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Interesting facts about Pennies, the US CURRENCY

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    Bigblue12v started this thread.
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    Interesting facts about Pennies, the US CURRENCY

    So i got thinking last night......
    Pennies- everyone has piles of them and no one likes to carry them around.
    They also cost the US more to produce than their face value.
    Sure they can be rolled and taken to bank, or spent as a roll, or taken to a coin sorter in town and they take 7-9% of your gross as profit for counting, then you take a ticket to the register and they pay out your total in cash bills.
    In general, they are a pain in the butt to deal with but we all have a stash of them.

    Also- we all like copper. Pennies are made of copper right? Hmmmm I wonder how many pennies it takes to make a pound. Got wondering if their scrap value was more than the currency value. I'm not suggesting we all go jump on scrapping pennies, thats illegal.... BUT just the thought of such a possibility bothered me. So I typed in pennies on Wikipedia and found that it only takes $1.81 worth of pennies to make a pound. If they were indeed good copper that means their scrap value is at least or close to double the currency value. Very interesting!!!!!! But come to find out, they aren't such a high percentage of copper after all. Older pennies do contain 95% copper but newer ones are 99% Zinc.

    http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_p...eigh_one_pound

    Just something I found interesting. Obviously if there was a way to melt them down into bars and pass them off as real copper that could be a profitable business but I guess it doesn't work that way LOL

    Again I was NOT suggesting we scrap currency! Just had to research my theory......



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    Iron Butterfly's Avatar
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    Well, I'd like to "scrap" the penny. But not in that way, I s'pose.

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    Right now, all over the country, people are running pennies through copper sorting machines, hoarding the ones made before 1982 like people did with silver coins in the 60s. I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually see the day when a copper penny is worth over 7 cents in copper...

    Right now it is worth almost 3 cents in copper

    BUT, enough about pennies... Did anybody here know that ALL US nickels are worth almost 7 cents in copper-nickel?
    Last edited by TheMetalizer; 01-26-2011 at 11:49 AM.

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    Bigblue12v started this thread.
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    Ain't it a shame that money is worth less than scrap now? that just sucks!

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    yeah you need the earlier pennies for the scrap.

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    Bigblue12v started this thread.
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    People do scrap them?

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    Scrap man's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bigblue12v View Post
    People do scrap them?
    No. It's illegal to destroy national currency
    There's nothing more fun and more effective than hitting something repeatedly with a sledgehammer

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    Bigblue12v started this thread.
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    I know, but I got the implication that it was done... I guess you meant in theory, for scrap value you would have to use pre-82 coins. I don't plan on doing this by any means, I was just pointing out something I found interesting...

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    Yeah it is illegal but i bet someone out there is doing it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Focker View Post
    Yeah it is illegal but i bet someone out there is doing it.
    I don't think the yards would take the chance of buying copper coins as scrap.
    People may laugh at me, but that's ok. I laugh all the way to the bank.

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    Bigblue12v started this thread.
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    I would hope and assume that if someone were to attempt to sell them as scrap they would melt them down first?

    When we were kids people would lay pennies on train tracks and pick them up later as flattened copper pieces, out of sheer novelty nothing else.... ? Not sure what was soo cool about it LOL

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    Quote Originally Posted by Scrap man View Post
    No. It's illegal to destroy national currency

    I got to wondering how the penny press machines get around it...found this.

    "IT'S LEGAL!
    U.S. Title 18, Chapter 17, Section 331: Prohibits among other things, fraudulent alteration and mutilation of coins. This statue does not, however, prohibit the mutilation of coins if done without fraudulent intent if the mutilated coins are not used fraudulently."

    http://www.rockyrockholt.com/

    Suppose melting them down constitutes fraud?

    No worries here, nothing hot enough to melt them.

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    Right now, Canada has a program called the "Alloy Recovery Program" in which all banks are required by law to pull all old nickels and pennies out of circulation so they can scrap them.

    In canada, all pre-1982 Nickels are made of 100% nickel. Their nickel value is about $.12 (USD) each.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mick View Post
    I don't think the yards would take the chance of buying copper coins as scrap.
    Sure they would if you melted them down how would they know what they where?

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    http://www.coinflation.com/ This tell what they are worth melted.But as of Dec 2006 it is illegal to melt down pennies and nickels.

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    Scrap man's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheIrrationalist View Post
    Right now, Canada has a program called the "Alloy Recovery Program" in which all banks are required by law to pull all old nickels and pennies out of circulation so they can scrap them.

    In canada, all pre-1982 Nickels are made of 100% nickel. Their nickel value is about $.12 (USD) each.
    So nickels are worth something too? Or is that Canadian currency?

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    so if you took a load of pre-1982 us pennies to canada for scrap would they buy them?

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    Filthy's Avatar
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    thats an interesting question, im sure there is a legislation somewhere that protects foreign currency on international ground.

    ...still makes me wonder
    We're the renegades of Junk!

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    I have been wondering he same thing. Up here our pre-82 pennies are 98% copper. Wonder what would happen if a pile of them ended up in another country, would it be legal to melt them down...I'm sure if they ended up in China or India they would be thrown straight into the furnace....or maybe used to pay for months of wages.

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    I was thinking about collecting pre 1982 pennies and pre 1964 silver coins and get on Craigslist and see if there is a buyer. Also put a Wanted ad on there and pay them bills for there change they saved that hasnt been gone through


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