copper smelter

would anyone try to melt their pre 1982 copper cents or have already done so

 

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Let me know how it works out for you.

http://coins.about.com/b/2006/12/14/new-law-it-is-illegal-to-melt-down-pennies-and-nickels.htm

 

Question is, "Is it worth it?"
Current value of the metals in a pre-1982 cent is about 1.9 cents.

But how much would the energy cost to melt them?
And who would buy a copper/zinc alloy?
And how much would you have to have before they'd buy?
And finally how much under spot would they pay?

Best guess: You'd need to be dealing with tons of the stuff for it to be worthwhile.

 

all true but would be something to do on a rainy day just for the giggles

 

Melting coins for many reasons goes on all the time. Many electricians that do any demo work take as much Copper wiring and cables from the job site. They then take them to smelters along with as many Copper coins, Copper washers, statues as they have accumulated. Many metal recyclers take them and melt them all full well knowing that once Copper is melted, no one could tell it was ever a coin. This goes on all the time.
Silver coins too are melted down to make Jewlery by Jewlers all the time. A Silver charm for a Silver bracelet can sell for many, many times the price of just Silver. Also, bracelets, ear rings, necklaces, etc are also made from numerous sources of silver including coins. Again, once Silver is melted no one can tell it was ever a coin.
Melting coins may well be against the law but so is murder, robberies, home invasions, etc and many law inforcement agencies think those area bit more serious that melting coins.

 

You just need one of these in your back yard.

LOL

 

only melting cents and nickels is against the law as far as I know.

 

It's really not worth it. Since the pennies are an alloy, reclamation centers would only pay about 20% of spot for them. The spot price is for unalloyed copper only.

Chris

 

Millions of Indian coins are being smuggled into neighboring Bangladesh and turned into razor blades. And that’s creating an acute shortage of coins in many parts of India.

Police in Calcutta say that the recent arrest of a grocer highlights the extent of the problem. They seized what they said was a huge coin-melting unit which he was operating in a run-down shack.

The grocer confessed to melting down tens of thousands of Indian coins into razor blades which were then smuggled into Bangladesh.

“Our one rupee coin is in fact worth 35 rupees, because five to seven bladed can be made out of it,” .

 

I can't recall where I heard this, but I think the smelting folks actually like cents a lot....
... if they have a batch of 100% pure copper and are mixing up a batch spec'ed at 99.5% copper purity, then the math becomes very easy when adding in coins at 95%CU/5%zinc in order to meet the specified copper purity level.

Also, if they are mixing up a pot of brass and have overdone the zinc, then again, it's easy math to mix in some cents to dial up the CU content to the required Copper/zinc ratio.... and cheaper, as they can save the pure 99.999% CU for high grade wire instead of using it as a blend.

 

Very interesting. What are their coins/blades made of?

 

Participated in a 40# brass pour last week. If not for scrap brass being available more cheaply, that would have been tempting.

 

FWIW - as I recall it is not legal to melt them down (or to send them overseas)

 

31 U.S.C. 5111(d) authorizes the Treasury Department to forbid melting or exporting US coins, which they have done for pennies and nickels as of 2006.

 

I wonder how the smelter can determine that the seller hasn't thrown in a bunch of cents made after 1982? Is there a machine that can quickly separate cents made of zinc?

 

http://www.ryedalecoin.com/

 

I don't know how much it costs to melt copper, but I would think that anybody could melt the 95% copper cents, pour them into ingots or bars, and sell them on eBay for a 100% profit all day long. Not me though.

 

We needed about 30 pounds of propane to heat the 40 pounds of brass to pourable temp, so not cost effective unless you were going to a final casting anyway.

 

There is a device that quickly separates out pre-1982 cents. It is called a coin discriminator. Costs about 100 bucks. I have one, but I STILL look at each coin I break out of a roll. So thrilling to pull a good one. The law making it illegal to melt coins has not been challenged, but it is not constitutional. You see, we are a capitalist country, and anything which prohibits our fair use of our earned money is called a restraint to trade. Been decided in many courts, just a bunch of mularky Congress made up to keep us not focused on their wars.