Is It Legal To Melt Canadian Pennies?

its quite clear on the RCM website that defacing a canadian circulating coin is illegal, now that the penny is not circulating.

From the website of the Royal Canadian Mint:




Although the Canadian one cent coin is leaving circulation, it will continue to be legal tender.

Im pretty sure It is legal to melt them in the united states.

I know for sure one company is mining the canadian nickel here and melting it.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/200...ift_ban.html


3rd to last paragraph, references the nickel melting.

Personally I save them all, missing 5 canadian pennies from the 20's, have a 20$ face bag or so, 80% of it is pre 1980.

I'll bet you the RCM is melting them, as they are withdrawn.
So the Mint has the right to melt them but not the Canadian People, who, after all, own them?

I don't know if this is true in Canada but here in America no one "owns" any of the money... Any money in your possession no matter if it is collectable or not is property of the United States government... You are only the "bearer" of it... This goes the same for any bullion such as gold and silver. Hence the whole gold being seized by the government in the 1930's.

All money IS NOT property of the government.

This is somewhat puzzling to me:


When I was a kid living near the border, Niagara Falls was a frequent visiting spot. The gift shop (called Table Rock - or it was) used to sell bracelets strung with Canadian pennies. The pennies had a hole drilled through them (for a clasp that held them to the links in the bracelet) and were nickel plated so the whole thing looked silver.

Could it be that maybe Table Rock paid a US jewelry maker to do these for them? That way Table Rock was not technically breaking this stated law.

And yes, they wee legit pennies - not copies - I still have a couple somewhere (George VI and the early Queen Elizabeth II). Through the years I also found some of these defaced pennies in change.

@sel:
I'm pretty sure that we just rent the money. It's not really ours technically although we possess it.

US coins: I believe these belong to the US Treasury, not the FRS. I could be wrong.

Question with an example: Suppose I hoarded $1000 in pennies. They are removed from circulation and I have no intention to put them back. Now suppose that I physically melted these pennies (I don't know WHY people say melt all the time without meaning it). This lump of copper is now the same bunch of pennies that are not circulation. Tell me how anyone is supposed to enforce this crazy law. The coins really ought to spell it out right on it who actually owns the coin, because if the government says that you can't deface/melt/etc coins, then who really owns them? I might possess them but I don't own it. I mean, "Officer, they're not my pennies/drugs, I didn't make them or distribute them and I'm only "holding" them for my friend."

And yes, making jewellery out of Canadian coins in Canada is borderline legal. People do it and they don't get charged with anything. You're not supposed to do it but people do. The law isn't enforced regularly or with any conviction; it's totally arbitrary and the law can work for or against you depending if you are liked or not.