Comments on: The definitive guide to penny floor costs https://pennyportrait.com/2017/12/10/the-definitive-guide-to-penny-floor-costs/ Create a portrait of Abe Lincoln from your own pennies! Tue, 20 Jan 2026 02:47:43 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: maurymccoy https://pennyportrait.com/2017/12/10/the-definitive-guide-to-penny-floor-costs/#comment-463 Mon, 11 Feb 2019 15:07:26 +0000 https://pennyportrait.com/?p=561#comment-463 In reply to Mavin Johnson.

maurymccoy on February 11, 2019 at 3:07 pm (Edit)
Absolutely correct. If you wanted the heavier pre-1982 cents there’s a bit of work involved, but honestly if you sealed the pennies there is probably very little difference visually. (Also, if you’re making any kind of pattern, chances are the shinier pennies will be post 1982.)

That said, I’ve run into groups of folks commonly called “penny hoarders” who have rooms full of “true” copper pennies waiting to arbitrage the price of that metal some day.. Folks quite literally have Scrooge McDuck bags of pennies in spare rooms filled with pennies.

Someone even markets a penny sorter to do the hard work of picking those pennies out. Check it out.

https://youtu.be/Xu0SWe_VUlQ?t=66

]]> By: Mavin Johnson https://pennyportrait.com/2017/12/10/the-definitive-guide-to-penny-floor-costs/#comment-461 Mon, 11 Feb 2019 04:37:53 +0000 https://pennyportrait.com/?p=561#comment-461 “the U.S. Mint has subsidized your metal floor purchase on a 1 to 1 basis.”

Of course, this is only true with pre-1982 coins. Pennies produced since that date are only 2.5% copper. The majority is zinc. So, the amount of work you’d have to invest into sorting your pennies to find predominantly copper ones effectively negates any “subsidy” value and inflates the overall cost of the project.

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