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With the penny ending mintage and phased out looming. Anyone considering making large orders now?

Today we are all seeing the announcement, "the US Mint ceasing penny production", is now the time to make large orders with an eye on future collectibility?

I'm actually thinking about grabbing a bunch of pennies. Nothing super crazy, maybe in the multiple thousands range. Definitely need to weigh the pros and cons. Common ones will likely never really become that valuable, and honestly, I am not eager to step back into the hassle of lugging bags of coins back to the bank later on? Plus, who knows how banks will handle large penny deposits down the road? We no longer have TD coin counters and Portland Mint seems to have finally closed their doors to individuals.

The real collector value, I figure, will likely be in those rare dates or pristine rolls of from the very last batch.

It really boils down to whether I enjoy the hunt of finding treasures in rolls at face value, regardless of the time needed, or if I'd rather just buy exactly what I want from a dealer, even if it costs more. It all depends on what kind of collector I am and what I'm hoping to get out of it.

Historically I've been the CRH type of collector, but perhaps this is a point to step back and let others do the work...

While everyone has their opinion about stopping the penny and being fiscally responsible, this feels like a loss to the coin collecting world especially for the next generation.

~JobIII

My days of searching for coppers have ended, but on the rare occasion I pay in cash and receive a non-zincoln in change, I will throw it in a jar. The banksters have ruined the value of our coinage. May they receive their just rewards.

After the coming socio-economic crash, perhaps the survivors will once again use Cu.

No need for me to place a large order as I already have a $500 face of unopened Loomis rolls. This is a 1000 rolls which means 50,000 pennies. That does not count the rolls that I buy and search on a weekly basis. Most of my stash is from '21 and '22. I might ramp up later this year, but not now UNLESS there is solid news that DISTRIBUTION is ending soon. It is important to realize that there is not yet a schedule or timeline for the end of production, distribution etc. Canada was much more organized and specific with their elimination process.

I will stick with my four boxes a week. Wheats, copper memorial, varieties. It ends when it ends.

Time for more coffee.

Silver4face wrote:I might ramp up later this year, but not now UNLESS there is solid news that DISTRIBUTION is ending soon. It is important to realize that there is not yet a schedule or timeline for the end of production, distribution etc. Canada was much more organized and specific with their elimination process.

For the longest time, I haven't understood why the US didn't start to filter out certain metals from circulation like Canada did/does.

I think I'll start again but mainly want to get lucky and get a couple of those 2025 boxes. I'm sure they aren't that rare especially if you order a couple hundred dollars a week or so.

I am thinking of keeping the zincs now instead of returning them.

There will still be nickels, dimes, quarters and halves to look for too. I will try to get a few boxes a week of cents as long as banks still have them available. Heck, I might just start buying all the trays in the tellers' spots. A Ron Swanson moment of saying I want all the loose coins they have.

TXSTARFIRE wrote:I am thinking of keeping the zincs now instead of returning them.

I did that with Canadian cents. Started keeping them for the collectability and copper value. Up here in New England, you get Canadian cents often on rolls.

When Merc dimes stopped being minted, nobody cared.
When Buffalo nickels stopped being minted, nobody cared.
Same for the Ike and Susan B Anthony dollars.

Maybe they'll be a initial profit opportunity on UNC rolls and boxes, but IMO the Lincoln cents demise will end with a whimper.

What are the thoughts on copper cents being fungible for their metal value someday? Right now, a pre-1982 cent is worth 287% of face value in copper content. If we assume a conservative growth of 3% a year in copper trading prices, in about 12 years, the one cent Lincoln would have about 400% of face value in copper. In 12 years, maybe all the copper cents will have been hoarded or turned in to banks and maybe alloy recovered. At some point, the trading value of the copper may be attractive for bartering too. Who knows?

Likewise, I wonder if gold gets too high in price, the government may step in and try to enforce the barter rules around it.

If I didn't have a huge stash of unsearched boxes I would. My stash is from 2012 to 2014, I just couldn't keep up since I search for varieties, not just copper. I am looking forward to searching the boxes in the future when I have time. Just haven't had time lately.

willy13 wrote:If I didn't have a huge stash of unsearched boxes I would. My stash is from 2012 to 2014, I just couldn't keep up since I search for varieties, not just copper. I am looking forward to searching the boxes in the future when I have time. Just haven't had time lately.

I have 100% zinc skunk boxes from 2009, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 that I never opened.

