Pennies

[allyinoh]

I personally love pennies. I always look for 1982 pennies and older because they are 100% copper.

I don't know, but I love pennies for whatever reason

 

[JSutter]

They're actually 95% copper

I've got about $1500 worth. I'm having to sell some off because I ran out of places to put them in my place.

Fortunately they're selling pretty good right now.

 

[Banana]

Does anyone have mills?

 

[kyleAF]

One of the videos deals with that. They're saying that getting rid of pennies would cost consumers an extra $600 billion a year in price roundups.

I don't doubt it.

However, it seems to me that all of the psychology behind the

ONLY $19.99!!! advertisements would have to be reverted to the

ONLY $19.95!!!! ads. Maybe it'll save us some cents on all those infomercials

 

[kyleAF]

Wow. So I just went through my set of pennies and picked out the 1982 and previous...

This is pretty cool:
Some 1982 pennies are zinc instead of copper, which isn't worth much. The way to tell the difference is to flick them into the air. The copper pennies will resonate, while the zinc pennies will sound dull.

It's true! Try it.

 

[pacelli]

How often do you use pennies anyway? I bet you're that asshole who pays in pennies aren't you?

Stick your cashless society where the sun don't shine.

 

[JSutter]

You're right Kyle, most hmans can tell the difference in resonance between copper and zinc pennies.

 

[allyinoh]

They're actually 95% copper

I've got about $1500 worth. I'm having to sell some off because I ran out of places to put them in my place.

Fortunately they're selling pretty good right now.

Oops =)

All I know is that I always pick up pennies and keep them. I cash them in or if they are old save them.

I have some debt that hopefully I can pay off by selling some.

 

[kyleAF]

Physical coins and bills are usually printed or made to replace the old worn out ones. The dollar is backed by something it's just no backed by anything physical. It's backed by the market. As demand of the dollar increases the value increases.

Well they were thinking about using stainless steel which is cheaper. But then again who uses pennies? it's like the $500 and $1000 bills, they were discontinued since rarely anyone used them.

If you guys ever think about melting pennies you're gonna be getting more zinc than you are copper.

Yes, if you try to melt pennies made AFTER 1982. Before 1982, they were either brass (copper zinc) or bronze (copper tin). Both alloys are vast majority copper (roughly 95% usually). They're much stronger than pure copper for coinage purposes...

If you find a REALLY old penny (1700s to early 1800s), you might find some pure copper there... but they're probably green by now. And copper is a hot commodity nowadays.

Tom, you are the antithesis of most of us in these forums when it comes to monetary policy and economic theory... this I accept. However, check the facts on the pennies

Oh, and it's not too unlikely that we'll be getting those 1000.00 bills in circulation once again as the market's backing of the dollar decreases... let's just hope that it stops there and not at Zimbabwean levels!

 

[Tom228]

Yes, if you try to melt pennies made AFTER 1982. Before 1982, they were either brass (copper zinc) or bronze (copper tin). Both alloys are vast majority copper (roughly 95% usually). They're much stronger than pure copper for coinage purposes...

If you find a REALLY old penny (1700s to early 1800s), you might find some pure copper there... but they're probably green by now. And copper is a hot commodity nowadays.

Tom, you are the antithesis of most of us in these forums when it comes to monetary policy and economic theory... this I accept. However, check the facts on the pennies

Oh, and it's not too unlikely that we'll be getting those 1000.00 bills in circulation once again as the market's backing of the dollar decreases... let's just hope that it stops there and not at Zimbabwean levels!

Well I was referring to the pennies we have now, I wasn't talking about the pre-1982 pennies. I'm sure the 95% copper ones are pretty rare, I wouldn't mind getting some myself, I like collecting cool things. Yea, I guess you've noticed I don't care much about pennies.

Hey we could try pulling some gimmick like Hugo Chavez and "shave" zeros off the bills to reduce inflation.

Stick your cashless society where the sun don't shine.

You pay in pennies don't you?

 

[kyleAF]

Well I was referring to the pennies we have now, I wasn't talking about the pre-1982 pennies. I'm sure the 95% copper ones are pretty rare, I wouldn't mind getting some myself, I like collecting cool things. Yea, I guess you've noticed I don't care much about pennies.

