Small stash from 10 years ago...

[squashpup]

I registered at the old forums, but when I came back to sign in, it didn't recognize me, so this really ISN'T my first post...

I just found a small stash of unsorted pennies from 2001 or 2002 that someone had given my son. None of the pennies are newer than 2001, so that's how I estimate it at that time.

I thought there might be a few coppers in it, and my son, who is ten years older now, could care less (not enough to buy a PS III game, so not worth his time). So, I sat down at the table and started to sort.

I was hoping the percentage would be higher than what I normally found in my searches, which is usually between 20-30 percent copper.

It ended up being $1.44 face value, $1.13 of which was copper. That's about 3/4 copper.

Remarkable how the ratios have changed, and its proof that lots of people have taken notice of the discrepancy between face and melt and are pulling the coppers out of circulation.

I started doing some research. Copper was only $.53 a pound around that time. At that price, each copper penny was worth roughly $.003. No one suspected a thing, and obviously, no one could have foreseen what the next few years would bring.

At the same time that it amazes me, it also is VERY scary to think about!

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

If you wait long enough.. some of those PS3 games can get pretty cheap on the used market.

[pennypicker]

I wasn't into collecting copper back in '01 and I would have never guessed that cu was only $.53 a pound just 10 years ago. 10 years really isn't that long ago and cu has increased eight fold!

[squashpup]

When you're only getting a third of a cent's worth of metal for every penny, there'd be no reason to collect them. I still wish I'd started back then, though!

I think I'm going to start looking around for old stashes to buy from people. If they all have a high percentage of copper, it'd be more profitable than getting them from the bank.

[csb3tennessee]

I registered at the old forums, but when I came back to sign in, it didn't recognize me, so this really ISN'T my first post...

I just found a small stash of unsorted pennies from 2001 or 2002 that someone had given my son. None of the pennies are newer than 2001, so that's how I estimate it at that time.

I thought there might be a few coppers in it, and my son, who is ten years older now, could care less (not enough to buy a PS III game, so not worth his time). So, I sat down at the table and started to sort.

I was hoping the percentage would be higher than what I normally found in my searches, which is usually between 20-30 percent copper.

It ended up being $1.44 face value, $1.13 of which was copper. That's about 3/4 copper.

Remarkable how the ratios have changed, and its proof that lots of people have taken notice of the discrepancy between face and melt and are pulling the coppers out of circulation.

I started doing some research. Copper was only $.53 a pound around that time. At that price, each copper penny was worth roughly $.003. No one suspected a thing, and obviously, no one could have foreseen what the next few years would bring.

At the same time that it amazes me, it also is VERY scary to think about!

The % yield and the spot price of copper back then are interesting- thanks for the info.

[CDNHoard]

<new user, I just registered to finally comment>

That is strange, cause I started sorting in late 2002, and pennies were already 1.7 cents at the time...

Bit of a back story: I was throwing together some get-togethers each weekend, and one of the recurring themes was (and is) a Penny Poker night. And I started sorting at the table, something to do, when I noticed that some "pennies" were magnetic here in Canada. After a few weeks of this, I notice that my pile of pennies, that was just all my pennies since 1997, were MUCH higher copper content than other peoples. So I looked up the price of copper, divided down to Price/gram, and worked out the value of a copper penny. 1.7 cents for a pre-82 penny. Did the price spike up that much in 2001? triple?

thanks for listening

CH