Expert: Neil S Berman - 7/12/2008

Question
Is it true that copper pennies prior to 1981 are worth more than a penny for the copper content? An amateur collector told me that due to the high price of copper, the ones prior to 1981 are all copper and are worth $.03 each to someone that will melt them down.

Bill

Answer
Yes and no. While they are currently worth .015 cents each, not 3 cents, it would be by the ton of coins, not one coin. And then you would need a licence to melt them, and only one company in the US has a licence, so even if you could get enough tons of them to make it worth melting, you would become a criminal when you did. Some people do collect them, expecting that one day it will become legal to melt them, and one day it will, if you can wait. They did legalize melting gold coins in 1933 and silver coins in 1968, so it is just a matter of time.