Penny And Nickel Melting Ban

Absolutely stupid. Cents make a one way trip from mint to drawer, so who cares if they're melted? They'd only melt the ones that have been out of circulation for over a quarter century, so it won't affect commerce.

The need to do some sort of 2009 cent commemorative, then quit making them. Ditto nickels. They have the same value that Half Cents had when they quit making them.

Not sure if this is your intent, but if you are wanting to profit from hunting copper, there are plenty of people willing to buy bulk copper cents for more than face value. Let the buyer worry about the legality of "recycling" the metal!

There is such a ban? I don't think the metal recyclers around here no that. Jewelers also do their share of melting just about anything meltable. I've learned to keep my mouth shut lately so no one sees my Silver Fillings in my teeth. Coins, wires, piping and anything else just vanishes in those metal recycler places here.

Just Carl,

I agree, the ban is ridiculous. I personally don't melt coins, but that's up to the person who owns them. I think that since they're a person's own possession, the government has no right to tell them what they can and can't do with it.

There is indeed such a ban. As often happens, it was passed by no-nothing legislators who felt the need to "do something".

Only pre-Zincolns are worth melting, at about 2¢ each. These would have to be pulled out of mixed coins, and the only ways are to weigh them or read the dates. It's not like pulling wheat cents where half of them show a completely different design.

Go thru a handful of cents. It's rare that you'll find one before 2000, much less 1983. So even if lots of people went thru lots of cents to pull out copper, it would have very little effect on the amount available for circulation. Heck, it might even bring some back out of piggy banks.

So unless someone steals a bunch of cents and they trace them to a melter, the odds of the police wasting their time chasing down people breaking this law are between slim and none.

It's disappointing when people care more about the metallic value than they do about the coin itself. :(

Only a portion of those coins survive in circulation. Besides, I am not thinking of the immediate value, but what the value may be (and not just monetarily) in a hundred years when the population will be more than double what it is today.

No offense meant, but you must be new to collecting. I can remember when Barber dimes, all over 50 years old, had a collector value of 15¢, and Barber quarters were 35¢. The population was 2/3 of today, and mintages were 3-10 million.

If it wasn't for their scrap value, those coins would be at most 50¢-$1 today.

How about "popular" silver dollars? After 80 years, brand new bags of 1885P dollars (18 million made) were selling for $3000, and most of that was silver content. You could go to any show and pick out proof-likes for under $5. Keep in mind that this was AFTER millions of them were melted.



If it wasn't for the melting pot and metals prices, we'd still be using Barber coins for change. And new cents are made in quantities from 100-1000 times that many.

I currently am offering some halves for melt price. I don't see anyone jumping to buy them. So I guess I'll have to upset some collectors when they eventually make their way to the refinery.