Copper now at 25 cents per ounce.

[ZenOps]

Spot price finally broke $4 US per pound. Its been playing with this ceiling for a while now.

So - Is it time to start creating copper quarters? Something of tangible size other than the near knife thin dimes? Maybe something like the old 1920 penny.

Or should we wait to make copper loonies?

Sad that copper used to be used for pennies just a few decades ago, and now its viable as a quarter. $9 trillion in US bailouts does not come without cost..

[Moonlight Graham]

Spot price finally broke $4 US per pound. Its been playing with this ceiling for a while now.

So - Is it time to start creating copper quarters? Something of tangible size other than the near knife thin dimes? Maybe something like the old 1920 penny.

Or should we wait to make copper loonies?

Sad that copper used to be used for pennies just a few decades ago, and now its viable as a quarter. $9 trillion in US bailouts does not come without cost..

wait, is the price really cheap now? Or is it skyrocketing like gold?

I sold a truckload of copper wire a few years ago, interested in knowing.

[maple_leafs182]

at $16.50 an ounce I was telling people on this forum to buy silver, I'm sure nobody did. You didn't miss out yet, it will still go up.

Like you said, $9 trillion in US bailouts does not come without cost..

[bush_cheney2004]

at $16.50 an ounce I was telling people on this forum to buy silver, I'm sure nobody did. You didn't miss out yet, it will still go up.

Nope...I laughed instead and told you about the Hunt Brothers.

[ZenOps]

Silver. 16:1 to gold usually right? Still seems like a massive bargain even now.

I heard that JP Morgan has a lot of paper silver right now on shorts. Anyone want to bankrupt the bank?

[charter.rights]

Mark my word. Copper is a poor investment. It is being artificially inflated in order to gain suckers to invest and the huge reserves of copper will be released all at once to sink the copper market. Mark my word.

[Bonam]

Meh, at $4 US/lb, hardly has enough value density to want to keep around physically. Anyway, if you want to hold metals for their value, buy something that is useful not only as a stereotypical store of wealth and for well-developed industries, but something that will be used increasingly in products that are about to begin an exponential growth phase. Rubidium, Palladium, Platinum, Germanium, etc.

[Pliny]

Meh, at $4 US/lb, hardly has enough value density to want to keep around physically. Anyway, if you want to hold metals for their value, buy something that is useful not only as a stereotypical store of wealth and for well-developed industries, but something that will be used increasingly in products that are about to begin an exponential growth phase. Rubidium, Palladium, Platinum, Germanium, etc.

Perhaps good advice. Maybe too good to be true!

I am happy with a hundred per cent on my investment in two years on silver. Don't go cashing in your RRSP

on my advice.

Copper is a very useful commodity could it ever be considered "money"? It is too valuable to make pennies with these days - they could become dollars, don't you think?

[Pliny]

Mark my word. Copper is a poor investment. It is being artificially inflated in order to gain suckers to invest and the huge reserves of copper will be released all at once to sink the copper market. Mark my word.

I'm marking it.

[Pliny]

Nope...I laughed instead and told you about the Hunt Brothers.

Are you sorry?

[Pliny]

wait, is the price really cheap now? Or is it skyrocketing like gold?

I sold a truckload of copper wire a few years ago, interested in knowing.

The price is up right now and I don't see it going down. As a commodity it is very useful and when building or construction is occurring, it will be in great demand. That is why our pennies are made of mostly zinc today.

A year ago it was $3 and something now it is $4 and something.

It could be inflation though!

[Pliny]

at $16.50 an ounce I was telling people on this forum to buy silver, I'm sure nobody did. You didn't miss out yet, it will still go up.

Like you said, $9 trillion in US bailouts does not come without cost..

I bought as much as I could at $14/oz. Inflation, that is, a policy of "quantitative easing" will only contribute to it's rise.

[charter.rights]

The price is up right now and I don't see it going down. As a commodity it is very useful and when building or construction is occurring, it will be in great demand. That is why our pennies are made of mostly zinc today.

A year ago it was $3 and something now it is $4 and something.

It could be inflation though!

Nope. Hoarding.

[blueblood]

Mark my word. Copper is a poor investment. It is being artificially inflated in order to gain suckers to invest and the huge reserves of copper will be released all at once to sink the copper market. Mark my word.

Bullish on the US dollar and equities are we?

It's not artificially inflated, its an avenue for North American investors to cash in on emerging market growth. I don't see China, India, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil et. al slowing down any time soon.

Who is going to magically release these "huge reserves" of copper? China? They tried releasing their corn stocks and corn is still over 5 dollars.

Is it the same corporations that Canada owes boatloads of money to?

[dpwozney]

Spot price finally broke $4 US per pound. Its been playing with this ceiling for a while now.

So - Is it time to start creating copper quarters? Something of tangible size other than the near knife thin dimes? Maybe something like the old 1920 penny.

Or should we wait to make copper loonies?

