Wow penny/copper scam

My life outside scraping involves some retail "work"....Well over the year I have picked up on a scam which is pretty sneaky, but seems tedious to me. We buy bulk change from the bank. I assume someone is buying rolls of pennies from the bank, and using a machine to sort the pre-1982 ones that contain copper. Then what they are doing is removing a very large percentage of the copper from the pennies with what looks like acid, or some sort of electrolysis? This makes the penny sound totally different, and seems to show the metal blend is not homogenous in the construction of a penny. Some of them are barely 1/3 of what they should be, others are 3/4 of what they should be. I call these penny rolls the Chicklets. They return 50 chicklets back to the roll and bring it back to the bank as rolls of pennies. I believe they are smart enough to remove different percentages of the penny and have different "grades". I told the bank and they didn't seem to care and said we are the first complaint, if we want we can return any rolls we get like that. I left some of the said pennies at work, but I will take a picture of a few and post it tomorrow.

That's a pretty pathetic way to make a few dollars. Can't say that I've seen any of those up here.

I've had people want to sell me the copper from them. I refuse to take it.

Doesn't that fall under the whole thing where you're not supposed to destroy currency?

Seems like an awful lot of work for not much return.

Its happening here too. Sorta smart yet dumb at the same time. Pre 1982 pennies are almost all copper and takes about $1.80to make a lb. So with current prices they are doubling their money. Now the dumb thing is it takes time to sort the older pennies out. To melt them it takes fuel which cost money. And the really dumb thing is that if you get caught the secret service will be on your rear since its a first degree felony. I think ill pass on this moneymaker. Lol.

A lot has changed in the past years and I believe it is more allowable these days to do what you want with your money. I will have to look up these new laws and post them as I forget exactly what they are.

For example. It used to be illegal to deface any American currency, but back in the nineties it was upheld by the supreme court as freedom of speech. This protected things such as "where's George?", "I grew hemp" and many other things that people felt like writing on their bills.

Things change through the years.

http://www.realcent.org/

Some reading material. Check out ebay as well. There is a market for pre '82's.

http://www.goldismoney2.com/showthre...Processing-LLC

Some back history on the early days for hardcore pre '82 processing before the gov. shut the whole thing down. This is a great read.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Victor

http://www.goldismoney2.com/showthre...Processing-LLC

Some back history on the early days for hardcore pre '82 processing before the gov. shut the whole thing down. This is a great read.

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Great minds think alike... I visit both that site and Realcent quite a bit. Bit more of a lurker on realcent though.

For the others, you can't destroy coins unless it's for educational purposes.

Threw most of the small chicklet ones away but here is a good idea of it with less material missing.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...92855334_n.jpg



https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...11890358_n.jpg

more than likely it is from someone finding them with a metal detector, i know i have picked up a lot of pennies that look like that.
just my .02

looks like zincs to me. They don't hold up well

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brandon

more than likely it is from someone finding them with a metal detector, i know i have picked up a lot of pennies that look like that.
just my .02

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Same here. I rolled a lot of them back in that I have found with a metal detector.

I'm not sure someone is Metal detecting to the point where we have gotten hundreds of these pennies? If we have received that many from the bank I can't imagine how many are out there.

Those are the newer zinc pennies. They're suffering from what is known as "zinc rot". It's worthwhile to hold onto the new pennies that look perfect - it won't be long and they'll be worth quite a bit because there will be so few left in mint condition. I put back a few rolls every year now.

Pure copper tarnishes quite easily, and that's what's covering pennies these days. They used to be made of bronze or brass (depending on year - even steel in one year). Now they're zinc plated in copper. Once the copper starts to oxidize and let's air hit the zinc, the zinc starts to crumble when it oxidizes.

I've mentioned it before, but I go through 4 boxes a week pulling out coppers and wheat pennies. I've seen the zinc ones with holes where the white zinc powder just tumbles out.

Here you go... http://www.usmint.gov/email/MUTILATEDCOIN.PDF

and that there are 181 zincs to a pound http://www.parkpennies.com/penny/penny.htm you will still lose money! Best to pass them on to someone else!

I find a lot of zinc pennies when detecting, and try to spend them as fast as possible. They don't hold up to exposure at all.