If I figured it out right, the copper value in a pre-1981 US cent at today's copper prices (about $2.30 lb.) is 1.5¢.

This was actually a recent news item in NY -- probably explains why you don't see many 60's & 70's cents in change anymore...

Where I live, I get lots of early 1960's and even the other day a 1959. About three weeks ago I got a BU example of a 1960-D.

The Canadian pre-78 cent has a lower face value (exchange), and more copper

I have been getting quite a few young head QEII's in change over the past few months too

So....when I put in my 2 cents, you are actually getting 3 cents worth.

I believe you calculated correctly, last I did the math, it took 153 copper cents to make a pound of copper.



What the heck does this mean? I thought a Canadian penny was a Canadian penny, are you saying that in Canada old cents must be exchanged for less than a cent? That's just way too European...

If I drove over the bridge to a bank in Canada and asked to buy 2 rolls of pennies it would only cost me 84 cents US. Not sure how many pre '78s I would get.

Sorrry about the confusion, I was referring to the fact that it has a lesser value when you factor in the foreign exchange rate.

I don't know about nickel prices, but the Canadian pre-81 5c (4.54g or 1/100 lb.) is pure nickel and IMO another candiate for "melt".

That is certainly possible, since nickel is running about $6.80/lb, 100 nickels would be $5 (or $4.20 US) which is about the same spread as copper right now. Unfortunately for us, our nickels are 75% copper and only 25% nickel.

That's correct. Good thing I've been saving all the pre-1981's I've been finding for a while

Hmm...

100 US nickels ~= 125g Ni, 375g Cu
FV 5.00 US

125/454*6.80=1.87 worth of Ni
375/454*2.30=1.90 worth of Cu
Total melt value: 3.77, so melt is 75.4% of FV. Not too bad. Future candidate?

100 Canada nickels post-1982 = 1/4 lb Ni, 3/4 lb Cu
FV 5.00 CA / 4.20 US

1/4*6.8=1.70 worth of Ni
3/4*2.3=1.72 worth of Cu
Total melt value: 3.42, so melt is 81.4% of FV. Slightly better. Another candidate, I suppose.

no kidding! interesting fact that i've never thought of. thanks for sharing


Doug

<100 Canada nickels post-1982 = 1/4 lb Ni, 3/4 lb Cu
FV 5.00 CA / 4.20 US

1/4*6.8=1.70 worth of Ni
3/4*2.3=1.72 worth of Cu
Total melt value: 3.42, so melt is 81.4% of FV. Slightly better. Another candidate, I suppose. >

Forget the post 1982 nickels how about the pre-1982 canadian nickels. (Of course I don't know how common they are in circulation now.)

if your figure of 100 to the pound is accurate then
FV =$5 canadian or $4.20 US
BV = $6.80 US or a 62% premium over face (Some of the coins before 1982 are steel and some are tombac but most of them are pure nickel.)

Definitely sounds like a hoarding possibility.

Most 5c I see today are 90s or later. Alot of them (like the 1c) just end up in change jars, etc. since people can't be bothered to count them back out in purchases. 70's are still around, though 60s and earlier (due to the pre-62 being 12-sided, and the '67 being a commem) are getting scarce in circulation. There's still quite a number of them, though.

Canada pre-1978 1c: 2.30*1.14/143=1.8c melt each (CA$). So 1.8x FV. Now that's something to watch.

I did a table for base metal Canadian 1c and 5c (excluding steel, since there's various grades/alloys), values at full melt in CA$:

1858-59 1c $0.0243
1876-20 1c $0.0303
1920-42 1c $0.0174
1942-79 1c $0.0179
1980-81 1c $0.0154
1982-96 1c $0.0138
Zinc 1c $0.0053
1922-81 5c $0.0772
Tombac 5c $0.0238
1982-00 5c $0.0390

Those are some interesting numbers. Guess all those cents and nickels I think are worthless really aren't!