Don't go melting your coins!

Now here is my question whats the point of hoarding 1982 and earlier pennies, if you can't melt them, or sell them to be melted?!

 

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Just don't tell anyone you melted them.....

 

good question..hang on to them till numismatic value goes up I guess.

 

I'm saving them in hopes that alot of other people WILL melt them. THen I shall take over the world. muahhahahahahahaha

 

Dr. Evil....:smile

 

haha thanks, Yeah I don't have the capability to melt them lol but still I was planning on holding onto them (right now I have 4900, have been going through $25 boxes)...hopefully it'l change

 

"The nation needs its coinage for commerce," U.S. Mint director Ed Moy said in a statement. "We don't want to see our pennies and nickels melted down so a few individuals can take advantage of the American taxpayer. Replacing these coins would be an enormous cost to taxpayers."

If they need these coins so bad, why can't you find a Log Cabin Lincoln in circulation?

 

I think people just do it because they think the value might sky rocket some day.
Just because they can't be melted doesn't mean they don't have melt value.

 

Remember a lot of memorial cents if not all have higher mintages than wheats, and common wheats sell for cheap if they are in average condition.
I think we might all be dead before these really sky rocket in value.

 

Not only will we all be dead, but our children's children's children might be dead before these become valuable!

The mint is suspicious though. You can tell they don't want people owning gold either. They cut out the fractional pieces now, and they did it to prevent people from buying gold as easily. So now they just have the one ounce coins, which aren't exactly cheap. What's next, it's illegal to have gold again? After we buy all this gold from them, they'll want to confiscate it back.

I guess I can see why they don't want people melting the circulating coins, but they make too many pennies as it is. I don't think melting these copper pennies would do that much harm would it? Not that I would melt them, I like to keep all the pennies I find and put them into a box. No sense giving these coins to a coin star.

 

I save them because I save all my cents. I've got a ga-zillion of them.

 

5000 count ($50) copper pennies did sell around $100 dollars last year, the price has gone down but still slightly profitable. I have kept every copper cent when roll searching and I hope to sell and make some $ if the price of copper goes back up!
Heres a link

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110413569249&ru=http
still $13.00 profit isn't too bad

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we see the same regulations passed for silver coinage when the silver content first began to become more valuable than the face value... and then at some point the law either changed, or folks just began to melt these at the reg's were simply never inforced ?
.... so is melting old silver quarters illegal ?... what about gold coins ?.... or is this regulation specific only to copper cents ?

 

melting

does anyone have a clue on whats been melted already in silver coinage ???? This is second time in my life where silver approached $20.00 per ounce. I believe a couple brothers tried to monopolize the market 20 30 years ago and now this market.. I got to believe 25% of silver coins were melted JMHO Even with ebay numbers of silver for sale .. if we do the math say 15000 ebay silver listings and they are all rolls of halves this only gives us about 300,000 coins just a stray thought ..what say you? (sorry about that)

the goose

 

Good point and I'll take it a step further. Why are we even minting coins this year?
I have yet to receive ANY 2009 dated coin in change this year yet I always get my change.

Easy way to save billions - shut down circulation coinage for a year. Hey, if houses aren't selling a builder stops building them. What's the difference?

 

Interesting. The US Mint director doesn't want people to profit from coins worth more than melt value, but has no problem issuing coins worth less than melt value.

Also, people sometimes forget that coinage is one of the best and highest uses for metal as a way to preserve purchasing power. The coins may eventually have a value above face value even if they aren't melted if inflation really kicks in, similar to junk silver.

 

Must be a slow news day, that regulation was adopted about a year ago, and reported on moderately at the time. Why are they dredgingit up again, especially since metal prices are much lower now than they were then?

That last line is going to confuse a lot of people and cause coin dealers a lot of grief. You and I know they are talking about the silver war nickels, but the average citizen is going to read that and jump to the conclusion that ALL five cent pieces are worth 77 cents each.

How about another "clarification" in the fourth paragragh. "The prices quoted here are quite old. At todays prices, copper is not over $9,000 a ton, it's under $5,000"

In the mid 1960's silver rose to the point that the coins in circulation were worth a cent or two above face value and people began hoarding them causing coin shortages and eventually the introduction of the clad coins. In order to try and keep the silver coins in circulation the government passed a law making illegal to melt down the silver coins. The people continued to hoard the silver and by the early 70's there was almost no silver in circulation at all. Since melting the coins would no longer result in coin shortages, since they were not circulating anyway, the law against melting was repealed. By the mid 70's silver had risen to the point that the coins were worth two to three times face value and melting has taken place ever since. (Another reason the government passed the no melt law to keep the silver in circulation was because THEY were actively withdrawing the silver coins from circulation and melting them down. The longer they could keep them circulating the more of them they could get. The no melt law was repealed after the amount of silver coins they were recovering fell to the point where it wasn't worthwhile for them to continue the recovery process.)

Now with the copper cents and five cent pieces, when the regulation was put in place those coins were already worth two to three times their face value. And widespread melting of the coins for their metal would have resulted in a crippling coin shortage.

Eventually the zinc cents will replace the copper ones to a large enough extent that they could be exempted from the regulation. (Currently they still make up 1/4th to 1/3rd of the cents in circulation.) but the five cent piece is a problem. Even at todays metal prices it's intrinsic value is very close to the face value and if the prices rise again there will a great deal of hoarding pressure placed upon the coin and it would take years of production with a cheaper material before the population of coppernickel coins would be low enough that hoarding would not cause a shortage. The government should have corrected that problem over two years ago, and definitely last year when they felt they had to pass that regulation. But no metal prices declined again and they stopped worrying about it. So now when prices rise again they will have lost two or three years worth of replacement time and will be much more likely to suffer shortages.

Once the copper cents, and eventually the coppernickel five cent pieces, no longer make up a significant portion of those denominations in circulation melting them down will probably become legal again. People who have hoards of them will have windfall profits like those who hoarded their eleven cent dimes and 27 cent quarters eventually did.

 

I think the government will eventually do what they made it unlawful for us to do. Just watch for a huge spike in production of a cheaper metal "nickel" similar to Canada's, and you'll know they are in the process. One cent coins on the other hand, could be phased out, and that problem would take care of itself.

 

I think that everyone and their sister should melt their nickels and pre-82 cents and I'll keep all of mine. They will become rare and I'll have a more valuable collection.

 

Hello, new here and I have a questions about this topic.

I have been searching for several days and have been unable to find this exact regulation online or in a federal listing. Does someone have the actual reference to this regulation so that I can include it in my files.

Thanks for your help.

Chris