4/12/2006

Penny Pincher

The Daniel Gross blog had a post called "A Penny Saved. . . ." that was of particular interest to me. The post went on to comment about the recent high returns in the metals market, especially copper. I can attest to this because in my investments class, my group invested in a copper company, and recently just cashed in, earning ourselves a hefty 23% profit in less than a quarter! We were thrilled to say the least. The author of the post brought up the interesting idea that pennies may actually be worth more than a penny if the prices of copper keep booming. If that were to be true, I might actually have something going for me financially, but I'm not about to hold my breath over the possibility.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, a penny is worth almost 1.85 cents.

Pennies from before 1982 (95% copper) are worth about 1.85 cents in metal value. Pennies from after 1982 (97% zinc) are worth about 0.77 cents in metal value right now. And nickel is getting pretty close to parity, too.

Apply Gresham's Law, and it's only a matter of time before we see small change disappearing from circulation (the same way silver coinage disappeared in the mid-sixties). This year, next year, five years from now? Dunno when, but it will happen eventually. I suspect the mint is seriously considering switching to aluminum or copper-coated steel for some of the minor coinage at this point.

A good source for info on this is http://www.coinflation.com

Jer said...

I'm gathering up my savings and I'm going to buy some silver and copper. I think that one thing that is going to drive up the price of silver is the fact that Barkley's bank is planning on issuing a silver-backed ETF.

Dr. Tufte said...

It's nice to get a comment from the outside that pretty much sums up the things I would have said.

Dr. Tufte said...

Thanks for commenting. I signed!