A Penny Saved

With the price of base metals such as copper, zinc, and nickel rising in recent years, the cost of producing the penny and nickel has exceeded their face values. This has led some people to start hoarding pennies and nickels, and a subsequent law in 2006 banning the melting of US coins. That law, which was in effect for only five months, has since been extended on April 16, 2008.

Copper Pennies:
From 1962 to 1982, the US penny is composed of 95% copper and 5% zinc. With an official weight of 3.11 grams, each penny contains 2.95 grams of copper. There is one pound of copper in 154 copper pennies.

Price of copper (if salvaged from copper pennies) is $1.54 per pound.

The price of copper is between $3 - $4 per pound for the past 12 months. If you save your copper pennies you could be doubling your money (if you don't get caught melting them).

Zinc Pennies:
From 1983 to the present, the US penny is made from a core of 99.2% zinc, then copper plated. The total content of these pennies is 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper. The public was largely unaware of this change, although debasement is an old trick. With an official weight of 2.5 grams, each penny contains 2.44 grams of zinc. There is a pound of zinc in 186 pennies.

Price of zinc (if salvaged from zinc pennies) is $1.86 per pound.

The price of zinc is between $1.00 - $1.80 per pound for the past 12 months. It is currently not worthwhile to hoard zinc pennies.

Steel Pennies
In a recent hearing on Capital Hill, it was pointed out that it cost the US Mint 1.7 cents to make a penny, due to labor costs & overhead. The nickel is worse, costing nearly 9 cents at a metal price of 7 cents. The production of pennies and nickels resulted in a lost of about $100 million to taxpayers in 2007. Some lawmakers have proposed legislation to change the content of the US penny to a cheaper material: steel.

Commodity prices and economics will prevail. Steel core copper plated cents are coming to the US sooner or later. Our neighbor, Canada, has changed to steel coinage since the year 2000. A complete composition listing of Canadian coins is available at the Royal Canadian Mint (visit the section titled 'The Passion', and select the link titled 'Our Coins' which is located in the grey shaded area on the right hand side of the page).

A penny saved is 2 pennies earned. If you are considering hoarding pennies, you might want to visit the MegaPenny Site to make sure you have enough storage room.