How Many Of You Melt Your Silver?

As Clint Eastwood said in the Gautlet (1977). Any lawyers here?

Shockley : "Now the next turkey who tries that, I'm gonna shoot 'em, stuff 'em and stick an apple in his ass, any takers? You? You? You? You?"

Biker : "Hey man, you can't do this without a warrant!"

Shockley : "Man says I need a warrant, huh? Well the man don't know jack sh*t! Now anybody here know more about the law here than me? Any lawyers here? Any lawyers wanna tell me why I don't need a warrant?"

Biker : "Hey man, why don't you get off our case."

Shockley : "You with the f*ckin' hair. You look smart. Why don't you tell me why I'm entitled to come in here any time I please."

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From WikiLaw3k.org. Here is the law.

"Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States. This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent"

It could not be any clearer, you can do anything you want to do with your coins as long as you are not trying to commit fraud with your altered coins.

This applies to all US coins... but things get a little cloudy...

...As of April of 2007 the US Mint Under new rules, made it "illegal to melt pennies and nickels" according to one major news outlet.

Now the interesting thing is the use of the word "rule" instead of "law".

The mint cannot pass laws. Only Congress can pass laws but what do the major news organizations care what the constitution says?

I've tried to find out if the "rule" governing the melting of pennies and nickels has actual become law , My research suggests it has not. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

At any rate, the current actual law makes it clear that melting or defacing your US coins (any and all coins including pennies and nickels) is not illegal and since, in this case, the passing of a new law would contradict a current law and changing the old law is extremely unlikely to happen. I would suggest the mint is all bark and no bite.

Conclusion: As long as you are not trying to commit fraud, you can do whatever you like to with your coins.
As far as the new "rules" regarding pennies and nickels, the mint, with the help of the un-American press, can claim and say anything they like but you can't be prosecuted for a law that does not exist.

http://www.wikilaw3k.org/forum1/Law...l-606181.htm

The Danester

No doubt that whole thing was started by undertakers who wanted something more valuable that lead to recover from dead bodies.

Thanks Fredd,I knew that one was the key but couldn't track it down. By the way Ed_B,I believe silver bullets are for werewolves,wooden stakes to the heart are for vampires. I could be wrong but I remember Lon Chaney being beaten with a silver=tipped cane resulting in his demise as a werewolf. We need to be careful with info accuracy,you wouldn't want to send some CCF member out in this dangerous world with the wrong tools for killing mythical monsters would you? Think of the liability attached to that!

Not to worry, Hock. They had it wrong back then. The beauty and purity of essence of silver will definitely be quite toxic to any Creature of Darkness. Whether they be werewolves, vampires, demons, etc., all will fall before the silver bullets of my mighty .41 magnum!

Ed_B,your 41 magnum reference got me to thinking about a metaphorical silver bullet(the public owning and trading in silver)being the death knell to the corrupt currency system we now have.Silver will be the"honest money"that kills all the corrupt demons and creatures in our monetary system. Interestingly,they are finding one of the qualities silver has is it fights infection,maybe that applies both literally and figuratively!

Once you figure how to unmelt your coins, go ahead and melt them. Nothing gained by eliminating one potential group of buyers.

I do.

I buy sterling flatware at melt, melt it down. With each substantial melt, I'll throw in a .999 ingot of some sort, whether it be a beat up eagle, an engelhardt, etc. That way I know I'm staying above .925 and not lying when I stamp my work.

As for coinage, not worth it...unless again, I'm buying it at melt for the purpose of reprocessing....but for the time being, I have no problem coming up with enough flatware or other .925 trinkets to keep myself busy.