How to Invest in Copper at a Steep Discount

You can invest in a commodity that has always served as money, with just a little cash and at a discount to the actual price of copper.

Investing in durable commodities like gold, silver and copper protects your purchasing power in inflationary times. With the US printing new money by the trillions this is a very real concern.

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Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Federal Reserve Notes (paper $$s)
• Good Sources of Copper
• Desire to invest

1. 
    
   A real cent

   Understand that US Pennies up to 1981 are 95% Copper/Cu and Canadian Pennies up to 1996 are 98% Copper/Cu. After these dates pennies have been made from copper coated zinc (US and Canada) and copper coated steel (Canada) in a process called debasing.

2. 
    
   68 lb box Copper Penny Bullion

   Find a good supplier set up to supply at the level you want to invest at. Some suppliers focus on 1 lb to 10 lb lots. Other suppliers focus on 68 lb flat rate USPS boxes. Some suppliers will sell you a ton (2000 lbs) or more at a time.

3. Decide if you want to hold the copper yourself or have it stored:
   
   If you are investing in a few to a few hundred lbs you should store it at home. 68 lbs fits in a USPS flat rate box that will slide under most beds.
   
   If you want to invest by the ton instead, consider having your copper stored in a secure location.

4. 
    
   1 ton of copper pennies at the Portland Mint

   Go shopping for your copper pennies. Sources include:
   a) e-Bay.com - Copper Bullion category.
   b) Copper Cave www.coppercave.com for smaller lots
   c) The Portland Mint www.portlandmint.com (larger lots)
   d) Realcent Forum http://realcent.forumco.com/ (various sellers and good place for education)

Tips & Warnings

• You could also sort coins and build your own stash
• check out www.coinflation.com for the current melt value of copper pennies
• Don't try to melt or export your US copper pennies - it's currently illegal.
• Don't let your kids or spouse spend your copper pennies - educate them about real money.

Resources

• The Copper Cave - small lots
• Portland Mint - large lots and secure storage
• Coinflation is a very useful resource
• Learn and network with others interested in copper pennies at Realcent forum
• Gold is Money Base Metal Forum
• Major Bullion Dealer Endorses Pennies as Bullion
• Good Youtube Video on the topic
• More Investing Articles by JadeDragon

[kjshannon]

on 2/8/2010 great job. this should be easy for most

[vickymom64]

on 1/13/2010 Excellent article! I save old coins.

[voldberg]

on 12/18/2009 Great article! Nice work. Thanks 5*.

[jaxicat]

on 12/5/2009 Thanks very much; I would like to do this. 5*

[jpwriter]

on 12/2/2009 Interesting. So with this source of copper you can actually just buy them for 1 cent instead of per pound for copper? I'd think that would be the advantage of seeing pennies for worth more than what they are if you have the right years. I'll have to look through my saved coins now!