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 Replies: 24 / Views: 3,830 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
I would actually bet that if the copper LMC becomes legal to melt, we would see something akin to the passenger pigeon--mass meltings of hundreds of pounds at a time, and suddenly they're gone. The closest analogy we have are the old Chinese cash coins. At a fixed value of 1000 to a tael (40g or 1.3 oz) of silver, the face value would have been about 1.5-2 mills each by the US silver standard. 300 years later, I can get them for anywhere between 25 cents and $2. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3049 Posts |
Take $1000 worth of coppers and the most conservative guess as to how long it will take to gain a 100% profit... ie: they're now worth 2 cents each...
Take the same $1000 and same time line and how well would you do either in the market as an investment or buying just ONE coin...
This may help your "investment" strategy
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Pillar of the Community
United States
589 Posts |
Quote:
When (if) they make it legal to melt down pennies There is no law that says that the melting of cents or nickels is illegal. That the melting ITSELF if illegal. No, it is perfectly legal. The law only provides that if you melt with fraudulent intent, then it's illegal. So, go ahead and melt those cents! I'm saving mine to eventually melt down into a copper roof. However, I need a lot more (got about $10 thus far), and need to do more test melts before I'm ready for the big time melting of probably half a million or so cents. So long as I don't sell those copper shingles when I'm done, it's all good. In other words, in about a decade (when I'm hoping to do the melt), you all can thank me for taking tons of coppers out of the equation. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1192 Posts |
I don't expect to get rich. I enjoy CRH and it's essentially free. I only get boxes when I'm already out so I'm not wasting gas. I only dump my coins in coin star when I'm already going to the store. I get the no fee Amazon gift card which is essentially good as cash to me since I shop there a lot. I've just noticed I don't get too many coppers back in change and I'd imagine over the next 5-10 years it will become even more difficult to get them. Essentially I guess I am just hoarding but I enjoy it. I also get a good amount of CND and wheat pennies as well! I was just curious if the community ever thought they would gain numismatic value. Even if it becomes legal to melt them I will hold onto mine as many are AU condition and I enjoy collecting them. |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
LMC's have their analogy in ancient coins with LRB*'s:
* = Late Roman Bronze (coins).
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1132 Posts |
Quote:
There is no law that says that the melting of cents or nickels is illegal. Federal Register:Prohibition on exportation, melting or treatment of 5 cents & 1 cent coinsTitle 31, Subtitle B, Chapter 1, Part 82 "Except as specifically authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury (or designee) or as otherwise provided in this part, no person shall export, melt, or treat: (a) Any 5-cent coin of the United States; or (b) Any one-cent coin of the United States. §82.4 Penalties. (a) Any person who exports, melts, or treats 5-cent coins or one-cent coins of the United States in violation of §82.1 shall be subject to the penalties specified in 31 U.S.C. 5111(d), including a fine of not more than $10,000 and/or imprisonment of not more than 5 years. US Government Publishing OfficeEdited by CopperCastle
03/13/2015 02:24 am
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Moderator
 United States
188770 Posts |
CopperCastle beat me to it. Most definitely illegal, but so is speeding, etc.
It is being done. If made legal it will be done a lot more.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
589 Posts |
Quote:
(b) The prohibition contained in § 82.1 against the treatment of 5-cent coins and one-cent coins shall not apply to the treatment of these coins for educational, amusement, novelty, jewelry, and similar purposes as long as the volumes treated and the nature of the treatment makes it clear that such treatment is not intended as a means by which to profit solely from the value of the metal content of the coins. The melting itself is NOT illegal unless you intend to profit from the metal. Thus, I believe my statement is true, that the melting ITSELF is perfectly legal, the illegality comes when you try to profit from the metal. It's in conjunction with 18 U.S. Code § 331, "Whoever fraudulently ..." |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4901 Posts |
...which begs the question "Why would you melt a large quantity of coins NOT to make a profit?" Just bored? Crappy weather outside? Yes, if you are melting ONE or TWO then that's just weird but legal.
If you are melting more than a few cents then the resulting product will be worth very slightly more than the original...so...not legal
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1192 Posts |
Why is against the law to melt them down anyway? It's not like they are still making them out of copper anyway and a lot of people have switched to using credit cards. It's legal to melt down silver coins. I wish they would make it legal so people would melt them and mine would go up in value :)
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Moderator
United States
188770 Posts |
Quote:
Why is against the law to melt them down anyway? To prevent having to mint even more cents for circulation. Quote:
I wish they would make it legal so people would melt them and mine would go up in value Stop minting the cent for circulation and let nature do the rest. There would be no reason for a melt ban.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1192 Posts |
The purpose of the ban is to prevent a shortage of nickels and cents. Once the denominations are no long made the ban will be lifted.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2271 Posts |
People mistakingly believe all the modern cents are common as dirt in Gem condition. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is true that nice gemmy sets, MS-64+, could be very common and will remain so for some time but the fact is these sets are not being assembled. Collectors just don't care about cents so there are not many collections out there. The few collections that exist tend to be just run of the mill coins with very low grade coins.
A set of these in Gem is a nice challenge to put together but no one is doing it. In higher grades some of these will be next to impossible. Try finding a really nice '84-P, for instance.
Someday people will care about all the moderns and then they'll find the coins just aren't there.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1132 Posts |
Quote:
The melting itself is NOT illegal unless you intend to profit from the metal. You apparently missed the part in regards to the volume (which is odd, because you quoted it). Quote:
as long as the volumes treated... Which goes into further detail in regards to the "volumes treated" Quote:
(2) The volumes of the 5-cent coins and one-cent coins, relative to the volumes of the other materials recycled, makes it clear that the presence of such coins is merely incidental; and
(3) The separation of the 5-cent and one-cent coins from the other materials would be impracticable or cost prohibitive. So if your SOLEY melting coins it's clearly not "incidental" but intentional & the separation of those coins from other materials to be melted (there are no other materials) so not impractical or cost prohibitive to remove them from the other (non-existant) materials, thus clearly illegal. Edited by CopperCastle
03/13/2015 10:47 pm
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Valued Member
United States
306 Posts |
Quote:
A set of these in Gem is a nice challenge to put together but no one is doing it Umm...no one? Hmmf...more than you think.  http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/com....aspx?c=2939And then theirs just the regular cent nuts like myself. Shield cents are everywhere at 66 for less than the cost to slab (unless its bulk). |
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Replies: 24 / Views: 3,830 |
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First Page
Posted 03/12/2015 9:08 pm