Hey we could try pulling some gimmick like Hugo Chavez and "shave" zeros off the bills to reduce inflation.



You pay in pennies don't you?

Chavez actually tried something like that??

You should look for them, just like you should keep an eye out for silver coins made before 1964... as they're worth several dollars a piece sometimes.

The silver is really tough to find, but the pennies aren't hard at all. You'll probably find 2 or 3 out of every 10 you look at... going off of my personal sampling.

 

[McDermit]

My ex's mom always drove me nuts with her incessant use of pennies. Everywhere we went, if the total wasn't a round dollar amount, she'd insist on using pennies. We'd get to a checkout, and say it was 16.53, I'd hand the dude a twenty - and she'd chime in with "oh, wait! I have the three cents!"

That's a huge pet peeve of mine now. Can't stand it.

I just save all my change and sort through it once or twice every year, setting anything worthwhile aside and rolling everything else. The pennies I usually give to a neighbor kid when the schools do their penny fundraisers. Saving the high copper content ones might not be a bad idea though. I already go through them looking for collectable ones.

 

[Fox McCloud]

The system works very well. I say dump the penny and the nickel, especially since they cost more to make than they're worth.

shhh, don't say that, then the people who are collecting them for when everything goes to pot won't have any currency in the US that's worth anything

I keep all my 1982 and below pennies, and, naturally, all my nickels...my post 1982 pennies will (one day) get converted into nickels at the bank.

 

[mexicanpizza]

This forum always gives me a good laugh. 5 gallon buckets full of old pennies?

Wow....

 

[theseus51]

Chavez actually tried something like that??

Yeah. Actually when a country with paper money has the inevitable hyper inflation, they usually try to re-issue new money by chopping off a few zero's

http://dollardaze.org/blog/?p=107

 

[AceNZ]

Actually, those bills were discontinued as part of the War on Drugs. They didn't want it to be too easy for people to exchange large sums of money.

Actually, large bills were last printed around 1945, well before the War on Drugs. IIRC, Nixon pulled the final plug in 1969 or so, supposedly to help battle organized crime.

And of course today, the dollar is worth about 8% of what it was worth in 1964, based on the price of silver. So a $100 bill today was worth $8 back then (or only $6 based on the SGS inflation estimate: http://www.shadowstats.com/inflation_calculator ). Keeping the largest bill at $100 is absurd.

The bad thing about this and keeping the penny and the nickel is that it's all part of the same game: an attempt by the government to hide the effects of inflation. Most people don't understand that the dollar has been debased by 92 to 94% in just the last 44 years -- and changing the currency would help to point that out.

 

[JSutter]

5 gallon buckets full of old pennies?

Yes, each one is comparable to 150lbs of 95% copper bullion. Try going and buying a copper bullion bar for investment. The ones they sell on ebay go for 3-5 times coppers worth so copper would have to go up 3x-5x in price just to break even on them. They're pretty much collector items instead of investments. I can get the pennies for less than half of their current metal value.

I love gold and silver and have those too but I also love to diversify and having copper bullion is a good idea too with the price performance lately. Sooner or later the 95% pennies will be pushing 5 cents each in metal value and I'll easily triple or quadruple my money. And there's no risk involved because they're always worth the penny I paid for them.

 

[Acala]

I'm sold

I guess it is time to start sorting my pennies! I love copper anyway. Very useful and handsome metal.

By the way, I usually just dump my change in one of those change counters at the grocery store. I know, it's a rip, but I don't have that much time. Anyway, last time I did it, the machine rejected one coin. It was a pre-65 quarter! Hahahahaha! The machine prefers pot metal to silver.

 

[Highstreet]

you can send all of them to me if you don't want them!

I also have a collection going.

You can PM me if you want my address. You must cover your own shipping costs, as those will probably be more than what the pennies are worth.

 

[Bruno]

Why not do a price round down instead?

That would be up to each individual store. Rounding prices down would cost retailers billions and rounding them up would put extra profit in their pocket. What do you think they'll choose?

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