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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 1037595, member: 66&quot;]The ban on melting the copper cents and the five cent pieces isn&#039;t that old.&nbsp; Less than two years I believe.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reason for the ban was because copper at the time was pushing towards four dollars a pound and it looked like it was probably going to go even higher.&nbsp; It was reaching the point where it was profitable after expenses, to melt down the copper cents.&nbsp; At the time the copper cents amounted to about 35% of all the cents in circulation.&nbsp; The concern was that if copper continued up that 35% would rapidly be pulled from circulation.&nbsp; The Mint would be unable to replace all those billions of coins in a timely manner and a severe coin shortage would occur.&nbsp; Rather than run the risk of that happening the ban was put in place.&nbsp; Shortly afterward the economy took a dump and the prices of the base metals went with it.&nbsp; Currently copper is close to the high point of two years ago and the percentage of copper cents in circulation is now down to the 20 - 25% range.&nbsp; I doubt if the ban will be lifted until the the percentage drops below 5%, possible below 2%.&nbsp; Once the percentage gets that low, if the people run out and withdrawn all the copper cents suddenly it wouldn&#039;t cause a shortage.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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