If you’re like most families in this country, chances are good that you have a lot of old pennies. However, you really want to make sure that you’re not throwing away your pennies too fast. It’s quite possible to have a lot of potential money tied up in those pennies. This is because things are changing where you might be able to sell your pennies for the copper that they contain. You just have to decide what you’re actually going to do to get the money out of them.

First and foremost, you might want to get a book or look online for the rarest pennies out there. Looking for pennies that are actually worth money can be like going on a treasure hunt. You might not find much that’s worth anything, but you really never know what you’re going to find until you start looking. Yet if you don’t figure out what’s actually worth money and what isn’t, you won’t be able to really get anywhere fast. It’s just something that you’re going to have to look around for yourself. Don’t think that you have to automatically do everything just because you’re looking at making good money. It’s better to take your time and figure out what your options are actually.

So, what about this business of copper? Well the laws have not changed quite yet, but pennies made prior to 1982 are made of 95% copper. That means that you need 151 of these pennies to make 1 pound of pure copper. You can actually make money by bringing your pennies to a scrap yard, where they will pay for the metal itself once it can be melted down.

You need to keep watching the news to figure out what you’re going to be able to make, but the truth is that there really is a chance to make good money by playing the copper game, but you have to play it smart. Look first for the Lincoln pennies that were minted prior to 1982 anyway — there are collectors that will pay for good pennies from this era. You just need to keep looking for the pennies and keeping track of them. As the laws change, you could be sitting on a lot more money than you realized!