¢ Hoarding Zincolns? ¢

[johnbrickner]

cresh, . . .


I realize there have been nearly 300 Billion zinc pennies minted since 1982 BUT when Canada discontinued their pennies, all banks shipped back their pennies to the Royal Mint to have them melted down for industrial purposes.

Don't you think that if the US does away with pennies, the Mint would collect them and melt them down as well to remove them from circulation? If so, subsequently there would no longer be even remotely close to 300 Billion pennies available, which could make them extremely rare and full of numi value . . .

zKott:

Welcome to the forum. I like the way you think. I've read a few of your posts and think you are getting it figured out. For your answer to the above, I would suggest you track the numi value of the Canadian, Oz, etc. (non-copper) pennies. I think they would give you an idea of what the future value of the US zinc penny are headed. Give or take number in circulation, condition, etc.

Personally, I'd suggest as others above have. Pump all you can from your wife and dump them on e-bay. When you no longer make a premium that is worth your while, stop. Use the extra cash to buy more real metal coinage.

Zinc has a history for making industrial brass & galvanizing via the hot dip system (1800s) so it looks like it will be a low-tech metal for the future. However, there seems to be enough of it around right now to avoid hording at this time.

(edit to add)

I think the idea that is most important here that I don't believe the majority (of) this community . . . realize is the actuality of the currency debasement paradigm. (emphasis mine)

Debasement has been going on for far longer than 49 years. (since 1964)

The long-term goal of the United States government has not been to debase your pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, halves and dollars. (Coin Currency) . . .

Once consumers no longer hold a tangible currency, value is value based upon the what the person in charge tells the consumer value is worth.

...and the consumer left holding the debt (whether current or potential) must repay whatever he was duped into - thus leaving a life of barbarian slavery to the system to each average citizen. ...

No argument from me on the goals of our govt. I think you are spot on. However, I think you need to give more credit to our membership regarding debasement and debt = slavery awareness. You will find a ton of posts regarding debasement. One of my favorites being comparing the 1933 (the last year they made real gold coinage) value of a dollar's worth of gold vs todays spot price. Making today's dollar worth about 1.5 (1933) cents. Also, a number of posts on Debt/Slavery (if you do a search,) by many of our long established members. As a community, we are most aware and are glad to count you as one of us regardless of your age. Keep posting and keep stacking.

[AGgressive Metal]

Don't you think that if the US does away with pennies, the Mint would collect them and melt them down as well to remove them from circulation? If so, subsequently there would no longer be even remotely close to 300 Billion pennies available, which could make them extremely rare and full of numi value.

I can't see this happening because there is no prescendent for it in the United States - when they got rid of the half penny, the two cent piece, the three cent nickel, the silver half dime, etc they did not call them in. They retain their legal tender status unto this day. Even the Civil War-era fractional currency is still considered a liability of the government if you look it up in Federal Reserve literature (they assume hardly any is left due to attrition, but a tiny amount is still technically counted in the Money Supply).

This is what sets the US currency apart from most other countries who make old coins and notes obsolete after a redemption period when new models are introduced and I see no reason for it changing. If they get rid of the penny, it will probably mean that the Mint will simply stop producing it, and it will slowly vanishs from common use as fewer and fewer stores take it, just like the half cent or three cent coins. Also they will lift the melt ban like they did with the silver coins, so the private sector will take care of the coppers and perhaps eventually the zincs as inflation renders even them more valuable than 1 cent.

I don't have any special information, but looking at history that is how I would predict the future.

[scyther]

Don't you think that if the US does away with pennies, the Mint would collect them and melt them down as well to remove them from circulation? If so, subsequently there would no longer be even remotely close to 300 Billion pennies available, which could make them extremely rare and full of numi value.

I can't see this happening because there is no prescendent for it in the United States - when they got rid of the half penny, the two cent piece, the three cent nickel, the silver half dime, etc they did not call them in. They retain their legal tender status unto this day. Even the Civil War-era fractional currency is still considered a liability of the government if you look it up in Federal Reserve literature (they assume hardly any is left due to attrition, but a tiny amount is still technically counted in the Money Supply).

