Looked through your loose change recently ?

[phylo_roadking]

Copper IS horrendously expensive nowadays, and a lot of U.S. small-denomination coinage is disappearing out of circulation for that reason...!

[geoff501]

[quote=Smudger Jnr;208010]

Originally Posted by geoff501

Are they steel? I was always under the impression the alloy was copper/ nickel.

They used to be. A quick check on some change, have found a 1996 two pence coin that likes my magnet. I think the old German Marks were steel also?
Metal prices in the recent past saw copper water pipes in house building replaced with stainless steel and copper telephone wiring with aluminium (which I understand is bad for broadband)

[Za Rodinu]

Originally Posted by phylo_roadking

For other members - about twelve years ago, a local bank here was bought over by foreign owners, and they decided to revamp the bank's notes...in particular the £5 note, for they were too easily damaged and too expensive to keep replacing. So they produced a batch of 25,000 PLASTIC five-pound notes from a foreign "manufacturer" that were to be indestructible.

I thought only central banks could issue new money but different customs...

[China Hand]

Originally Posted by geoff501

I have a couple of bags of 1p and 2P which I believe have a scrap value greater than the face value (new coins are copper coated steel)....

When I was disposing of my father's very modest coin collection a couple of years ago, the Edinburgh dealer was interested to hear I was then living in China. "We are getting a lot of interest from Chinese customers at the moment", he says. "Collectors, you mean ?", I said, thinking of newly rich Chinese maybe wanting to start such a hobby. "No", says he, "scrap dealers, 'cos the copper price is so high..."