“There are 146 copper pennies to a pound. Copper is about $4.50 a pound. Therefore each copper penny is worth about 3 cents.”
As others have pointed out, the pennies that are worth this much as metal are those made before the changed composition that started in mid-1982. I don’t even bother with the 1982 pennies, as it isn’t worth it to sort them.
My experience is that somewhere around 14%-15% of all pennies are pre-1982. I have probably $100 worth, and counting. I’ll get $20 of pennies every couple of weeks to sort through. No, I won’t retire on that (nor on hoarding nickels), but every little bit helps. Someday we will go back to a system or real money, where the metal content of a “copper” is actually worth something, the way it used to be (of course, the “coppers” from before 1856 were considerably larger than since then - 5.44 grams of pure copper, vs. 3.11 grams of 95% copper in the pre-’82 Lincoln cents).
FYI, the best way to find the current melt value of current-circulation base-metal coins is to use the following site: http://www.coinflation.com/coins/basemetal_coin_calculator.html
For silver coins, go to http://www.coinflation.com/coins/silver_coin_calculator.html
It’s a great way to have instant “down side protection”.
Heck it’s infinite down side protection; you can’t lose anything, but a little bit of your time, and some used up space in your closet or basement. You still have the face value to fall back on if everything stabilizes.