How many are stocking up on old pennies?

[.45 Dave]

I was stocking up copper pennies. I've got a coffee can full of them but frankly I don't thin copper is ever going to be worth it. How many pennies would you have to store away to make it worthwhile? How many pounds of pennies would you have to have to get even a hundred bucks out of it? What could you do with them? Copper jacket bullets? And would that be worth the trouble if you could?
I'm thinking about liquidating mine and getting some good barter things--things people will really want and need.

 

[CountryBoy19]

What could you do with them? Copper jacket bullets? And would that be worth the trouble if you could?
I'm thinking about liquidating mine and getting some good barter things--things people will really want and need.

You can do many things with them, it all depends on your skillset. And they will also be very worth while to barter to somebody that can use them. IMHO, much better than dumping your money into gold & silver.

"Worth" the trouble is all dependent on your definition of "worth". I don't think anybody ever said pennies were the be-all, end-all of preps, but it's one more tool in the tool-box, and takes minimal effort and minimal financial investment to collect them.

How many "barter items" could you really buy if you liquidated your penny stash? Probably not much... that's kind of the point, the financial investment is so incredibly low, that it can't hurt to have them around JIC.

There are MANY uses for copper, and many things can be made from copper pennies, bullet jackets was only a single example.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I got myself some junk silver dimes for intrinsic value. I have copper in various forms, but for use in those forms. Got some old pennies because old stuff is cool.

 

[Just4Fun]

I started saving pennies for the copper, but it was too time consuming. I just try to take my lunch a few times a week and then buy silver with my savings.

 

[1775usmarine]

7yr old bump but I recently started pulling copper pennies out of circulation, even Canadian pennies I find. I got a 2 ft tube that's 6in in diameter that I was going to use to make a tumbler but decided to buy one.

 

[femurphy77]

The old style pennies are getting rarer and rarer at least in my world. I don't deal with cash that much so don't have a lot of change cross my hands but the cpt america shield penny is pretty ubiquitous these days.

I wonder if I turned in old twenty dollar bills and explained that they represent 2000 old copper pennies if I'd realize the 250% profit cited above?

 

[craigkim]

This reminds of my dad and one of his old failed schemes. In 1983-84 when they had just started using copper plated zinc, he decided that the copper in old pennies was going to really go up in value. He went to the bank and got $1000 in old pennies all in rolls. He kept them in the basement in a couple of great big old ammo boxes. I remember him saying that it was about 600 lbs of pennies. (I looked it up and it was about 689lbs) Anyway, I think he kept them for at least 15 years and then finally ended up needing the money and just trading them back in for face value. LOL.

 

[JettaKnight]

I'd think scrounging around job sites looking for scrap wire bits would be more profitable. And legal.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

A guy I know was telling me about the house that they'd recently bought. The house was build in the mid 1960s and all of the plumbing, supply and waste lines were all copper. I've of course seen lots of copper water pipe, but I've never seen a house with copper waste pipes. There's a lot of copper in 4" pipe and fittings.

 

[JettaKnight]

A guy I know was telling me about the house that they'd recently bought. The house was build in the mid 1960s and all of the plumbing, supply and waste lines were all copper. I've of course seen lots of copper water pipe, but I've never seen a house with copper waste pipes. There's a lot of copper in 4" pipe and fittings.

My first house had copper waste lines. Not a lot because all the plumbing was in one vertical wet wall.

 

[Expat]

We save our change for some reason. We have several gallons of pennies.

 

[red_zr24x4]

I have one of the big water jugs I throw change in, except the wheat penny's, I save those

 

[JeepHammer]

Silly ideas...

1982 and older pennies are BRONZE,
If you think you can smelt, then chemically separate the tin from the copper, you are going to spend all your pennies buying that equipment & chemicals.

Now, a bronze penny makes a good corrosion resistant electrical contact for DC current.
Soldered onto a terminal end that would normally corrode in days next to a battery, the bronze will last longer in the corrosive environment.
(A tip for guys with backup battery banks, pennies are cheaper than terminal inserts)

This isn't illegal since you aren't counterfitting or scrapping the pennies.

Since you can't legally scrap a penny, it's worth EXACTLY (wait for it.... ) 1¢ US.
That's unless you can find someone gullible to pay more than 1¢, which makes you a con man.

Some guy at a 'Prepper' show a couple months back was selling nickels for exactly the same reason, and the gullible were paying a premium for rolled nickels....

Now, when nickels were made of a fairly high nickel content, I used them in welding applications, a nickel being cheaper than a high nickel filler rod.

-------

I keeps *Some* scrap silver for silver soldering, I keeps some old pennies for electrical contacts, I keeps some nickels for welding/brazing,
I would suggest you stock pile seeds, canning jars, canners & lids, even toilet paper would be worth more than pennies...
You can't eat them, you can't make much of a tool from a penny, and without significant smelting capabilities you can't make much more than a bronze axe head...
And it's so low value currency, you are going to need a crap load to buy a book of matches in SHTF situation...

Now there is an idea... If you could make matches....

 

[JeepHammer]

We save our change for some reason. We have several gallons of pennies.

Costs more to rent the fork lift to get them to the bank than they are worth...

I had a plastic 5 gallon bucket of pennies when I moved (years back) which I decided to take to the bank instead of move to the new place...
Do you have ANY idea how much a 5 gallon bucket of bronze weights??!!!!

I ripped the handle RIGHT off, first pull...
Then I put a chain under the bucket, got a 2"x4" into the chain... And snapped the 2"x4" like a twig!
A full gallon of pennies will make you blow a tube getting it to a vehicle...

Anyway, I don't recommend glass gallon jars when you give up and scoop out of the 5 gallon bucket.
In my case, I had to clean the pennies up out of the glass (Mr. Murphy is an SOB! ) the bottom wasn't strong enough.

 

[1775usmarine]

Actually from 1962 to 1982 its brass.

 

[1911ly]

My MIL never spend a penny, as in I have every penny she ever got in change. Actually we took several pails of pennies in that we were tired of tripping over. I have a lot of wheat pennies & lead penny's. My son can figure out what to do with them as well as the silver she saved when I am gone. Most are so worn you can barely read the dates.

 

[JeepHammer]

Actually from 1962 to 1982 its brass.

Um, NO!
'42 to '64, 95% copper, 5% tin, trace of zinc.

'62 to '82, 95% copper, 5% tin/zinc mix.
Call it brass if you want to, but it's bronze, and just the corrosion (tarnish) color should tell you that.

Technical 'Bronze' is 95% copper, 5% tin (or tin/zinc)
Hard bronze, or 'Marine' bronze starts at 90% copper and 10% tin.

Actual 'Brass' is copper with 12% zinc or more, while cartridge brass is copper with 25% or more zinc.
Most modern cartridge cases are real close to 30% zinc.

There were some laminated pennies released in '82
The zinc core is 97.5% of weight, while the copper clad is 2.5% of weight, 1983 to present are all copper clad zinc.

And the sources,
The US Mint for money, and the Metallurgy Guide To Non-Ferrous Alloys by Brown & Sharp.

 

[1775usmarine]

https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/coin-production

"In 1962 tin was eliminated, and in 1982 the penny became primarily zinc with only 2.5% copper"

 

[JeepHammer]

The WWII Years,
'44 to '46 'Gun' brass, also called 'Shell Case Copper', 95% copper, 5% zinc.
'43, Zinc coated (low grade) steel, which some people called 'Lead'.

 

[JeepHammer]

OH! A web site!

I'm sticking with the US Coin Collectors book published by the US Mint.
You do what you want...

And how EXACTLY does that make any of the uses, or inability of use different?