U.S. Mint Makes Melting Currency Illegal

From cnn.com:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The U.S. Mint has implemented a law against melting down pennies and nickels which, at current metal prices, could be worth more as metal than as currency.

The rule also bans the exportation of the coins, beyond traveling with $5 worth and shipping up to $100 for legitimate purposes.

money.cnn.com...

I suppose the first one makes sense, and frankly, I'm surprised there isn't already some sort of law against melting currency.

But the second one ... a limit of $5??? That seems a tad low ... seems to me like they want to try and get you to turn that change into bills. Granted no one really wants to be lugging around a jar of pennies or nickels, but what would stop the government from turning around and melting their old pennies themselves? There would be no raw material cost on making new pennies (other than the addition of maybe melting them down). Any opinions?

Actually melting coins in the US is not a big problem, at least not records of big meltdowns.

But now that the media has made the public aware of the value of a penny and a nickles is higher melted down, the ones that will do anything for an extra buck will start the meltdown and will find a way to get away with it.

Thanks a lot US mint for bringing the issue so it can start happening.

[edit on 14-12-2006 by marg6043]

maybe the report was made public to show how crappy the us $ is becoming?

They stated on the local news tonight that it is purely to keep people from melting it and selling the raw materials.

I think that restrictions are kinda wierd though ... that wasn't mentioned on the news.

This isn't really that odd. It's not the first time that the raw metal value of coins has surpassed their monetary value.

There's a catch tho. The cost of heating those coins to their melting point adds extra cost to smelting. It's unlikely that you could actually make any money this way after you take the costs into account.

BTW; It's always been a crime to destroy currency up here in Canada. "Defacing the Queen" is a long time no-no.

The restriction on the amount of coin you are "allowed" to carry strikes me as very odd. At this moment, I have about $15 in change in my pocket. Of course, we've got $1 and $2 coins up here.