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U.S. Mint makes law against MELTING pennies and nickels

money.cnn.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 new regulations authorize a fine of up to $10,000, or imprisonment of up to five years, or both, against violators."

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  • arunforce, on 10/12/2007, -29/+6I say we just use digital cards stored in Cellphones, like the Japanese. Seems more reasonable.
    • sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -22/+9That's not the real story, this part is: You're subject to ***** arrest if you take more than $5 worth of coins overseas. So if I get overly liquored and get too much change at the airport bar you'll know where I'll be, at the local supermax prison.
    • JohnyD, on 10/12/2007, -12/+24I'm not certain about American currency (pennis to be more exact) but Canadian pennies aren't made exclusivly of copper anymore. New pennies you can melt in a stove at pretty reasonable temperatures... old copper pennies just glow bright red.

      Yeah.... I still do heat pennies in stoves. Been doin it for 28 years... :)
    • masamunecyrus, on 10/12/2007, -14/+11I say we just make our pennies out of aluminum, like Japan.

      Japan uses coin currency, you do know. More so than credit cards, in fact (at least outside of the gigantic megalopolises like Tokyo).
    • Jaq524, on 10/12/2007, -5/+45Wow, JohnyD, terrible place to forget an "e"

      On a side note, credit card transactions in Japan are actually much less common than they are here. They pay with cash much more.

      http://wikitravel.org/en/Tokyo#Buy

      The more ya know :)
    • Jubalicious, on 10/12/2007, -29/+5Digg me down if you like cookies!
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12Pennies in the US are mainly made of materials OTHER than copper. The copper is mainly a coating for historical reasons. If you get a hold of one, scrape the edge a bit and it will start to become very non-copperish soon.
    • JesusFaction, on 10/12/2007, -5/+77Since when does the U.S. Mint draft and pass legislation?
    • arunforce, on 10/12/2007, -15/+3We're being comment raped! Start digging up!
    • Crass22, on 10/12/2007, -5/+231 word: LOL!!!!!!!

      I mean think about it, the government spends more on the resources involved in making money, than the value of the money. Does that not seem backwards? (Hint:We are loosing money by making nickels)
    • Crass22, on 10/12/2007, -14/+6Why is this digg getting down-digg *****?
    • Brewdaddy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Pennies are 98.5% zinc and an outer coating of copper nowadays. I'm not sure about the metal content of nickels, but they're worth about 7 cents right now.
    • OrderSponge, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14Crass22: the government loses money on everything it does. That's why we have taxes. It's not a corporation.
    • nihilator, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3As of 1982, pennies are 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper(plating).
    • thatsmyaibo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12I thought it was illegal to destroy any US currency if used in a fraudulent way only? And why is the word "melting" in caps on the headline?

      http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=77334
    • justaboutdead, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3@ thatsmyaibo:

      damn, thought that was the answer to the reason melting was capitalized :(
    • petroK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12This is a perfect example of why we should just get rid of the penny all together.
    • apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6As the dollar loses its value, hoarding coins could be a way to protect your assets. This was the reason for the gold standard in the first place - gold tends to retain intrinsic value, and is not as subject to manipulation by polical forces.
    • brokekneck, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5 HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I see this as very very funny.... See we leave the Gold Standard. So whats are paper money worth? Whats the money based off of? The Government? Something that has no true value to YOU the individual. Can you trade your government for a car? If you had enough silver or gold I bet you could get a car. That's the whole point of having money based of precious metals.... Banks used to issue silver notes or gold notes. Cause they could translate into metal that had value. Now that we don't have that..... Our paper dollar is loosing value and becoming worthless cause it doesn't have a backing..... In other words you can't go to a bank and say I want my dollar worth of silver or gold. Now that copper/dime/nickel metals are raising in value, the US paper dollar is worth less. So basically the US mint is telling you its illegal to melt the metal your coins are made of cause its worth more than the coin is worth when it translates into Paper Dollars.
    • 4UIDigg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8WTF, if I earn the money, I should be able to do whatever the f*** I want with it. Isn't that what money is all about???
    • daza, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4In Australia at least, and other countries I imagine, the money is the Government's property. You merely borrow it off them until you choose to turn it into tender. Somewhat like software, you don't own the intellectual property itself, rather you own a license to use it.
    • blapierre, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6@Apeweek

      Gold doesn't have intrinsic value. Nothing has intrinsic value. An object only has value in the eyes of the one who values it.

