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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: energyplay who wrote (4017)	2/5/2006 11:01:46 PM
From: TobagoJack	Respond to of 217802

ep, you are a fountain of insight into issues i know nothing about but important to me never the less, as far as i am concerned :0) thank you, j

To: energyplay who wrote (4017)	2/6/2006 12:01:51 AM
From: Amark$p	Respond to of 217802

about zinc and pennies... or a penny saved is a penny earned... "Since a penny is .1 ounces in weight, we can compute the actual “market value” of a penny based solely on raw materials costs. Back in 2003, (based on 80 cents per pound copper and $800 per ton zinc) that value would be $.0026, or a little over a quarter of a cent. Amazingly, if we are to believe the $.0089 cost of production per penny that CNN cites in this 2003 article, that would mean that the manufacturing costs were 71 percent of the cost of producing a penny. Therefore, even when assuming manufacturing costs have perhaps been cut in half since 2003 (which seems doubtful), the cost of manufacturing a penny plus the raw materials costs based on today’s prices of zinc and copper would be calculated like so: $.0063 x 1/2 = $.00315 manufacturing cost $.0074 raw materials cost* *(raw materials calculation based on 1 oz penny made of: 2.5% x 2.25 per pound of copper and 97.5% x $2329 per ton of zinc) That gives us a total of $.01055. In other words, even given generous assumptions, at today’s metals prices, the cost of producing a penny is over 1 cent. Now, zinc is up roughly 96 percent since its low back in August 2005. Should it rally another 50 percent from today’s price, it would be $3493.5, making the “market value” of a penny (should it be melted down into its component parts and assuming a unchanged price of copper from today) exactly $.011. In other words, since zinc is the primary component of a penny, we’re quickly approaching a price of zinc that will make pennies “worth” more than their face value, but is it time to “cash them in” just yet? Not quite, but we’re getting very close (although keep in mind that it’s technically illegal to deface US currency). Keep an eye on the price of zinc… "