Copper cents dissapearing fast from circulation

[CU later 29]

New member here, but long time AG/CU hunter. Im approaching the 1 TON mark for copper pennies!!

Has anyone else noticed thier %'s of copper cents per box on the decline over the last year? Has hoarding increased in the US, now that Canada has actually scrapped its .01 coin? I believe it all started when the silver boom occured to almost $50/0z, more coin hunting started in my area, then folks went on to cents, now that CAD has scrapped its .01, everyone sees the writing on the wall for the US cent.

I would love to hear the opinions of fellow CU29 hoarders...Im thrilled I found this forum.

-G

[mishra142]

Where are you located? My averages remain pretty much the same as they were when I started a few years ago. I average about 25% from boxes. Closer to 30% from bags from coin machines.

[RichardPenny43]

Welcome to RC.
I find it amazing that you hoarded 1 ton before you found us.
I've had a steady 28% for two years.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

My percentage has dropped from 70% in December to under 1% now. Oh wait, that's my silver percentage.

Cent percentage has been holding steady in the 19-20% range.. so I just sort more.

[Cent1225]

My percentage has dropped from 70% in December to under 1% now. Oh wait, that's my silver percentage.

Where did you find 70% silver percentages in December. Some little old ladies safety deposit box??

[CU later 29]

Where are you located? My averages remain pretty much the same as they were when I started a few years ago. I average about 25% from boxes. Closer to 30% from bags from coin machines.

Southwest US, around Phoenix, AZ.

Was at 22%, then below 20%, now around 17%

I've heard of others around 25% around other parts of the US but not here! Still 17% is fine by me, I'll keep searching until we scrap the cent ourselves or when boxes are below 10%. I think Obama will start kicking the idea around of eliminating the cent around 2015/2016 towards the end of his term, as there are more important things to worry about Im sure in the beginning of ones term.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

My percentage has dropped from 70% in December to under 1% now. Oh wait, that's my silver percentage.

Where did you find 70% silver percentages in December. Some little old ladies safety deposit box??

I think it was something Thogey's old widow turned in. The teller told me.. "I don't have much for you this week, but I think you will like it" He gave me 20 rolls of dimes.. 14 of them were solid silver. It was the first of my trifecta of Silver Santa visits in December.

17% is actually high for Phoenix. I brought back a box of pennies from there the last time I visited my mom. I won't be doing that again. I think the percentages run 13-15%.

[stlouiscoin]

I have noticed a slight drop in %s. last summer I was averaging 24% a box, now I'm down to 20-21%

[Dave]

Still getting 25-30% in western New York.Funny thing is that my Canadian % is up the last couple of months.

[thedrifter]

They're escaping Canada!

Funny thing is that my Canadian % is up the last couple of months.

[tuleja]

My percentages drop slightly every year. I think it's more the addition of billions and billions of pennies every year, over the copper being taken out of circulation.

[stonewallrabbitry]

Over the last two years mine dropped fro 28% to 25%, I agree with Tuleja that most of the decrease is from new pennies being introduced

[bookshelf]

I am in southern California. My percentage has dropped from 17% to 16% in the past year. Not much, but noticeable over the long run.

[blackrabbit]

The percentages seem about the same for me in Northern California, about 20%, but I have noticed a lot more shield pennies in the mix.

[reddirtcoins]

2 years ago I was in the low 20's now it's more like 17-18%.

[Hawkeye]

Being the idiot that I am, I just started keeping track of percentages last year, but I've been holding fairly steady around 25-27%. Good job on the ton!

[ScrapMetal]

On average about 28%. My theory is that as new zincs introduced in the mix, what do they displace? A copper or another zinc?
Will have to see when the 2013s start showing up.

BTW, I am in the Twin City area of Minneapolis.

[Romalae]

There was some good insight on this topic on this thread. There are varying theories of why percentages are getting lower, especially in places in the southwest like Texas and Arizona.

Here in central Texas, my box averages range from 12% to 16%. with roughly 14% or 15% being the usual. Pretty low, and it's down from 16% when I first undertook this operation three+ years ago.

[Zincanator]

I'm typically hovering around 18-20% here in good ol DFW. For a while it seemed like CWRs were better than BWRs. But seems it's luck of the draw in either ($100 or less per week hand-sorting).

[68Camaro]

Over the last two years mine dropped fro 28% to 25%, I agree with Tuleja that most of the decrease is from new pennies being introduced

Implication is that the population of coin is larger and the coppers are a smaller part of that. How could anyone really tell that? Is the population is fixed and the coppers are replaced with shields t it would look the same from the view of the sorter.

[crbattery]

I have done $400 a week for a month and have a pretty consistent $110 of keepers.
I have been meaning to put together some better number soon:)

Northern Twin Cities Mn area for me.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

Mn is a great place to sort. I would get my pennies from there, but price for gas would kill me.

[johnbrickner]

I am steady between 20% - 25% just west of the greater Syracuse area, but finally discovered someone else using my fav podunk banks is sorting coppers by hand also. Canadian seem to be on a slight increase. About as many as these as '82s, CU that is.

[CU Baker]

Mn is a great place to sort. I would get my pennies from there, but price for gas would kill me.

YOU JUST STAY WHERE YOU ARE!

[Engineer]

Mn is a great place to sort. I would get my pennies from there, but price for gas would kill me.

Do you have easy rail service at the shop? A coal car can carry a hundred tons...