Trump Penny-Killing Plan Stirs Hope of Profit, 20 Tons at a Time

Adam Youngs is looking to make a lot from truckloads of the little red cent.

His company, Portland Mint, sells old pennies in bulk — 40,000 pounds (18,100 kilograms) at a time — to investors angling to profit on the copper that makes up 95% of the coins minted before 1983. A cache of one-cent pieces from Portland Mint with a face value of roughly $60,000 sells for about $120,000.

Adam Youngs

Source: Portland Mint

The wager is that those older pennies contain copper that would be worth about $180,000 at current prices. One snag: It’s illegal to melt a mass of Lincoln cents ...