      Gold is used as currency because it is durable, divisible, scarce, and has other uses besides being currency. The US dollar has no other use than to buy things. The ONLY reason someone wants to obtain dollars is because they know SOMEONE else values it for the same reason. It's a system that can't work forever. On the other hand people want gold for reasons other than that someone else wants it too.
    • hater, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Everyone here is missing one gigantic important point. This regulation wasn't passed because it's suddenly so expensive to make a penny, it's being passed because existing pennies have suddenly appreciated in value. If people were to attempt to take advantage of that appreciated value, the united states has no choice but to mint new coins to replace the coinage that is permanently removed from circulation. That coinage now costs much more to produce and the extra cost is passed on to us taxpayers (thus it is detrimental to us all).
    • skyhighrockets, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dang, no more science class demonstrations on the inards of a penny. :(
  • BenWhitey, on 10/12/2007, -5/+21I thought this was already illegal. Isn't it defacing the currency?
    • Calypsoaf, on 10/12/2007, -8/+7I'm not sure if it is, but I do remember being told it was when we used to burn pennies in the camp fire (hey we were kids!). Something about "destruction of government property", not entirely sure how true that is though.
    • KANSUO, on 10/12/2007, -9/+5Pretty sure it's only illegal to mess with currency in an attempt to defraud, so just destroying it for ***** and giggles is A-OK. Could be wrong though.
    • Jelfish, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=426715

      In this google-answers article the responder answers that question. (yes, it's illegal)
    • Jelfish, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7@mehs

      Also, the value of American currency is dropping.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14The point of any modern currency is now that its parts are less valuable than the face value. The way copper keeps going up, it keeps eating into that margin. Now, the currency is more valuable as smelted metal than as currency. Therefore, fire up the furnaces.

      On a side note, I remember hearing a story from a black/silver smith when I was growing up. When the US made true precious metal currency(silver, for example), people would shave the outside edges just a little and keep the scrapings. As time went on, you built up enough for something like jewelry. This led to the addition of ridges to the edges of US currency so that this practice could be easily detected.
    • vuke69, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11@Jelfish

      If you actually read the page you linked, you would know that no, it isn't illegal.

      It is only illegal to deface currency if you intend to fraudulently use it afterwords.
    • SundayTrain, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12@BenWhitey
      Dude, so when I go to Disneyland and put my penny in one of those souvenir machines that flattens it and then puts Mickey Mouse on it I'm getting arrested?

      Yeah, OK :)
  • m1ch184, on 10/12/2007, -9/+23The simple fact that they felt a need to pass this law due to the fact that the metal is worth more than the coin proves something is very wrong with our country.
    • Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -9/+41Welcome to knee-jerk America. Rather than fix a problem, we make a stupid law. Obey or die, citizen.
    • SillyDigger, on 10/12/2007, -7/+20@Urusai

      How do you fix the problem?
    • Humptydank, on 10/12/2007, -16/+5@Urusai

      Yeah, fill us in...
    • Derf0293, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5@Urusai

      Yeah but our nation doesn't really have any way of fixing a problem (Laws are the whole base of our country) so it would be hard to change this anyway, I mean how would you replace all those pennies with aluminum coins and/or Credit Cards, or anything else for that matter?
      Its Kind of like a habit that would be very difficult and time consuming to get out of.
    • Stephenishere, on 10/12/2007, -12/+11Easy, you stop creating pennies. Make the nickle the smallest US coin, or better yet the dime. The pennie is a very worthless coin its too small for anything useful. Who actually likes having prices like 2.99?
    • sven007, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Remember the days when a quarter actually had 25 cents worth of silver in it (canadians mostly, i have a bunch, all worth around 75 cents now or something)? now they just do the same thing with the metals in the coins. firstly, the coins wouldn't need a gold reserve behind them to give them value. second, when you go overseas, your 25 cents American is always around 25 cents. it could also reduce coin fraud, are you really going to buy 25 cents of metal to make a coin worth 25 cents? i think not.

      theres a bunch of ways to do this, but really, you need a metal with a stable price, and need to make sure the coins don't get too huge.
    • Derf0293, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0@Stephenishere

      Then the worth of a penny would shoot through the roof, even more than the worth of it being melted down I don't think that we should do a total overhaul, rather find a way to get around it (ex: a law) or stop the pennies from having such a large amount of copper in them, which could take a long time to do.