Why would you want coins to contain copper instead of nickel which is at least 2½ times more valuable than copper? Pure nickel as a monetary standard also has the advantage of not corroding like copper.

[dpwozney]

... That is why our pennies are made of mostly zinc today. ...

Canadian pennies are made of mostly steel these days.

[Pliny]

Nope. Hoarding.

Code for "greed", right?

Hoarding isn't a problem.

[Pliny]

Canadian pennies are made of mostly steel these days.

Ahh..yes. I stand corrected. Only from 1997-9 were they 98.4% zinc. Today, as you say, they are 94% steel 1.5% nickel and 4.5% copper plated zinc.

The American penny has been 97.5% zinc from 1982 to present.

Thanks!

Edited December 15, 2010 by Pliny

[ZenOps]

There were actually quite a few zinc pennies made all the way to 2006. Some steel some zinc during the transition years.

[ZenOps]

Why would you want coins to contain copper instead of nickel which is at least 2½ times more valuable than copper? Pure nickel as a monetary standard also has the advantage of not corroding like copper.

Because a nickel is five cents, not quite double the size of a penny, and usually has only 25% nickel and 75% copper anyways.

Copper has more practical uses with anything to do with electricity, heat dissipation, or plumbing. Nickel is more or less used when you need things to be inert.

[dpwozney]

Because a nickel is five cents, not quite double the size of a penny, and usually has only 25% nickel and 75% copper anyways.

I was referring to pure nickel when I referred to “nickel which is at least 2½ times more valuable than copper”. Canadian nickels minted from 1955 through 1981 are composed of pure nickel.

The January 5th intrinsic metal value of a Canadian nickel minted from 1955 through 1981 is US$0.1119603, according to Coinflation.com.

The January 5th intrinsic metal value of a Canadian penny minted from 1942 through 1977 (composed of 98% copper, 0.5% tin, 1.5% zinc) is US$0.0308665, according to Coinflation.com.

Why would a value of about 3 cents, instead of about 11 cents, be a better minimum unit of value for the lowest value coin in a money system? What financial transactions need to be resolved to a value of less than about 11 cents for the overall transaction cost?

Edited January 6, 2011 by dpwozney

[dpwozney]

Spot price finally broke $4 US per pound. Its been playing with this ceiling for a while now.

So - Is it time to start creating copper quarters? Something of tangible size other than the near knife thin dimes? Maybe something like the old 1920 penny.

Or should we wait to make copper loonies?

Why would you want coins to contain copper instead of pure nickel which is at least 2½ times more valuable than copper?

[ZenOps]

I was referring to pure nickel when I referred to nickel which is at least 2½ times more valuable than copper. Canadian nickels minted from 1955 through 1981 are composed of pure nickel.

The January 5th intrinsic metal value of a Canadian nickel minted from 1955 through 1981 is US$0.1119603, according to Coinflation.com.

The January 5th intrinsic metal value of a Canadian penny minted from 1942 through 1977 (composed of 98% copper, 0.5% tin, 1.5% zinc) is US$0.0308665, according to Coinflation.com.

Why would a value of about 3 cents, instead of about 11 cents, be a better minimum unit of value for the lowest value coin in a money system? What financial transactions need to be resolved to a value of less than about 11 cents for the overall transaction cost?

Have you tried to get a pure nickel nickel lately? Out of 1000 pennies, about 200 will be steel nowadays. The majority zinc, and not that many copper. And thats 1996.

I haven't seen a pure nickel nickel in circulation in ages. You would be lucky in a $2 roll to not have all steel.

All US nickels to this date are 75/25.

Edited January 6, 2011 by ZenOps

[Topaz]

One of the Windsor Chrysler workers, decided to make extra money by stealing 5800 pounds over 9 months of copper welding tips. Hey, he finally got caught and is in jail. It doesn't say it in this report but I read another report that said he made about 85,000. http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/01/07/windsor-chrysler-worker-busted-for-allegedly-stealing-copper-welding-parts/

[ZenOps]

Stealing copper and hoarding pennies is something completely different.

Canada made it illegal to melt silver coinage in 1973. The US made it illegal to melt pennies and nickels on Dec 14 2006. Its also illegal to export more than $100 worth.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/2006-12-14-melting-ban-usat_x.htm

I'm not sure about Canada, but I believe that nickel, copper, and zinc are still fair game (it was only silver coinage that was specified way back when) - if you remove them from the country that is, it is always illegal to melt locally.

Unless they abolish the penny as a currency - then you can do whatever you want with it.

Note: There are quite a few non-steel 2010 pennies. Many speculate that we went back to Zinc because it became cheaper than pressed steel for a short period of time. Zinc is cheap to stamp into coins, Steel although a much cheaper metal - requires much more (expensive) energy to produce.

Steel is really just Iron - of which the entire earth is a gigantic iron ball.

Edited January 8, 2011 by ZenOps