Does Fed melt bronze for profit?

Does the government really melt older pennies to sell the copper, as suggested in this thread?

Is/was this done with nickel and silver?

 

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No. Sadly, (or luckily, depending upon your point of view) most of what is posted on Internet forums is merely opinion and is to be taken with a grain of salt.

Opinion
1. a personal belief or judgment that is not founded on proof or certainty; "my opinion differs from yours"; "I am not of your persuasion"; "what are your thoughts on Haiti?"

2. a message expressing a belief about something; the expression of a belief that is held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof; "his opinions appeared frequently on the editorial page"

3. a belief or sentiment shared by most people; the voice of the people; "he asked for a poll of public opinion"

 

Good.

 

Well, it's really not that far fetched. The fed was secretly melting silver after the switch to clad. I would recommend saving pre-'82 copper, but not selling it to the melters. There's a ban on melting now, but you can bet that as soon as it lifts, the melters who are buying up the pennies will get to work on destroying history piece by piece. I have recently started saving them, both for an investment and also to save them from the melting pots, and I implore everyone else to do the same. People would have thought you were crazy if you started saving all the silver coins in 1965.

 

True. Just because they aren't melting them and selling them to pay down the national debt doesn't mean that they aren't pulling them from circulation. I think, however, there are more copper cents being pulled from circulation on a daily basis by the public more so than the govt. but again that just an opinion and not based on fact ....lol.

 

The FED will melt the pennies as soon as they are removed from circulation.

The Canadians didn't wait. They are removing and melting all the alloys that are worth more than the cost of replacement. This would be the sensible thing to do here as well. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that the canadian dollar is up 80% and is worth more than our dollar now.

Note lack of smilie.

 

So going out on a limb here it's illegal at this point to melt down pre 82 cents for copper BUT the Feds may be looking for them to melt at a later date for profit?

That would seem a bit corrupt to me, not that our government ever has been. Just food for thought and if this strikes someone as being in the wrong forum I understand. Mods, edit away if you must.

 

My opinion...The fed would only collect copper cents for melt if the cent is totally eliminated. If there is only an alloy change I don't think they would bother as the coins would still have a long useful life. Haveing to replace melted coins would deminish any savings.

 

And dom't forget; the penny is the most abused coin out there!

Can't count the number of times I've seen them thrown away,usually with a profane epithet!​

And you'll always find them lyiing in the street or parking lots.​

 

Unless there is an overhaul of the current coinage, I don't quite see why they would massively melt down such coins. However though, it's not suprising for many mints to take old coins out of circulation and remelt them to be struck for newer coins.

 

It's simple. Do the math.

The cost of replacing a copper penny from circulation is the cost of making a zinc cent plus 1¢. If I'm not mistaken, that comes to about 2.8¢. Add to that, the cost of "Sorting" out the copper cents. I think that places the cost of replacing a
copper cent at more than the money they would reap from melting a copper cent.

Doesn't make fiscal cents yet.

 

A few months ago you didn't even need to sort these. Just melt the entire bunch and pour off the zinc which could be sold at a small profit and then sell the copper at a large profit. Even today this would be profitable but you'd take a small loss on the zinc. Separating the coins can be done by machinery very cheaply.

It's inertia and politics keeping this coin in circulation. There is simply "no cents" in using a coin that is more expensive to count and handle than it is worth. Everyone loses money every time a penny is used.

 

cladking, don't forget it cost money to melt the copper/zinc. I'm sure the mint would just do that waffle cancel thing and sell the metal as is (which would most likely be for less than melt value given the amount of gunk found on pennies.

I think they should discontinue making the pennies, but not bother pulling them out of circulation.

 

Normally I'd agree but not in the case of pennies. Most of the cents in circulation are zinc and these are highly toxic to babies and small animals. It would be short sighted to allow them to remain in the hands of the consumer after demonetization because most would end up in the garbage stream or given to kids for use as play money. They're already littered on streets, sidewalks and playgrounds, it would be much worse for a brief period if there were suddenly no use at all for them.

 

cladking, what you proposed does make sense if the penny was outright discontinued. It would just be a shame to wonder how many older cents would be callously destroyed.

 

Personally I would mourn much more for the later cents. The earlier ones have been set aside in collections and dealer stock but the newer ones have barely even been looked at. There are very few collections so almost all of the coins would be destroyed. Of course mintages are astronomical in most cases so there wouldn't be any rarities.

Only about .2% of circulating coins are wheat cents so destruction would be very limited for these. There really aren't any rare dates among these so there would be virtually no better date coins being destroyed. There would be a lot of ttention focused on the entire series which would be good for collectors who want to see higher prices and for dealers.

 

I doubt the cent would be demonatized even if it were eliminated. I think the coins would always be accepted at face value at banks and then returned to the fed from there.

2 and 3 cent coins were never demonatized after they were eliminated.

 

Would be really nice if they handled it the same as the Eisenhower. Keep reissueing them until people stop cashing them in. Unfortunately, I think they only did that because the melt is less than the $1 they get from sending them back out. With the penny, they would be buying them for 30 to 70 percent of melt value. As mentioned, they wouldn't even have to sort them to realize a profit.

 

I remember 1964 the Gov. just said no more silver in the coins with the exception of the half 40% through 1970 and the average person did not even know about the halves. My point is I do not remember the Gov. taken all the silver out of circulation, because the people and collectors did it for them.
I was only a kid then and paper route money did not go too far.

here is link to Fed. Reserve someone there can answer the question

http://www.frbservices.org/Local-Information/Philadelphia/cashservices.html