POLL: Price of copper when the melt ban is lifted?

[Market Harmony]

Feel free to comment...

[AGgressive Metal]

7-8 was just a shot in the dark to me. I figure that by the time the currency drops in half again, the cent coin will be demonetized altogether, or at least declared to only be legal tender for Federal purposes (post offices, taxes, the Treasury, etc - thenceforth they would be removed from circulation by those gov't entities rather than returned to the FedRes coin distribution system). Either that or they will make them steel like Canada and then there will be a good case for lifting the melt-ban on pre-82s since by that point they will be a negligible percentage of the total one cent coin stock.

[Country]

I chose $5-$6. It costs too much to mint pennies now. I think a Republican House will be looking for government waste, and ending the mintage of the penny is an easy one that even Democrats would agree to do. The end of the penny is coming soon here in the US. The public doesn't want them anyway. So, once the zinc lobby is bought off, this is a no brainer. I figure it will take some months for US mint penny operations to cease, and by then COPPER will be above $5 (maybe substantially above $5). The melt ban should be lifted once the commercials and the public are satisfied.

[Treetop]

I say 15 plus. but not 15 in what todays dollars would buy, just 15 the number. I think we are likely to see double digit inflation, for a few years easily, within the next few years. I think likely they will end up in a stalemate on whether to scrap the penny, and possibly just stop minting them for the time being, and use what is all ready in circulation. And more and more people will save the copper pennies, and be melting them illegally. Like what happened with silver i think. then the bans will be lifted and pennies will be scrapped or be made smaller and of a different metal.

I made this up as i went, but it seems feasible.....

[PennyPauper]

I say never. Even if the "penny" is discontinued there is still the nickel issue.I don't see why congress would change the law. Most likely it would be overlooked with no incentive to remove it. Now at that point no one would care if you were scrapping or melting pennies,unless you sent a shipload to china then maybe the feds would notice it. The Jackson Metals issue started this melt ban,unless the owner is put in charge of the treasury I think the ban will stick.Of course I hope I'm wrong,but unless we lobby hard and are heard when the issue comes up again there will be no reason for a change to be made on our behalf.
Or maybe the mint will want to melt them down or pass the contract off to their friends. The copper pennies will always be worth 2x,3x or more then one cent,so unless you want to ship 20 tons to china it won't effect the majority of sorters.

Like Treetop I'm making this up as I go..but what will they do with all those pennies-zinc and copper if they "scrap" the penny?

[TXBullion]

I say never. Even if the "penny" is discontinued there is still the nickel issue.I don't see why congress would change the law. Most likely it would be overlooked with no incentive to remove it. Now at that point no one would care if you were scrapping or melting pennies,unless you sent a shipload to china then maybe the feds would notice it. The Jackson Metals issue started this melt ban,unless the owner is put in charge of the treasury I think the ban will stick.Of course I hope I'm wrong,but unless we lobby hard and are heard when the issue comes up again there will be no reason for a change to be made on our behalf.
Or maybe the mint will want to melt them down or pass the contract off to their friends. The copper pennies will always be worth 2x,3x or more then one cent,so unless you want to ship 20 tons to china it won't effect the majority of sorters.

Like Treetop I'm making this up as I go..but what will they do with all those pennies-zinc and copper if they "scrap" the penny?

pop holes through them as sell them at Ace Hardware as washers. I voted 6-7 with no real reason. I have wondered though, everyone assumes the melt ban will be lifted. What is the reason for this, just cause the silver one did? Please enlighten if anyone has an idea

[AGgressive Metal]

I say never. Even if the "penny" is discontinued there is still the nickel issue.I don't see why congress would change the law. Most likely it would be overlooked with no incentive to remove it. Now at that point no one would care if you were scrapping or melting pennies,unless you sent a shipload to china then maybe the feds would notice it. The Jackson Metals issue started this melt ban,unless the owner is put in charge of the treasury I think the ban will stick.Of course I hope I'm wrong,but unless we lobby hard and are heard when the issue comes up again there will be no reason for a change to be made on our behalf.
Or maybe the mint will want to melt them down or pass the contract off to their friends. The copper pennies will always be worth 2x,3x or more then one cent,so unless you want to ship 20 tons to china it won't effect the majority of sorters.

Like Treetop I'm making this up as I go..but what will they do with all those pennies-zinc and copper if they "scrap" the penny?

pop holes through them as sell them at Ace Hardware as washers. I voted 6-7 with no real reason. I have wondered though, everyone assumes the melt ban will be lifted. What is the reason for this, just cause the silver one did? Please enlighten if anyone has an idea

If they don't demonetize them, then people will still pay for things with them, which would be highly annoying. If they demonetize them, they are no longer money, and hence no reason to ban their melting (and no justification either). Just my opinion.