This is what sets the US currency apart from most other countries who make old coins and notes obsolete after a redemption period when new models are introduced and I see no reason for it changing. If they get rid of the penny, it will probably mean that the Mint will simply stop producing it, and it will slowly vanishs from common use as fewer and fewer stores take it, just like the half cent or three cent coins. Also they will lift the melt ban like they did with the silver coins, so the private sector will take care of the coppers and perhaps eventually the zincs as inflation renders even them more valuable than 1 cent.

I don't have any special information, but looking at history that is how I would predict the future.

Actually, I agree with Zcott here. You're right that there isn't a precedent for it, but those other examples are all a very long time ago. There are vastly more pennies than there ever were of those other denominations. And the fact that they will remain legal tender (this I think we can safely assume) doesn't mean they won't call them in for melting. Pennies are still legal tender in Canada, but they are being melted there. $500 bills are still legal tender here, but the banks destroy them when they get them. It would be rather pointless for them to allow thousands of tons of pennies to sit around taking up space when they could make some money by melting them.

Although we shouldn't ever assume they will use common sense. This is one reason I hope they don't go to steel. If the government doesn't destroy the coppers, the market will. The same should be true for zinc eventually. Steel... those things could sit around forever before it makes sense to melt them.

[adagirl]

Right now I "hoard" my zincs for two reasons 1) I want to sort the zincs for possible error coins before dumping (time issue), but also 2) in the mean time the zinc penny at least holds some form of value even if it doesn't hold it's face value at this time. If I had to choose between one hundred zinc pennies and a one dollar bill, the answer is easy.

[TwoAndAHalfCents]

Right now I "hoard" my zincs for two reasons 1) I want to sort the zincs for possible error coins before dumping (time issue), but also 2) in the mean time the zinc penny at least holds some form of value even if it doesn't hold it's face value at this time. If I had to choose between one hundred zinc pennies and a one dollar bill, the answer is easy.

Holding on to the zincs might make sense. I briefly thought about it early on but then came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the time and trouble now or in the future for me to sort through them looking for any valuable items. But we all have different time preferences so what might make sense to me when deciding what to hoard and what not to hoard doesn't neccesarily apply to others here.

I agree that having a dollar's worth of coins in hand is better than having a dollar bill (or an electronic entry in a bank account). However, I prefer those coins to be unsorted rather than just zincs. That's why I dump all my zincs and keeping adding to the huge pile of unsorted cents that I hope to sort sometime in the future. The pile includes some boxes of BU 2012-D's and 2013-D's which I will eventually get to in the pile and then be faced with the question of what to do with them.

[adagirl]

Holding on to the zincs might make sense. I briefly thought about it early on but then came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the time and trouble now or in the future for me to sort through them looking for any valuable items. But we all have different time preferences so what might make sense to me when deciding what to hoard and what not to hoard doesn't neccesarily apply to others here.

I agree that having a dollar's worth of coins in hand is better than having a dollar bill (or an electronic entry in a bank account). However, I prefer those coins to be unsorted rather than just zincs. That's why I dump all my zincs and keeping adding to the huge pile of unsorted cents that I hope to sort sometime in the future. The pile includes some boxes of BU 2012-D's and 2013-D's which I will eventually get to in the pile and then be faced with the question of what to do with them.[/quote]

If you are flipping CTU's I don't think hoarding zincs makes sense. If your funds are limited, dump your zincs so you can keep sorting for Cu. I am fortunate currently that I can hold the zincs until I can sort for errors, but at some point, more than likely, I will dump the zincs.

[exbingoaddict]

If you can't ebay them for profit. Dump them. There are a ton of 2013 BU cents out there floating around. You can buy bags of them from the mint if you so desire. The market for common BU cents Is small and its flooded. That market Is made of people who wants boxes, rolls, or one of each year. Once they have it, they are not buying gain. And given that it's June, they have their rolls or albums filled. 2013 BUs are common today and they will be common in 10 years. Too many coins chasing too few hands. If you go to coin shows you'll see guys drag around big albums of BU cents in 2x2s. And when they don't sell them, they drag them back home. Till the next show.

Easy rule of thumb, CU cents are for hoarding. Coins you like, they are for collecting. Rare coins, they "may" be for investing.