JerrySpringer wrote:What are the thoughts on copper cents being fungible for their metal value someday? Right now, a pre-1982 cent is worth 287% of face value in copper content. If we assume a conservative growth of 3% a year in copper trading prices, in about 12 years, the one cent Lincoln would have about 400% of face value in copper. In 12 years, maybe all the copper cents will have been hoarded or turned in to banks and maybe alloy recovered. At some point, the trading value of the copper may be attractive for bartering too. Who knows?

Likewise, I wonder if gold gets too high in price, the government may step in and try to enforce the barter rules around it.

I doubt Cu will be an equivalent bartering instrument like Ag or Au would be, but today Cu is even more important to industry than silver is. I have a feeling the Cu price is going to explode over the next 5-10 years, significantly higher than what you are predicting here. First, it must break out and escape the $5 area with gusto. When that happens you better have barbed wire protecting your outside AC unit.

I believe long suffering Cu penny hoarders like us will do very well. It will happen eventually. Just put it away in a safe place and forget about it.

Cu Penny Hoarder wrote:
I doubt Cu will be an equivalent bartering instrument like Ag or Au would be, but today Cu is even more important to industry than silver is. I have a feeling the Cu price is going to explode over the next 5-10 years, significantly higher than what you are predicting here. First, it must break out and escape the $5 area with gusto. When that happens you better have barbed wire protecting your outside AC unit.

I believe long suffering Cu penny hoarders like us will do very well. It will happen eventually. Just put it away in a safe place and forget about it.

I think a 55 gallon barrel holds roughly $3000 in cents. Imagine having a basement full of those, .

[/quote]I have 100% zinc skunk boxes from 2009, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 that I never opened.[/quote]

Unopened BU 2009 cents I would think would be valuable.

Cu Penny Hoarder wrote:

willy13 wrote:If I didn't have a huge stash of unsearched boxes I would. My stash is from 2012 to 2014, I just couldn't keep up since I search for varieties, not just copper. I am looking forward to searching the boxes in the future when I have time. Just haven't had time lately.

I have 100% zinc skunk boxes from 2009, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 that I never opened.

Your 2009 box is easily the best of that group. It might be the only one worth opening.

2011 had some nice die varieties. If you got really lucky, there could be multiple examples of this variety in the box. Oh the fun of coin roll hunting!
https://www.coppercoins.com/lincoln/die ... _state=eds

JerrySpringer wrote:

Cu Penny Hoarder wrote:
I doubt Cu will be an equivalent bartering instrument like Ag or Au would be, but today Cu is even more important to industry than silver is. I have a feeling the Cu price is going to explode over the next 5-10 years, significantly higher than what you are predicting here. First, it must break out and escape the $5 area with gusto. When that happens you better have barbed wire protecting your outside AC unit.

I believe long suffering Cu penny hoarders like us will do very well. It will happen eventually. Just put it away in a safe place and forget about it.

I think a 55 gallon barrel holds roughly $3000 in cents. Imagine having a basement full of those, .

I keep all my Cu pennies in 5 gal buckets. They're 160-170lbs each, but still a lot more manageable than 55 gal drums.

Sold off my copper cents a decade ago, but still keep copper cents that I come across. There will be some hype about how rare cents are(lol), but that will die down and we’ll get used to rounding to the nearest nickel.

hirbonzig wrote:Sold off my copper cents a decade ago, but still keep copper cents that I come across. There will be some hype about how rare cents are(lol), but that will die down and we’ll get used to rounding to the nearest nickel.

I was looking through old threads here, there seems to be a LOT of members who simply gave up hoarding Cu pennies.

Canadians adapted very quickly when their penny was cancelled.

Over the past week I heard a few MSM news reporters calling new pennies "copper" cents.

I predict nickels will be nixed next, most likely within the next 5-10 years.

I've been thinking about placing some big penny orders at my bank, but I may wait until the treasury confirms that they've stopped minting new ones, because I hate when I have to haul 10+ boxes of brand new shiny pennies out of a bank.

I logged in for first time in 3 years to say hello and if anyone is still using their rydales?

I do have apx. two five gallon buckets of copper cents saved up over the years after the sell off. It is a much smaller and more manageable “hoard”, I’ve just ended going to banks for my copper searching.

goodcents wrote:I logged in for first time in 3 years to say hello and if anyone is still using their rydales?

I stopped searching boxes about 5 years ago. The last time I used my Ryedale was 2 years ago. My LCS guy unloaded an older 200lb hoard of pennies he had stored in his garage. I bought the entire hoard (a few zincs, but mostly Cu) from him for a small premium. After I ran everything through the Ryedale there was close to 90% Cu. About 30% of those were wheats; three 1909 and many 1910-1919.

I kept my Rydale and counter for just such an eventual possibility, but haven't used either since I resorted all the cents gotten to that date and counted them into coin bags for storage.