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Is there a market for BU coppers?

PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 8:58 pm
by Sullysullinburg
I find a lot of them and I feel bad throwing them in the copper pile so is there?

Re: Is there a market for BU coppers?

PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:39 pm
by coppernickel
This forum is a good spot, but the metal content value is the same as the uncirculated value.

Re: Is there a market for BU coppers?

PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:50 pm
by Thogey
Well a bu stack would sell ahead of a brown stack, maybe for a premium.

It doesn't hurt to keep them separated.

Re: Is there a market for BU coppers?

PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:59 pm
by Morsecode
Not much of a market presently.

But you did mention recently that you were young? In that case, sure...set them aside. You're already sorting for copper anyway, it's no extra effort to set aside the choice coins.

Hang onto them long enough...who knows?

Re: Is there a market for BU coppers?

PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 12:56 am
by Recyclersteve
It's easy to say to someone to hold onto something for years, but I'd be more comfortable with something that had a better chance of becoming valuable in 5-10 years.

I remember buying a bunch of $2 bills in 1976 and having 13 cent stamps put on them at the post office. This was to celebrate Thomas Jefferson's birthday, as the stamp was of Thomas Jefferson and it was the first day of that stamp being issued by the post office. The line of people ahead of me was over 100 people long. The people were waiting so they could have their crisp $2 bills hand cancelled by the post office to turn them into instant collectibles. I thought I was really onto something. Perhaps 15 years later I'd only sold about 4 of the notes for tiny profits and spent the other roughly 96 bills- losing 13 cents on each one. If you factor inflation into the equation, I lost even more.

My point here is to think about what people will really and truly want and society will need instead of something that will likely never become rare (I.e., uncirculated pennies after 1982). Average circulated copper pennies will likely have more real value than uncirculated zinc ones as copper is used for so many things.

Re: Is there a market for BU coppers?

PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:31 am
by barrytrot
There is definitely a premium. If you have RED copper coins they will go for an easy 2 cents or more each in rolls. That's way above the price of non-BU.

Still probably not worth it, but if they are separate you are making a bit more.

Re: Is there a market for BU coppers?

PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 5:30 am
by Morsecode
barrytrot wrote:There is definitely a premium. If you have RED copper coins they will go for an easy 2 cents or more each in rolls. That's way above the price of non-BU.

Still probably not worth it, but if they are separate you are making a bit more.


Yes. And I assumed the question was about saving 1959-1981 only.

Re: Is there a market for BU coppers?

PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:09 am
by Madwest
If trying to sell them on Craigslist or Ebay, be careful about calling them BU.
Call them AU (if appropriate) or RED. They are circulated after all.