copper,
and say "Wow. What the hell was dad thinking on this one, I wonder? I
bet it was the metals price spike of '06, before everything crashed back
to normal", and they cash them in. Best case, they've got hundreds of
pounds of something worth something.

On Fri, 12 May 2006 19:45:52 GMT, e wrote:
In article , Dave Hinz wrote:

Today there might not be a market in "melt value for copper coins", but
how high does copper have to go before there is?

has anyone actually sold pennies to a scrapper?
that is the story i want to know.

Good question. I don't know either. But like I say, when it gets to a
high enough level, you'll be able to. Maybe.