a penny for my thoughts

Bet you a penny that the US mint spends more money making a penny look like copper than than if they just made them out of copper in the second place…

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10 Comments!

  1. mech
    Posted November 24, 2012 at 2:09 pm |

    The true cost of a Lincoln penny depends on what year penny you have and what the metals are currently trading for on the commodity markets. A Lincoln penny composing of 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper, actually is worth .0083 of a cent, according to a $3.41 per pound price for copper and a $1.18 price per pound of zinc, assuming that a single penny weighs .108 ounces.

    Put it on my account. ;{D

  2. apotheosis
    Posted November 24, 2012 at 5:28 pm |

    Given what copper’s going for – enough that assholes are willing to break into our Habitat for Humanity houses and rip freshly-installed plumbing out of the walls for scrap – I’d say the fake copper is prolly cheaper.

  3. dick, not quite dead white guy
    Posted November 24, 2012 at 6:48 pm |

    A nickel is worth about 7 cents. Production discontinues in 2013, so they’ll go the way of silver dimes and quarters. Load up now and cash in in a couple years, .

  4. ZZMike
    Posted November 24, 2012 at 11:00 pm |

    Anybody who ain’t jest fallen off’n the turnip truck, remembers the War-Time pennies of 1944 or thereabouts. They were made of zinc(?) or aluminum(?), and they looked it.

    With all the metal thefts going on around the country, I’m surprised nobody’s bought a ton of pennies and turned them into copper bars.

    dnqdwg: “Production [of nickels] discontinues in 2013…”

    Say What?

  5. Spin
    Posted November 25, 2012 at 12:30 am |

    ZZMike the “steel penny” was 1943. I have a bunch.

    Last year was the final year is both Native American dollars and Presidential dollars being released into the general population too. They will only be released to collectors or you can buy them from the US Mint (just like a collector does)

  6. Spin
    Posted November 25, 2012 at 12:32 am |

    I meant to add, because of their collector status many people will begin to hoard $1 coins. The vending machine folks are not happy about any of this.

  7. Buzz
    Posted November 25, 2012 at 6:00 am |

    ‘ceptin’ that the mint doesn’t have to worry about scrappers knocking off an armored car to melt the pennies into cash, along with the habitat wiring and plumbing.

  8. Buzz
    Posted November 25, 2012 at 6:02 am |

    ‘cept that the mint doesn’t have to worry about scrappers knocking off an armored car to melt the pennies into cash, along with the habitat wiring and plumbing.

  9. Claire: rebellious pink pig with car keys - and a *cause*
    Posted November 25, 2012 at 7:50 am |

    This came up at T’giving. Pops said he worked with a fella way back when who would go every pay day and buy a bunch of pennies — all rolled up — and stack ‘em in his garage. He had a coupla tons, eventually. Everybody thought he was nuts, until he bought a new pick-up…

  10. Colonel Jerry USMC
    Posted November 25, 2012 at 8:09 am |

    I`ve got a few South Vietnamese piastres layin around. They are marked $1 dollar. Any body know their exchange rate with Confederate dollars?