I agree, though it was meant to be for newbies as mentioned already.  I also seem to recall certain members having other "metal" membership titles, although I'm not sure if they did that because they were staff and have the option to make custom titles where the Copper membership is displayed.  I can't remember who it was, but I seem to recall a gold or platinum member title.

I also remember Quickseller being one of the first higher-ranked members who'd bought a Copper membership and I'd always wondered why he did that since he obviously didn't need it at the time.  Maybe it was to support the forum like DireWolfM14 said he did it for, but it isn't as though the forum needs the funds from that.  Who knows. 

If there were something like gold or silver memberships that offered benefits to higher ranked members, I might be tempted, though I'd be hard-pressed to part with my precious bitcoin for a forum perk.