Ha ha ha Pennies & Nickels worth more if they are melted down
 

How fucking sad is that?? US Mint just made it illegal to melt down pennies and nickels. Apparently the metal is worth more than the currencty...

Fucking awesome. :thumbsup

edit: apparently I can't spell metal

time to let the fire in the backyard burn out....

only pre 82 pennies, and i think the nickles have been mostly zinc since the early 60's

No, it's all pennies and nickels, the pre 82 pennies are just worth more.

"...Because of the prevailing prices of copper, zinc and nickel, the cost of producing pennies and nickels exceeds the face value of the coins.

A nickel is 25 percent nickel and 75 percent copper. The metal in one coin costs 6.99 cents for each 5-cent coin. When the Mint's cost of producing the coins is added, the total cost for each nickel is 8.34 cents.

Modern pennies have 2.5 percent copper content with zinc making up the rest of the coin. The current copper and zinc in a penny are worth 1.12 cents. The cost of production drives the cost of each penny up to 1.73 cents.

Pennies made before 1982, which are still in circulation, would be even more lucrative to melt down because they contain 95 percent copper and only 5 percent zinc. The metal value in those coins is 2.13 cents per coin, Mint officials said..."

Pennies aren't 100% copper and haven't been for probably 40years now. Older Nickels from I think 1964 and below because of the silver used in them. But good luck finding high quantities of either.

Yeah, copper has doubled in price in a little over a year

Here, even though I am against posting links to Yahoo News, I'll do it in this case so all the people can read the fucking story before giving their misinformed :2 cents: (which would actually be 2.24 cents if they melted it down and sold the metal)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061214/..._ge/mint_coins