Pennies, Nickels Worth More Melted Down

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Author	Replies: 9 / Views: 1,756
TheForce Pillar of the Community United States 4867 Posts	Posted 12/14/2006 2:36 pm WASHINGTON -- Given rising metal prices, the pennies and nickels in your pocket are worth more melted down than their face value. That has the government worried. U.S. Mint officials said Wednesday they were putting into place rules prohibiting the melting down of 1-cent and 5-cent coins. The rules also limit the number of coins that can be shipped out of the country. "We are taking this action because the nation needs its coinage for commerce. We don't want to see our pennies and nickels melted down so a few individuals can take advantage of the American taxpayer," Mint Director Edmund Moy said in a statement. Officials said they had received a number of inquiries from the public in recent months concerning the value of the metal in the coins and whether it was legal to melt them. The new regulations prohibit the melting of 1-cent and 5-cent coins, with a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 for people convicted of violating the rule. The rules also require that shipments of the coins out of the country be for legitimate coinage and numismatic purposes and cap the size of any one shipment to $100 worth of the coins. Because of the prevailing prices of copper, zinc and nickel, the cost of producing pennies and nickels exceeds the face value of the coins. A nickel is 25 percent nickel and 75 percent copper. The metal in one coin costs 6.99 cents for each 5-cent coin. When the Mint's cost of producing the coins is added, the total cost for each nickel is 8.34 cents. Modern pennies have 2.5 percent copper content with zinc making up the rest of the coin. The current copper and zinc in a penny are worth 1.12 cents. The cost of production drives the cost of each penny up to 1.73 cents. Pennies made before 1982, which are still in circulation, would be even more lucrative to melt down because they contain 95 percent copper and only 5 percent zinc. The metal value in those coins is 2.13 cents per coin, Mint officials said. The new regulations are being published in the Federal Register and will go into effect as interim rules which will not become final until the government has a chance to consider possible modifications based on public comments. http://www.theindychannel.com/money.../detail.html Report this Post to the Staff

RangerXLT8 Valued Member United States 208 Posts	Posted 12/14/2006 2:41 pm I don't know what to say. The falling value of the dollar, pennies worth more melted..... Report this Post to the Staff
jcook54 Pillar of the Community United States 533 Posts	Posted 12/14/2006 3:59 pm Couldn't a person just melt down their change and sell it as scrap? I know that I sell old copper pipes and wire that I get from my own job sites for scrap. Of course, as I understand it, this would be illegal, but do people actually do this? Just curious. Report this Post to the Staff
josie Valued Member Ireland 498 Posts	Posted 12/14/2006 5:13 pm There could be many reasons why the value is going up. Just my opinion,from all the other info in the web, There is shortage in mining for copper,the demand for metal from growing economy from china and india,also for the new coin to be used in circulation world wide. Seen several article in coinlink about PHIL. one peso we used today,being smuggled by other nationality to other asia countries. We Filipino have a history about this kind of event,When some national try to smuggle the 1906 PHIL-AM silver coin there was a supreme court decision under US administration as far as I can remember they are convicted.Hope others that will do the same thing may think twice or not at all or not they made have the same faith with other economic sabotore especially to a nation like PHIL. And to other readers base on the PHIL. may this thread be a guide to be vigilant to others that have a bad intentions to our coin and may affect our economy. If the other small denomination and metal used have gone up this will be aligned to other tread about the value of silver and the value of USA dollar again. If that so why the silver didnt moved dramaticaly as compared to other base metal and smaller denomination, Is this thread going to the issue of value of silver against value of USA dollar again for it is evident not only on USA but worldwide the value of other base metal used in smaller denomination already gone up. Or it is just the other base metal, but it does not affect the silver? Or the value of silver be manipulated or controled for its value may affect the USA dollar and the rest of the world will follow? Just asking. Report this Post to the Staff
crystalk64 Pillar Of The Community 3147 Posts	Posted 12/14/2006 6:27 pm If the information I have received is true the United States has banned the melting of cents and nickels effective TODAY. Also no more than $100 of change can be sent out of country for anything other than normal business or numismatics endeavors. And, as always the penalties for a FEDERAL CRIME are rather stiff with a minimum of $10,000 and I imagine they are just waiting for someone to help set the first example! Get caught MELTING a cent or nickel and its off to jail you go!!! Report this Post to the Staff
amac44 Member United States 3242 Posts	Posted 12/15/2006 09:25 am They will find some fool and burn him with 10-15 year jail term watch a see!!! Report this Post to the Staff
OldDan Pillar of the Community United States 1203 Posts	Posted 12/15/2006 10:54 am The whole monatery system is in a jam right now with a federal Judge telling them that they MUST do something to their paper notes so the disabled can tell a dollar bill from a five etc. The associated cost of doing this MAY cause them to do away with the dollar bill and make the banks start accepting metal dollars in their place. if this happens then they will experience additional costs and time to produce what is needed. Stop and think..the cent and/or nickel sure isn't all that important anymore. Now is it? So if they insist on this new bill to deter destuction of said coins is enforced, they might just be thinking of not producing/or reduce the production of these same coins. Well, it's just an oppinion. Report this Post to the Staff
Metalman Pillar of the Community United States 7123 Posts	Posted 12/15/2006 11:22 am This law only covers Joe Public !! It does not prohibit the Mint or the Fed from pulling the copper cents or the Nickels from circulation. As always the smell of money makes the heads of our Government spin and the laws fly to prevent the consumer taking advantage of themselves LOL. Rick Report this Post to the Staff
toast Pillar of the Community Australia 1091 Posts	Posted 12/15/2006 6:09 pm quote: Originally posted by nds76 The rules also require that shipments of the coins out of the country be for legitimate coinage and numismatic purposes and cap the size of any one shipment to $100 worth of the coins. So it is legal to send coins out of the USA for numismatic purposes, this is contrary to what some post office personel have been telling people. I take it that the $100 limit is $100 face value of the coins. Report this Post to the Staff
just carl Bedrock of the Community United States 20753 Posts	Posted 12/15/2006 7:12 pm As with any story so much logic is left out. For example how would any government know if you melted down coins and ended up with a blob of metal. Are there coin police watching everyone's houses? Why ship coins over seas? Just melt down a thousand pounds of coins and ship that as if it were steel to China. Everyone else is sending steel to China. How would the government know that that blob of metal wa ever a coin. Anyone can go to a bank and buy bags of cents and do what ever they want with them and unless the bank has coin police watching you, who knows what you do with the stuff. However, think about this. You get in your car, drive to a bank, buy bags and bags of cents, nickels, dimes, etc. Now you go out and buy a blast furnace capable of achieving a few thousand degrees, smelting pots that can withstand the heat, forms to put the melted metal in, separators to acquire the different metals, special fire proof clothing. Now you figure out how much it cost you for the equipment, gas for you car, fuel for the blast furnace, a place to do the work. Now you figure out where your going to sell the melted material and find you must deliver it there and more gas for your car. Your time is worth money so figure at least $10/hour for doing this work. Your profit would be about minus one million dollars. The amount of coins to make things worth while would require an existing smelting company and they probably wouldn't mess with anything less than hundreds of pounds. I'm sure it is being done in places but I wouldn't think about it if you are an average person. Report this Post to the Staff
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