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I have a good friend in a state somewhere around mine that melts pennies. Yes, it's wrong, blah blah blah. He's not selling the copper, just hoarding it. He's a tinkerer. He built a "smelter" by using mirrors and the sun (basically).
Id never do it. I raise enough hell around here that i don't need to add destroying currency to the list lol. But it is interesting to watch him work. I have a hoard of pennies now, just fun to check your dates at the end of the day and throw the pre-'82 in a bucket. I used to purchase them by the $25 box from the bank. It worked at first because they would get their money from, basically, a huge building that all the "Money trucks" would go to if that makes sense. All the armored trucks that collect money from business's drop the money off at this place. They then redistribute the money to banks and other places. Don't know exactly how it works, that's just my guess. Anyway, i was buying from the bank, and it was great. Simply because all the pennies were circulated pennies. But something happened and they switched to all new pennies. Bought 3 boxes and they were all new.
Was fun while it lasted haha.
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Don't get caught even watching this.
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Here is the Rule (not Law - the U.S. Mint does not have the authority to write laws, only Congress can do that) http://www.usmint.gov/downloads/cons...sterNotice.pdf
Basically, it is legal to do whatever you want with U.S. coins - any U.S. coins - unless you are attempting to commit fraud. You can melt them, deface them, mark on them, poop on them - anything. There is just one exception, as spelled out in the rule listed above. You can't melt pennies or nickels for their metal value. 5 years in prison and/or $10,000 fine for doing so. You cannot carry on your person more than $5 of pennies or nickels out of the country. You can't ship more than $100 of pennies or nickels out of the country unless doing so for bona fide reasons (not melting).
Personally, I hoard pre-1982 pennies and silver nickels from World War II. I don't believe in all the end-of-the-world TSHTF garbage - but I do believe that our monetary system will collapse. The U.S. debt is so high the only way we'll ever be able to repay it is if our currency goes through hyperinflation.
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145 pennies to a pound. Based on current price of copper, you will make a nice profit for each pound of pennies you set aside. The last year for copper pennies was 1982. About 75% of them were copper, the other 25% zinc. You can tell the difference by using a cheap digital scale. Copper pennies weigh around 3.11 grams whereas zinc pennies weigh around 2. 56 grams.
I have one 5 gallon bucket full so far. For each $100 of pennies I go through, I set aside around $20 - $30 in copper pennies. The day will come when coins are no longer minted and you can cash in.
There are machines out there that can sort 10,000 pennies an hour. The difference in conductivity ( I think) separates the zinc pennies from the copper ones. There are two limitations however. The machine costs over $500 though. It doesnt take long to sort through a $25 box of pennies. I have found two Indian head pennies and wheat cents also.
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There are certainly people hoarding (by the ton) nickels. Not sure about international laws covering currency protection, but a friend of a friend has taken pennies (UK) to France and had them bought as scrap.
I know a few countries have replaced their coinage to avoid this, I was in NZ when they converted. Hell, in NZ the smallest coin is now 10c.
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A few points to update this old thread (which contained comments on both pennies and nickels):
There is a type of U.S. nickel that is legal to melt down and that is the 35% war nickels made from 1942 (some contained silver- some didn't) to 1945.
Canada stopped minting pennies in 2012. They made one that year referred to as the Farewell Penny. It is pretty difficult to find Canadian pennies in Canada now. It isn't all that hard to find them occasionally in the U.S., however.
The Canadian nickels from 1981 and before are 99.9% nickel. The U.S. nickels, in spite of the name, are only 25% nickel with the other 75% being copper. If you can get some Canadian .999 nickels for a decent price, I would set aside those before I would set aside U.S. nickels (even though I'm a U.S. citizen.
A wealthy hedge fund billionaire by the name of Kyle Bass once bought a million dollars in U.S. nickels. That is 20 million coins and, if my math is right, weighs a whopping 210,000 lbs. He called his local bank and eventually got hooked up with the Federal Reserve. They asked why he wanted so many and he replied "I just like nickels." So he had them delivered by Brinks to a vault in downtown Dallas. I wonder if he ever tried to buy Canadian nickels instead, which are a far better investment IMHO.
Back to pennies:
Approximately 60-65% of the copper mined annually in the U.S. comes from just one state- Arizona. So, even if you've never been there, that old coin you hold in your hand may have copper that came from there.
Pennies are so cheap now that there are plenty of people who have done all kinds of artistic things with them, from covering wet bars to flooring and even pictures made completely of pennies.
Pennies are something you could store in decent quantity as a potential burglary deterrent. If someone breaks into your house and looks for high end stuff only to find a 5-gallon bucket of pennies, they may get a bit demoralized and go elsewhere. I keep buckets on hand just for that reason. The really good stuff that I have is stored off site.
The Lincoln penny, which has been minted for 109 years now, is the oldest series with the mint mark always on the front (obverse side) of the coin. This makes it easier for collectors to go through lots of coins quickly. Note that there are other coins which in the past several decades have had the mint marks moved from the back to the front (Jefferson nickels, Roosevelt dimes, Washington quarters, and Kennedy Halves).
What is the most valuable penny I've ever seen? There was a 1943 U.S. penny that for that one year was made of steel (because copper was needed for World War II supplies). By mistake, they made just perhaps 10-20 or so that were accidentally made of copper instead of steel that year. And, the following year (1944), they made another very small batch that were accidentally steel instead of copper. Each is worth in excess of $1 million. I saw both of them on display many years ago at a coin show. There were two armed guards standing around the case.
