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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 643405, member: 66&quot;]Must be a slow news day, that regulation was adopted about a year ago, and reported on moderately at the time.&nbsp; Why are they dredgingit up again, especially since metal prices are much lower now than they were then?</p><p><br /></p><p>That last line is going to confuse a lot of people and cause coin dealers a lot of grief.&nbsp; You and I know they are talking about the silver war nickels, but the average citizen is going to read that and jump to the conclusion that ALL five cent pieces are worth 77 cents each.</p><p><br /></p><p>How about another &quot;clarification&quot; in the fourth paragragh.&nbsp; &quot;The prices quoted here are quite old.&nbsp; At todays prices, copper is not over $9,000 a ton, it&#039;s under $5,000&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>In the mid 1960&#039;s silver rose to the point that the coins in circulation were worth a cent or two above face value and people began hoarding them causing coin shortages and eventually the introduction of the clad coins.&nbsp; In order to try and keep the silver coins in circulation the government passed a law making illegal to melt down the silver coins.&nbsp; The people continued to hoard the silver and by the early 70&#039;s there was almost no silver in circulation at all.&nbsp; Since melting the coins would no longer result in coin shortages, since they were not circulating anyway, the law against melting was repealed.&nbsp; By the mid 70&#039;s silver had risen to the point that the coins were worth two to three times face value and melting has taken place ever since. (Another reason the government passed the no melt law to keep the silver in circulation was because THEY were actively withdrawing the silver coins from circulation and melting them down.&nbsp; The longer they could keep them circulating the more of them they could get.&nbsp; The no melt law was repealed after the amount of silver coins they were recovering fell to the point where it wasn&#039;t worthwhile for them to continue the recovery process.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Now with the copper cents and five cent pieces, when the regulation was put in place those coins were already worth two to three times their face value.&nbsp; And widespread melting of the coins for their metal would have resulted in a crippling coin shortage.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Eventually the zinc cents will replace the copper ones to a large enough extent that they could be exempted from the regulation.&nbsp; (Currently they still make up 1/4th to 1/3rd of the cents in circulation.) but the five cent piece is a problem.&nbsp; Even at todays metal prices it&#039;s intrinsic value is very close to the face value and if the prices rise again there will a great deal of hoarding pressure placed upon the coin and it would take years of production with a cheaper material before the population of coppernickel coins would be low enough that hoarding would not cause a shortage.&nbsp; The government should have corrected that problem over two years ago, and definitely last year when they felt they had to pass that regulation.&nbsp; But no metal prices declined again and they stopped worrying about it.&nbsp; So now when prices rise again they will have lost two or three years worth of replacement time and will be much more likely to suffer shortages.</p><p><br /></p><p>Once the copper cents, and eventually the coppernickel five cent pieces, no longer make up a significant portion of those denominations in circulation melting them down will probably become legal again.&nbsp; People who have hoards of them will have windfall profits like those who hoarded their eleven cent dimes and 27 cent quarters eventually did.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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