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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;chip, post: 890586, member: 19122&quot;]If history is any guide to the future back in the day when they had a ban against melting silver coins, it lasted until 1969, by which time the silver coins had all generally been pulled from circulation and the new Johnsonmetal clad coins were circulating in high enough numbers that there was no longer a coin shortage.</p><p>It was about 5 years after 90% silver was no longer used for coins that melting became legal. It has now been over 25 years after copper has been used in cents and melting is Illegal. </p><p><br /></p><p>Could it be because there are so many copper cents still in circulation? While the silver coins were pulled much faster? </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;Now we generally see in the area I live in, about 20-30% copper cents in circulation, so they are not being pulled as were the silver ones. This is mainly because most people could readily see the difference between silver coins and Johnson sandwich coins. The few people who are semi-knowledgable collectors have told me things such as, &quot;pennies were made of copper before 1943, after 1943 they are made of lead, the pre-1980 pennies are copper, and the last copper pennies are 1981.&quot; Both statements sort of wrong but could be taken as partially right if viewed in a cockeyed sort of way.</p><p><br /></p><p>Once those copper cents are more or less no longer in circulation, if history is a guide, then it will be legal to melt them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Or&nbsp; since even our Johnsonmetal coins are mostly copper be something that probably never would happen? </p><p><br /></p><p>I think it is now legal to melt them overseas, the way it is done is that they are exported as numismatics and then melted, if refiners pressure congress that they are 1. Losing business because of a law that is being evaded anyway. 2.That the gummint is also losing tax revenues. </p><p><br /></p><p>I think that it will not be until copper is trading for at least 7 dollars a pound that melting will be made legal, and I do not think copper will hit 7 for at least 5 years, maybe ten or more. The reason I think that is because I do not think that refiners will want to bother with copper until it is worth more, and the taxes will also be negligible until copper is much more than it is today.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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