So I have been doing a long term experiment with money for about a year or two. I walk everyday at lunch and look for change and other things of value that people have lost. I find quit a bit of each, I like to call it Urban Treasure Hunting. So let me get to the experiment part, all of the pennies I pickup I sort out by date and all the pre 1982 pennies I roll and put on the shelf. Any thing that is 1983 or newer I put in a jar take to the bank and cash in.
So here is the idea behind it. The pre 1982 penny's are 95% copper and worth 2 cents in copper value. So if I melt them down I just dubble my money. On a side note it's illegal to destroy U.S. currency in the U.S. so I would never do that. But you can sell it to some one out side of the U.S. for it's copper value and what they do with it is there own business.
The other though on this subject is that the goverment is going to get rid of the penny all togather. Basically because it costs the government to much to make a penny. It costs the government about 3 cents to make a penny. If they stop making them it's no longer money, so you could melt it down legaly. Also if pepole start melting them down, those coins will become more rare so they will increase in value because there will be less of them in circulation. I'm also saving nickel's because there basically just a nickel coated copper slug and there worth about 6 cents each. I also live close to the Canadian border so I save there pennies and nickle's too.
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