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Hi,

I have sorted out pure copper pennies from the banks like most of you have been doing about 5 years ago.
At that time I was averaging about 25% to 30% copper on average as long as I was not taking new rolls of course.

My survey questions to you are:

1. What percentage of copper are you now seeing ?

2. Is your source of coins banks or credit unions or both ?

3. What states are you doing this in ?

Basically I am curious if the collecting that has been going on has greatly reduced the percentage of copper pennies in circulation or not.

Thanks !
Mark

1. My percentages have dropped to less than 10% these past few months. This does not include boxes that are completely new. Have had two weeks with only new boxes.

2. a. I have sucked all the small banks and credit unions dry of customer rolls.

2. b. There is one bank, Wells Fargo, that is able to provide a box at a time, sometimes I ask for two and they can handle that. There are three branches pretty close so on a good week I can get three or sometimes four boxes.

2. c. Everyone else uses a different box type and appear to have the same supplier. They must get charged more as they are unwilling to allow boxes out the door unless you have a business account. I have looked at business accounts and they generally start out costing more than any "profit" I could get from saving copper cents.

3. These are from Meto Utah.

My therory on why the percentages are dropping is simple coin inflation, watering down the total. The number of cents produced from 1959 to 1981 are a set amount, but over each recent YEAR Uncle Sam is producing more cents.

Thanks for the response I am thinking the drop in percentage is the result of all of the people removing the copper coins from circulation more than them wearing out as you can see that some very old pennies are still circulating around.

Also possibly the mint itself may be removing them somehow as they get recycled from banks but I doubt that as they probably don't care to do it.

Thanks !
Mark

by the way I am in massachusetts most of my pennies I got from local banks

Mark

I started out with copper percentages around 18%. That was maybe four or five years ago. I am now getting around 15%. I attribute the drop in percentage to the large increase in new shield cents showing up. This is in Southern California. I only pick up from banks and I haven't noticed any real change in the availability of coins for sorting.

I'm in SoCal too. My copper percentage is about 16% from boxes picked up at the bank.

I'm down to about 20% and when I started it was about 30%. I get my coins off the coin counting machines at bank. I back in North Dakota but not full steam at this time with saving copper.

I've been getting 25% - 30% consistently for the past year. I get $300 a week from BoA here in Central NJ.

I haven't roll searched in a few years, but I get about 5% copper in my change (here in Vegas) -- it's been almost 3 weeks since I've gotten a copper in my change. My dad is a train engineer, and is regularly in Milford and Yermo. He averages around 30% copper in his change when he goes there (and ends up with a wheat cent at least 1 out of every 10 trips).

Still about 20% in the greater Syracuse, NY area last I checked (not counting wheaties or Canadian). Harder to find boxes and rolls from the fed that are not new but they are still around. More than enough for me to stay busy with.

I am in Mass also. I am still getting 25-30% copper but wheat backs have gone down. I pick up boxes in Mass, VT and RI.

I've been getting an average of 28% for a few years. Sometimes it dips or goes higher,
but still averages 28%.
My bank orders bags for me, they come from banks all over the Chicago land area and NW Indiana.

There's a thread somewhere about the decrease in some people %'s. I think it has to do with the new pennies going to Fed Reserve districts with increasing populations.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I was thinking when the percentage gets down to under 10% in most places the value of each copper penny should rise I have seen them selling for 1.5 cents each on ebay pretty consistently now..
In addition once it does get under 10% I think it will rapidly fall to 5% or less as most people realize there are less and less of them available in the general circulation like wheat pennies and of course indian head cents..

Still getting the usual 20% up here in Winterfell. My wheats are down to about 5 a box but still getting around 75 Canuck keepers.
The new boxes my bank receives are hole free so that is becoming a major problem as I have to ask for boxes then immediately turn them down when I open a corner and see nothing but shiny.
Been getting the cold shoulder there for sometime now and these new boxes are not helping, thinking of opening an account with BofA and using them as a pick up source.

Mr Paradise wrote:The new boxes my bank receives are hole free so that is becoming a major problem as I have to ask for boxes then immediately turn them down when I open a corner and see nothing but shiny. Been getting the cold shoulder there for sometime now .................

The bank is nice enough to order boxes for you and you 'immediately turn them down'?

Catfish4u wrote:

Mr Paradise wrote:The new boxes my bank receives are hole free so that is becoming a major problem as I have to ask for boxes then immediately turn them down when I open a corner and see nothing but shiny. Been getting the cold shoulder there for sometime now .................

The bank is nice enough to order boxes for you and you 'immediately turn them down'?

I have stopped sorting for awhile but when I did, I didn't open the boxes there after they ordered them for me. I figured that is like opening a present and then immediately return to the store with the gift giver present.

I just returned to the other branch later. As a matter of fact they called me last week with a box that a customer bought in. They were marked old on over half of the wrappers and ended up being wheats.....my favorite . Got to love a teller that calls you at home because she has a box you would want even though you haven't been in there for months.

12-15% in Texas. Been consistent for years.

It's in the 25-26% range, but down about 5% roughly from where it was 5-7 years ago. I think it's a combination of both all the new zinc cents that have come out since then, as well as copper cent saving becoming a little more widely accepted and done. I know people who do it now that didn't 5-7 years ago so more are taking from the fixed number of copper cents available.

When I started in 2004 my average was 30%. Now I am right at 20%. This is in southwestern Virginia. Stack while you can.

Tucson az is 15% in either cwr or bwr

1) 18.17% so far this year (no 82's just prior years)

2) Bank-go to one PNC with the free coin counter to dump, go across town to the other PNC and pick up an "old" box of cents. They know me now coming in that the vault teller will excuse herself so she can go find me a box. I started to think I was annoying them, but when I brought back a shiney box of new shields a couple weeks ago, they said most clients prefer the new pennies so they were happy to trade them out to me.

3) NE Columbus, OH

I am averaging about 24 percent here in Northern Indiana,

pennyguy wrote:I am averaging about 24 percent here in Northern Indiana,

Gene, I thought you were done!!!

25% in western NY. Down about 3% to 5% since I started in 2011.

TheJonasCollegeFund wrote:

pennyguy wrote:I am averaging about 24 percent here in Northern Indiana,

Gene, I thought you were done!!!

Nope, I am still sorting, Finally got a source for bags from a local bank