      As fr the having the $2.99 price idk for sure why its like that.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3@Stephenishere

      Your forgetting things like those pesky sales tax, etc. Also, reducing pennies in cost saves a lot of money in modern industrial manufacturing. Surprisingly enough, increasing cost by pennies costs(rounding everything up to the next .05) a lot of money in modern industrial manufacturing.

      As a side note, those 2.99 prices have two sides to them.

      First, the mental image of the 2 instead of the 3 at the beginning has a definite emotional construct. How many times do you hear people say "It's only 2 dollars!"? Yes, people should know better, but most don't pay attention to the cents section of the price.

      Secondly in earlier times, it was an easy way for shop owners to prevent their tellers from robbing them of the money customers pay for goods. By requiring change(in coins), the teller had to open the register(which had a bell) and was less likely to walk off with the money.
    • Terc, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7One way to fix this problem is to lower our monumental national debt. This would greatly increase the value of the dollar.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2@Terc

      And what programs are you going to cut to "wipe out" the national debt? Or do you propose a massive tax increase? OH, I know... Socialism!

      It's about to get to be hard time for the USA. I just want to here solutions, not pie-in-the-sky "Oh, just do this simple thing that will fix EVERYTHING!"
    • Brak710101, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1No, your just an idiot.

      The value of the currency isn't going down that much, the price of copper is going up.

      Honestly, quite trying to act like the glass is always half-emptyl.
    • skidooer, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2"First, the mental image of the 2 instead of the 3 at the beginning has a definite emotional construct. How many times do you hear people say "It's only 2 dollars!"? Yes, people should know better, but most don't pay attention to the cents section of the price."

      I instinctively do the opposite. If the price is $2.01, I see it as $3.
    • splammo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4@thcobbs

      not have elected bush 6 years ago would be a good start at getting rid of the national debt.

      other than that im out of ideas.
  • akifbayram, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1How about dissolving them?
  • pmghost, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25What about places that take 51 cents and use your penny to make a souvenir
    • DiggMeUpPlsThx, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3I think thats compression not melting. I may be wrong though.
    • VcTrMASO, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12The pennies that are compressed are replaced by the government. The machines have a sticker on the side of them saying they have a permit to crush the pennies.
  • Lowry, on 10/12/2007, -8/+19I thought congress made laws, not the US Mint.
  • shadydentist, on 10/12/2007, -6/+0I was also under the impression that it has always been illegal to destroy money.
  • kweee, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13They should make pennies out of chocolate.
    • Bob042, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16"Heat wave hits America, Economy in turmoil"
  • undersky1, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4What? Why can't I bring let's say a roll of quarters worth $10 with me when I travel aboard? I can't??? I can't believe it! This is crazier than China!
    • sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -14/+5A roll of quarters costs $20, fool.
    • tnwake, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6"A roll of quarters costs $20, fool."

      Um..no.. it's $10 for a roll of quarters retard
    • jhnewt, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7@sockpuppets

      I'll give you a roll of quarters for only $15.
    • iTony, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It only prohibits pennies and nickels. Take as many quarters as you want.
    • ashembers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@sockpuppets

      I'll sell you a roll of nickels for only $10.
  • Olle, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Man,

    now I have to change my plans for tomorrow.
  • baldr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6"The rule also bans the exportation of the coins, beyond traveling with $5 worth and shipping up to $100 for legitimate purposes."
    Am I reading this wrong or is it now illegal to carry more than 5 dollars in pennies/nickels out of the country?
    • masamunecyrus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Don't you love how our government always shoves the 'fine print' at the end of laws?

      That's a pretty god damn big change (no pun intended) if you can't take more than $5 worth of pennies and nickels out of the country. Only two and a half rolls of nickels will push you past the limit on that!
    • sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Is that a roll of quarters in your pants because either way I'm taking you out back and frisking you.
    • chapium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I seriously hope noone is traveling with 100 nickels or 500 pennies.
  • inajeep, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6So I can still put pennies on train tracks to flatten them?
    • mancat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Yes, but it is now illegal for the train to run over them. Watch out, Burlington Northern!
  • cupajoe60, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3i really dont see how they are going to enforce this.
  • simmonsdd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9it's not the copper. (only plating on the pennies.) the core is zinc. It's zinc that's through the roof. I'm pretty sure on this since I was considering melting down some pennies recently. Thanks digg for keeping me out of jail. I'd hate to have to explain to my serial murderer cell mate what I was in for.
  • brbubba, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6How about getting rid of the farking penny for starters!
    • gavdana, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Exactly.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Your forgetting things like those pesky sales tax, etc. Also, reducing pennies in cost saves a lot of money in modern industrial manufacturing. Surprisingly enough, increasing cost by pennies costs(rounding everything up to the next .05) a lot of money in modern industrial manufacturing.