[agmoose]

I also chose $5-6 as I don't think it is more than a few years off. I think we'll see the elimination of the penny being minted by 2015. The melt ban shouldn't be too far behind that.

$7-8 would be my 2nd choice - obviously.

[rickygee]

Another side to this poll should be: "When/if the price of copper reaches X.xx will you melt your hoard?"

I have no intention of having my cents melted. I'll use them for trade units.

[misteroman]

I just hope they don't melt them but turn them into $.05 pieces!!!!!!!!!! We'd all be rich

[Copper Member]

I don't see why copper would go up. if anything, copper would go down with the new influx of supply with no mining costs. Now I'm sure the ciopper penny would increase in value as everyone would want a cheap supply of copper with no expenses.

[Lemon Thrower]

copper is not in the penny anymore so i don't think the timing of the melt ban ending is a function of any particular price of copper. copper could go to $100 but if the penny is still being used then it won't be lifted. First you will have the discontinuation of the penny, followed quickly by melt ban lifting.

any discontinuation will either be construed as an admission of inflation or a political step that will result in inflation. so inflation will have to be out of hand before they throw in the towel on this. if we have 10% inflation (govt reported) 2 years in a row then you'll see the penny discontinued.

[Copper]

I say it will never be lifted...I live in Canada and only the government is allowed to do such a thing!

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

I wish to reconsider my vote. I now believe copper will go down in price because of all the copper pennies that will be flooding the market. You can't sell them at spot now, think what it will be like when the ban is lifted. The price of zinc will collapse.

[Devil Soundwave]

Is this starting to make you question the validity of saving pennies Sheik?

[Lemon Thrower]

i would think that the amount of copper in outstanding pennies is insignificant compared to the amount used in industry. i would not think it will move the needle of supply.

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

Is this starting to make you question the validity of saving pennies Sheik?

Yes, indeed. Or, rather, how I will approach the concept of hoarding Cu pennies. We are talking long term before Cu really takes off. The market will have to digest the glut of Cu pennies coming before 95% Cu pennies become rare enough to command a good price. So, if I hold out for a "home run" (quadruple my investment).... it may take five, ten years after the melt ban is lifted. Of course, that is just MHO

There are other places I would rather have my money. I missed out on the terrific gold buys of ten years ago. (wimper ) But I am doing very well on silver.

Oh, darn! There I go again hi-jacking a thread! Nuts!

[Ardent Listener]

200 billion pennies. (All the pennies estimated to be in circulation) If even as much as 33% of them are 95% copper then on a world wide scale that really isn't all that much copper. And remember, like 90% silver "junk" coins not all of them will be melted at once. Many may never be.

[Ardent Listener]

As per nickels. There is something like $8.00 in nickels for every American. Got your $8.00 worth?

[johnbrickner]

Ardent:

There are several dozen that will be missing there $8.00 from my activity.

It's still a jungle out there.

[Cerulean]

I say never. Even if the "penny" is discontinued there is still the nickel issue.I don't see why congress would change the law. Most likely it would be overlooked with no incentive to remove it. Now at that point no one would care if you were scrapping or melting pennies,unless you sent a shipload to china then maybe the feds would notice it. The Jackson Metals issue started this melt ban,unless the owner is put in charge of the treasury I think the ban will stick.Of course I hope I'm wrong,but unless we lobby hard and are heard when the issue comes up again there will be no reason for a change to be made on our behalf.
Or maybe the mint will want to melt them down or pass the contract off to their friends. The copper pennies will always be worth 2x,3x or more then one cent,so unless you want to ship 20 tons to china it won't effect the majority of sorters.

Like Treetop I'm making this up as I go..but what will they do with all those pennies-zinc and copper if they "scrap" the penny?

pop holes through them as sell them at Ace Hardware as washers. I voted 6-7 with no real reason. I have wondered though, everyone assumes the melt ban will be lifted. What is the reason for this, just cause the silver one did? Please enlighten if anyone has an idea

If they don't demonetize them, then people will still pay for things with them, which would be highly annoying. If they demonetize them, they are no longer money, and hence no reason to ban their melting (and no justification either). Just my opinion.

The 2-cent, 3-cent, 20-cent, 50-cent, and dollar coins are now and have always been legal tender, and yet disappeared from public usage without legislative action. The 1-cent coin will die the same way.