Has anyone ever melted copper pennies down for profit?

Nickels don't need to be sorted. :)

You can get a penny sorting machine on eBay for $50

Haha so it's easier than it sounds? Could you use a wood fired smelter to save even more profit?

Again, how would they know unless you were doing hundreds of thousands of dollars in copper transactions? Copper is copper. Nickel is nickel. Not like they can scan it and say "oh this is from coins". Can they?

illegal activity

not much copper in a modern penny

Also, sure you COULD melt down pennies but I am thinking that the effort to order and get the pre 82 pennies, sort them, melt and ingot them would not be worth your time. You know how much time effort would have to go into that?

Last Edited by Cryptographer on 03/28/2024 11:37 AM

Pre 1981 pennies are pure copper and worth about 3x their face value

It's one of those things I'd probably never do but want to understand why more people don't. Seems like an easy 300% profit. As you mention, sourcing pre 1981 pennies could be difficult but you never know.. buy rolls of pennies from the bank, dump em in a sorting machine and there you go.

Let me get you in on a little secret - PENNIES are actually gold not copper. Artificial coloring was added to hide it from the Memnoks (aliens) who eat gold to power up to level 39.

You soak them in Coca Cola for 30 days without removing them. The true color of gold will begin to show sometime around the 25th to 30th day.

Enjoy!

post 1981 pennies are copper plated zinc. they are only 2.5% copper.

a penny weighs 2.5 grams.

scrap zinc is worth about $1.22 a pound.

453 grams per pound.

that would be 181 pennies to make a pound.

the scrap is worth less than the monetary value in pennies.

pre 1981 pennies are worth 2~4 cents each.

Last Edited by Rufus Juice on 03/28/2024 11:42 AM

Close, they are 95% copper and 5% zinc ... which means that anyone that would want to "mask" their melting activities would need to remove the 5% zinc because a XRF test would instantly suggest that a copper ingot was made from pennies because how often would you find a 95/5% mix otherwise.

Pre 1982 pennies are 95% copper and 5% zinc.

MINUS THE COSTS TO SMELT THEM.

That would not be the costly part really... your TIME to get the pennies & sort them to get the pre-1982 pennies I believe would be more costly to you. I don't know about you but an hour of my time is worth a lot more than you could physically process to make it worth while.

Sure, if you had a few TONS of pre-1982 pennies and could process them all at once, well maybe.

that'll cost you 5,000 pennies right there.

Just for fun I crunched some numbers.

2,000,000 pennies would weigh approximately 11,000 pounds.

This would cost you $20,000

Now, you have to sort them because not all of them will be pre-1982.

So let's say you keep exchanging all your 1982 and newer zinc pennies until you get 2,000,000 pennies that are 1981 and older.

The time involved for this, who knows.

So once you have your 2,000,000 copper pennies now you melt them down which if in a perfect would yielded you the full 95% copper you would end up with 10,450 pounds of copper.

At a scrap price say of $3.00 per pound you now could sell that scrap for $31,350

So by theory you could gross $11,350 from your activities... but you have to factor in time to collect 11,000 lbs of copper pennies, the costs of melting them and separating the copper from the zinc, and processing them into ingots, transporting them for sale, etc. Plus the fact that your entire operation is illegal so that is something to consider too.... I promise you when you start ordering 2,000,000 pennies from your bank you WILL be on the radar... LOL

Easier idea would be to make some artwork with AI and go sell that art on eBay and other platforms on shirts, mugs, etc... I believe you will make that $10,000 much easier without having to leave your house nor do anything illegal.

:) :)

Last Edited by Cryptographer on 03/28/2024 11:55 AM

Just sell the pennies. Each penny 1980 and earlier are worth .015 now. Penny up 50%

Certain pennies sell for thousands for coin collectors.

You would be much further ahead to wait until your neighbor goes on vacation and then rip all the wiring out of their walls, lots of copper to be had there.

as far as i have learned, the real money in any coin is the collector value.

if one studies up and does their due-diligence, they can make a pretty penny on desired coins.

especially silver.

Some 1982 copper pennies exist.

I'm guessing that you would need a shitload of them,and it would be tough to make a profit.

Also,the copper they used has chemical properties/signatures that would determine from where they were mined.

I'd rather just buy pure copper bars

pennies are zinc now i think

All coins are alloyed so that their melt value is lower than their face value in order to preserve the currency from what you are suggesting.

Not pre 82 pennies and nickels. I would also suspect pre 64 silver coins but those are getting hard to find

I roll mine up and sell them on ebays to the chinese. I make 4 times what they are worth.

Wow good info

The space monkeys eho contact me via my toaster oven have confirmed this!

Wrong thread Nancy go away