      How would you like it(as a CEO) if every part in your widget went up 1-4 cents per part.
      And you had thousands of parts.
      And you made hundreds of thousands of products a year?
    • blapierre, on 10/12/2007, -3/+25 widgets at $0.01 each = $0.05
  • acceleriter, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Beautiful. Announce some Draconian penalty for hoarding pennies and nickles. I guess the next step is to be slackjawed at the increase in hoarding that resulted from cluing the whole world into the fact that the base metal is worth more than the face value.
  • asleep2, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2So, pennies, which are made primarily of zinc (not cu) are at about $2/lb
    http://www.metalprices.com/FreeSite/metals/zn/zn.asp

    And a Penny weighs 2.5086g = 0.00553051631 pounds
    http://www.scaleman.com/applications/report.html

    So, do the math, there's about 181 pennies in a pound, so... that's like $1.81/lb

    Penniwise, lb foolish I must say

    -----------------
    http://www.mycodedontstink.com/slackers/index.php


    • Jubalicious, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1whoa, that's like 11.3 cents AN OUNCE!!!
    • Cerebral, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@asleep

      There is something that you are not accounting for and that is that some of the weight of the penny is copper. So you would have to take that into consideration in all of your calculations.
  • Gizza, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3How exactly would they enforce this? Once its melted down u can no longer tell that it was once a coin.
    • Lowry, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Digg on March 5th 2012

      Meltdown Lab busted by Currency SWAT Team in Philadelphia Today, your tax dollars at work!
  • shertzerj, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Damn, I haven't seen so many people dug down since the last Firefox-related article to make the front page.
  • dougbell, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Since when can the mint pass laws?
  • ascalonx, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6The U.S. Mint is making laws?...I thought that's been the President's job for the last 6 years. Has Congress become so ineffectual that the Mint is getting away with legislating? Wow.

    /Sarcasm
    • Nogger, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1The President does not make the laws. Remember he is the executive branch of the government. The Congress makes the laws, they are the legislative branch of the government. The President may not even propose a law himself.

      Of cause, there is the G.W. Bush exception: "The President does not care for laws, he does what he feels is right."
    • mattjvw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2God man, you can't get sarcasm even when he adds a /sarcasm tag?
  • Doomhammer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I agree with some other comments, we should just get rid of the penny.

    If a transaction happens to go into smaller denominations than $0.05, then just round it to the nearest multiple of $0.05. For example:

    $1.99 => $2.00
    $1.92 => $1.90

    Sure, occasionally you would end up getting less change back than you technically deserve, but other times you'd get more. It'd all balance out, and we wouldn't have a pointless coin any more. :)

    And, for the record, pennies cost the U.S. Mint ~$0.03 to actually make, IIRC, even before the metal in them started being worth more than $0.01.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I'd love you to point to a single retailer, manufacturer, or shoe polisher who will ever round DOWN a cost.
    • Nogger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2In France, every super market rounds down on 0.1 - 0.4 and up on 0.5 - 0.9.
    • Kale, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1They already round to the closest 1/100 of the dollar now. Why not make it to the closest 1/20? It would even out, as stated earler.
    • blapierre, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They would just price their items so that it always rounds up.
    • praeburn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Australia got rid of 1c and 2c pieces years ago, and retailers dont price to round up necessarily. Sure, at the supermarket items are $2.97, but you usually dont just by one thing, do you.
      Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, it all works out in the end.
  • vyking, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7god forbid that our currency actually has some real value to it...

    Maybe I should keep my emergency funds in all nickels and pennies as a hedge against inflation. If the value of the dollar goes to crap I can just melt the stuff down. Would be a pain to store it and transport it but it also would be a bitch to steal it without a fork lift ;-) I think we would be better off if all our currency had real value or was backed by something tangible.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7You mean like, say, a gold standard?

