[Blood of Tyrants]

There are 146 copper pennies to a pound. Copper is about $4.50 a pound. Therefore each copper penny is worth about 3 cents.

[RegulatorCountry]

I don’t believe they’re solid copper anymore.

[EternalVigilance]

There are 146 copper pennies to a pound. Copper is about $4.50 a pound. Therefore each copper penny is worth about 3 cents.

Except that they're now made almost entirely of zinc, I think.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to correct me if I'm wrong...

[blam]

"There are 146 copper pennies to a pound. Copper is about $4.50 a pound. Therefore each copper penny is worth about 3 cents."

True but only the pre-1982 pennies have copper. New pennies are zinc with a copper skin.

I've done three random evaluations in this area and have discovered that about 10% of the pennies in circulation are pre-1982.

[When do we get liberated?]

They are mostly made of zinc

[Jack Black]

There are 146 copper pennies to a pound. Copper is about $4.50 a pound. Therefore each copper penny is worth about 3 cents.

They haven't made pennies out of copper since about 1981. They are almost all zinc now.

[matthew fuller]

"There are 146 copper pennies to a pound. Copper is about $4.50 a pound. Therefore each copper penny is worth about 3 cents. "

So when is the last year that copper pennies were made?

[cherry]

legally, you can’t melt down coinage....how do you make money from pennies or nickles if you can never use them for their mineral content.

[ArrogantBustard]

There are 146 copper pennies to a pound. Copper is about $4.50 a pound. Therefore each copper penny is worth about 3 cents.

The vast majority of pennies in current circulation are made of zinc.

[Ancesthntr]

“There are 146 copper pennies to a pound. Copper is about $4.50 a pound. Therefore each copper penny is worth about 3 cents.”

As others have pointed out, the pennies that are worth this much as metal are those made before the changed composition that started in mid-1982. I don’t even bother with the 1982 pennies, as it isn’t worth it to sort them.

My experience is that somewhere around 14%-15% of all pennies are pre-1982. I have probably $100 worth, and counting. I’ll get $20 of pennies every couple of weeks to sort through. No, I won’t retire on that (nor on hoarding nickels), but every little bit helps. Someday we will go back to a system or real money, where the metal content of a “copper” is actually worth something, the way it used to be (of course, the “coppers” from before 1856 were considerably larger than since then - 5.44 grams of pure copper, vs. 3.11 grams of 95% copper in the pre-’82 Lincoln cents).

FYI, the best way to find the current melt value of current-circulation base-metal coins is to use the following site: http://www.coinflation.com/coins/basemetal_coin_calculator.html

For silver coins, go to http://www.coinflation.com/coins/silver_coin_calculator.html

[CPT Clay]

I’m doing this myself.

[metmom]

I’ve heard the pennies made before 1982 have more copper in them.

[Aevery_Freeman]

Only pre-1982 and some 1982's. That's when we started plating zinc slugs with copper.

It is one of my students favorite chemistry experiments.