Hoarding Copper Cents, Question

Actually, I was just thinking of the same thing, and I was going to ask this question on here last night but I didn't. Even though I think they are illegal, I still hoard them and I don't know why.

I am a hoarder ,i have about twelve boxes and counting. I am saving them for several reasons; I am hoping the value of copper will go up (way up); I am wondering if the copper LMC will have a value similar to the LWC do now; and since I roll search for errors and varieties any way, why not keep the coppers?
John1

You are free to melt all the 90% silver(and 40% and 35% for that matter) coins you want, there is no prohibition on that- just modern circulating cents and nickels. The face value of clad coinage exceeds metal content value by a significant margin so you would lose money melting them

Does the nickel melt ban include the silver ones?

No you are not mistaken, but back in 1964 til 1972 while the silver coins were still in circulation it was illegal to melt down the silver coins as well. That law was passed to try and keep them in circulation. (For one reason because the Fed had machin for separating out the clad from the silver so the government could recover the silver. The longer they could keep them circulating the more silver the government could reclaim.) Naturally it didn't work, people hoarded the coins and after the melting law was rescinded the coins over the years have been going to the smelters at a nice profit to the hoarders.

Today the cent is in the same boat. When copper went to four dollars a pound it was reaching the economic break point at which it would be worthwhile to "mine" the circulating coinage for copper. (Nickel at $20 a pound had already passed that point.) Even zinc was at the "bullion" value point. The mint faced the possibility of BILLIONS of coins suddenly disappearing and having to be replaced quickly. But the mint was already operating near capacity. and every replacement coin not only being made at a loss, but also disappearing into the same black hole.

So the law forbidding the melting was passed, and research began into replacement materials for both the cent and the five cent. The law didn't stop the hoarding but it did slow it down since people didn't see the possibility of a quick buck with no smelters buying. This bought the Mint some time. Then the economy started turning down and the metal prices dropped. If they had continued going up I'm sure we would have had new copper plated steel cents and steel five cent pieces, and the Fed would have had machines sorting out the copper cents and the nickel five cents just like they did the silver in the 60's. Then once the number in circulation made it no longer feasible for the Fed to recover them, the no-melt law would have changed because it would no longer be needed to protect the circulating coinage. Just like back in 72 with the silver.

But some people believe that it is only a matter of time before the metal prices go back up. So they are building their stockpiles while they don't have to compete with the Fed, and waiting for that day in the future when the no-melt law disappears.





Actually the law DOES include banning the melting of the War Nickels. Why? Because rather than trying to specify date ranges or compositions so as to only target the copper cents an the coppernickel five cents, they simply wrote the law in an all-encompassing manner and banned the melting of the one cent and five cent pieces. That also protects the copper plated zincolns as well, but it does mean that the silver War Nickels are also illegal to melt now.