Saving Copper Cents

BY MIKE THORNE, PH.D.

Are you putting aside pre-1982 cents for the copper they contain? Do you feel that one of these days, they’ll be worth more to you than face value? If so, I found chat threads on CoinTalk that I think you’ll find interesting. One of the threads even listed 83 things you could do with all the cents you’ve saved, even if you’ll never be able to cash them in. In this column, I’ll try to summarize the main points in the threads. One of the first comments was a negative response to the question, “Who’s collecting pre-82 pennies for copper value?” “No one should be, imo, but many of the uninformed still do so. It is illegal to melt U.S. cents for their metal value, and the alloy they are…

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Numismatic News (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 28, 2025

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