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Ardent Listener
Administrator
USA
4841 Posts |
 Posted - 07/13/2006 : 20:39:07
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How come most scrap yards aren't actively buying copper pennies now? It's not illegal to melt them in the U.S. One would think you would see ads in the newspaper that they are buying them with today's high copper prices. Scrap yards in my part of the state have been known to buy hot scrap, yet they don't seem to be pushing to get ahold of pennies. I have "heard" of some scrap yards that do buy them, but it's a big secret. Why is this?
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If you can conceive it, you can achieve it. -Napoleon Hill
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Edited by - Ardent Listener on 07/13/2006 20:40:01 |
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Tourney64
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1035 Posts |
 Posted - 07/13/2006 : 22:23:23
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I don't know, but I'd like to know what price they are giving..
No.2 Scrap Copper $2.69/lb or
Light Scrap Copper $2.29/lb
Here's the definitions:
No.2 Scrap Copper - Clean unalloyed copper solids. May include clean, oxidized or coated (plated) copper clippings, punchings, bus bars, commutator segments, clean oxidized copper pipe or tubing free of excessive solder and light gauge clean, oxidized or coated (plated) copper wire but free of fine gauge hair wire. Should be free of excessive oxidation, scale, ash or brittle burnt wire
Light Scrap Copper Shall consist of miscellaneous, unalloyed copper solids. May include sheet copper, gutters, downspouts, kettles, boilers, foil and unburned hair wire. May include any thin gauge, high surface area solid copper that has surface oxidation only. Minimum copper content of 88% remelt recovery rate.
This grade is equivalent to the ISRI code DREAM
You must be logged in to see this link.
Based on these descriptions, I'd say that the US pennies are the cheaper Light Scrap Copper $2.29/lb. |
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Ardent Listener
Administrator
USA
4841 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2006 : 06:10:48
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I found this on another site.You must be logged in to see this link.
I’m not a metallurgist but I have dealt in scrap metal: including coins. A decade and more ago we bought 36 tonnes (two entire truckloads) of nickel silver (which is actually doesn’t contain silver at all) coins in Russia. The huge inflation of the early 90s (thousands of percent a year) had made the meltable value hugely higher than the face value.
We didn’t make a huge profit, as above, most of that went to the people who did the collecting and sorting but it was worth trucking it all from the Urals into a European refinery.
Not all that important I know, I just like the fact that I did once buy two truckloads of coins.
Posted by: Tim Worstall at Apr 14, 2006 5:58:12 AM
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If you can conceive it, you can achieve it. -Napoleon Hill |
Edited by - Ardent Listener on 07/14/2006 06:12:26 |
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Frugi
Administrator
USA
627 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2006 : 20:15:11
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| Just about all scrapyards have idiots answer phones after all most in the scrap business dont have a high IQ they just do what it takes to make it in this world. A scrapyard is not a glorious career for most people. If you call enough yards you will find a place that will buy your cents. If you absolutely have to you could take a sample pack of 1 pound of copper cents to a local yard and give it to the man or woman in charge along with your phone number and tell them you have more and are interested in selling them at scrap (for fun you could throw a couple of wheat pennies in just to make it sure sale) |
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How come scrap yards aren't buying pennies?
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