What is my copper worth?

[stevej37]

Have a bunch of pennies.....should I sell or hang on?

[masraum]

Regular pennies or wheat pennies?
You mean just for the copper value?
I think they’d all have to be per old to be worth anything for copper value.

[stevej37]

^^^
There might be some wheaties mixed in...don't know.
Mixed age....about 5 pounds worth. The can is full.

[stevej37]

I might wait to use them on my next car....been looking.

[stevej37]

Coinstar might be my best choice.

[varmint]

Five pounds of copper and a catalytic converter will get you a dime bag around here.

[gregpark]

Modern pennies have hardly any copper in them. 97.5% zinc and 2.5% a copper alloy

[masraum]

Originally Posted by stevej37

^^^
There might be some wheaties mixed in...don't know.
Mixed age....about 5 pounds worth. The can is full.

Originally Posted by gregpark

Modern pennies have hardly any copper in them. 97.5% zinc and 2.5% a copper alloy

Like Greg said, modern pennies are really just copper plated zinc. When I was a teenager, I had a rock polisher. I put some pennies in it one of the times, and old one and a newer one. The old one was copper, but the new one was mostly not.

Originally Posted by stevej37

Coinstar might be my best choice.

Almost certainly. I haven't used it in years, but the last time that I used it, you could get cash minus their "fee" which was a percentage, or you could get Amazon credit at the full value, so that's what I did. I've got a smallish bottle full of change that includes everything from pennies to quarters. I'm assuming $25-50. I think the last time I had coins, it was a few hundred dollars worth, but almost all quarters because I was a bartender.

[stevej37]

I've used Coinstar a few times...it's handy, except it spits back all the Canadian ones.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by stevej37

I've used Coinstar a few times...it's handy, except it spits back all the Canadian ones.

Sneaky bastages trying to dilute our currency .... 3 dimes at a time

[herr_oberst]

Use them for an art project. This woman made an entryway floor.

[stevej37]

^^^ Original idea....like it.
I don't have nearly that many. With the phase-out...I'm wondering if Coinstar will even accept them.

[GH85Carrera]

My local credit union has a free coin counter. I have to deposit the money into one of my accounts, and then withdraw any cash I might want. They want to be sure the users of the coin counter are actual account holders.

Geezer voice: Back in the olden days when I paid cash for most everything and there were no debit cards, I always hated carrying change. I would empty all my coins into a little wicker basket in my closet. When it was full, I would cash it in and it was usually 150 bucks to so. Now I use cash on rare occasion, but I still carry cash. The basket is about 3/4 full after many years.

[rwest]

Originally Posted by stevej37

^^^ Original idea....like it.
I don't have nearly that many. With the phase-out...I'm wondering if Coinstar will even accept them.

I think it is the opposite, the retail and banking industries still need pennies and I would bet in a couple years, they will be making the plea for people to cash in their big jars of pennies.

[john70t]

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/3428690/penny-going-away-2026-know-one-cent-coins/
How much does it cost to make a penny?

It costs 3.69 cents to make a penny, whose value is just one cent, according to the U.S. Mint’s fiscal 2024 report. Last year alone, the penny’s production resulted in a loss of $85 million for the Mint.

It’s not just the penny that costs more to mint than it’s worth. A nickel, despite holding a value of five cents, costs a whopping 13.78 cents to make, the Mint report said.

On the other hand, the Mint found, a quarter costs 14.68 cents to make — less than its 25-cent value — and a half-dollar coin costs just 34 cents to produce.

[HobieMarty]

Well dang, now what am supposed to do with the wheat back steel penny I have.
Seriously, I have one that is dated 1943 if I recall correctly. I was an assistant manager at a restaurant way back when. One night while making closing deposits I was counting the dimes and as l was dropping them into the plastic coin tray, one of them made a different sound, and upon picking it up, I discovered that it was a penny, but it was silver. A silver penny? I tossed a dime from my pocket into the drawer and kept the penny and still have it. Research showed that during WW2, they made pennies out of steel and used the copper for the war effort.

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[gregpark]

It costs 8 cents to make a nickel. Brilliant!

[rwest]

Originally Posted by gregpark

It costs 8 cents to make a nickel. Brilliant!

A nickel is pretty massive for a coin, I bet a dime is pretty cheap to make, maybe even less than the penny?

[gregpark]

I have bags of pre 1965 dimes worth $7 each now. They cost less than a dime to manufacture at the time (silver has not so much increased in value, more so the USD drastically goning down in value)
A dime today costs 6 cents to make, a nickel 8 cents

[stevej37]

[QUOTE=HobieMarty;12598596]Well dang, now what am supposed to do with the wheat back steel penny I have.
Seriously, I have one that is dated 1943 if I recall correctly. I was an assistant manager at a restaurant way back when. One night while making closing deposits I was counting the dimes and as l was dropping them into the plastic coin tray, one of them made a different sound, and upon picking it up, I discovered that it was a penny, but it was silver. A silver penny? I tossed a dime from my pocket into the drawer and kept the penny and still have it. Research showed that during WW2, they made pennies out of steel and used the copper for the war effort.



I was working a retail job right after HS when a teenage guy bought something (I don't remember what it was, but it cost a little over $5) He paid for it with a five and some change.
Only after he left the store, I noticed the blue printing on the $5 bill. I swapped it out with one of mine and still have it.

A silver certificate 5 dollar bill that I'm confident it came from his father's stash/collection.

.