smileyt wrote:I have a penny tin. I pick up money off the street and put that in there, as well as all my coppers. It's surprising how it mounts up. I long ago stopped being embarrassed about bending down to pick pennies up off the street, needs must, waste not want not and all that!
Keep your pre-1991 coppers as they are made of real copper and worth more than the face value of the coin. With copper increasing in value with inflation a bag full of real coppers might be worth more than you think.
After 1991 (or was it 1992) brass in copper coins was replaced with cheaper steel.
To find out which coins are real brass/copper you can do the magnet test (they aren't magnetic steel ones are) or the ring test (put one on the end of your finger and tap it with another one - a copper coin should give a nice ring sound, a steel coin a dead sounding metallic thud).
i tried this it works but also i found two 1998 2p's that are not magnectic are they pure?
axelt123 wrote:
i tried this it works but also i found two 1998 2p's that are not magnectic are they pure?
The coin was initially minted from bronze, but since 1992 it has been minted in copper-plated steel except for a few months in 1998 when bronze was used again.
Bladerunner wrote:What about the old pre-decimal pennies? Are they worth keeping and what are they made of?
Wifey has a load stashed away somewhere. Thanks
Be lucky
Even better the old pre-decimal Florins, Shillings, Sixpences, Threepences and Half crowns are made of 50% Silver if they were made before 1947.
Any made before 1920 are 92.5% silver (or sterling silver) hence the name of our currency - Sterling.
beefy0978 wrote:I hate to burst the bubble but isnt it illegal to melt the coins down???
Yeah but I doubt most people are planning to run off to the local scrap merchant any time soon. Let’s say a pre-92 2p is actually worth 3p, to make about £100 you’d need £300 worth, that’s 15,000 coins. Now if 20% of coins in circulation are pre-92’s that means you’d have to collect and sift through 75,000 2p's...
In years to come though it might be a very different story, at which point who knows what the legality will be.
beefy0978 wrote:I hate to burst the bubble but isnt it illegal to melt the coins down???
Yeah but I doubt most people are planning to run off to the local scrap merchant any time soon. Let’s say a pre-92 2p is actually worth 3p, to make about £100 you’d need £300 worth, that’s 15,000 coins. Now if 20% of coins in circulation are pre-92’s that means you’d have to collect and sift through 75,000 2p's...
In years to come though it might be a very different story, at which point who knows what the legality will be.
I guess old coins, rather than be melted down, will be used as money - i.e. just exchanged for goods. In their original form they are easily recognisable and exchangeable, where as a melted bar is more difficult identify as authentic.