      Or maybe platinum... like the euro.
    • vyking, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Yes, that was implied by my sarcasm, I did not think I needed to say it.
    • spuggy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The Euro is backed by platinum? Care to cite?
  • truegodofwar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It seems like they went a bit overboard. Jailtime for over taking over 5 dollars in coins overseas? That's no where near the amount you would have to have to make a profit by smelting. You could do that accidently by having coin bag for laundry day. It should be like $5000 in coins at least.
  • ja1217, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1So much for those chemistry experiments we used to do in high school.
  • Nothlit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The article says "rule" not "law." Granted, there is probably not much of a difference, but it would be nice if people would remember the separation of powers. Congress makes law. The executive branch (including the U.S. Mint) can only create rules and regulations to enforce those laws.
  • wiremonkeymommy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1so... the Mint spends our tax dollars to buy commodities to produce coinage that will "worth less" then than the primary commodities... then even more money to *try* and enforce a difficult law?!!

    lame

    just start making new coinage out of recycled materials, so it is relatively worthless,
    sure... they'll be a 'collector's premium' for existing coinage, but the market will handle that just fine... as it currently does with rare coins.

  • levyjl1988, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4What a ***** up law, I'll do anything with my money that I work harded for it, so *****, if I want to melt some coins, damnit I will!
  • milesh10, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2$10,000 fine payable in pennies or their melted equivalent.
  • PueSi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3How do they know if you melted pennies?
  • redheadguy719, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2dang it, my chemistry class did this, now we won't be able to.
  • cryonix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There go my summer plans. 3 foot Fresnel lens and anything i can get my hands on, every summer we melt stuff with it, change is always the object we would end up always melting. got a hefty amount of sweet looking molten change.
  • Nerys, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I do not recognize there right to dictate whether I can melt coins or not and in fact I am going to go MELT some pennies as soon as I figure out how AND I am going to mail $5.01 in pennies somewhere outside the US.

    Its MY MONEY and MY PROPERTY I can and will do any freaking thing I want with it.

    The rule about defacing money is bogus. They can not prevent you from defacing money its YOUR PROPERTY what they can do is prevent you from committing FRAUD and simply INCREASE the penalty if the FRAUD is a result of defacing money (its like INTENT)

    Melting down YOUR PROPERTY and selling it is NOT fraud and thefore NOT regulatable by the US MINT no matter what "rules" they try to pass as legitimate.

    Grrrrr that makes me angry

    Also eliminating the penny would SUCK. it would either result in the faster elimination of REAL money (VERY bad for us regular folks) and or result in FAR higher prices as a "whole" ie added up over time.

    Think about this. If walmart has the processing power to determine that Strawberry Pop Tarts (not bberry not chocolate STRAWBERRY Specifically) and BEER for some reason sell REALLY well just before a hurricane how hard would it be for them to "redo" there pricing so that the end result of the majority average of transactions would result in a price that would enable a "round up" instead of a "round down"

    it would be a "hidden" price increase. sure might only be a nickel here and there but HUNDREDS of dollars potentially over the year PER PERSON just to get rid of the penny.

    Oh wait your delusional you actually think the government would GIVE BACK the savings at not having to make a penny any longer. Yeah You really think that ehh ? Dream on.

    Eliminating the penny is VERY VERY BAD.
    • praeburn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Other countries, in the rest of the world eliminate their small change, get over yourself. It does average out.

      Perhaps you buy some beer from wal-mart (cause your the kind of idiot that thinks wal-mart is a good thing) and they round up by 2 cent. You loose. Tomorrow you buy 5 things and they round down. It all evens out in the end.

      If your mint was really worried about the loss of currency through destruction, they should change to note printed on plastic. They last much longer, much harder to forge and dont dissolve in the laundry.
  • 5hop4orce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That will stop all those anti-war protesters melting pennies.
  • alpha1125, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1just reading the blurb, I immediately thought...

    1.) bring US pennies and nickles to Canada/Mexico/other
    2.) Melt it outside the jurisdiction
    3.) sale the metal for profit? It'd be a commodity then, no longer currency.

    What part would be illegal?
    • spudnic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"The rule also bans the exportation of the coins, beyond traveling with $5 worth"
    • 4UIDigg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@spudnic

      Who the hell makes these sorts of "laws"? The brilliance and profound wisdom is so far beyond my grasp, that either this law was drafted by someone really really smart, or otherwise, by someone really really .... The other alternative is very painful to consider...

      But heck, if someone tries to leave the country looking suspicious, but does not violate any real laws to warrant arrest, the $5.01 rule in coins can come in really handy...
  • VeyronSengh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If we can't melt our own pennies, then a lot of people shouldn't even have theirs that they just waste on *****.
  • DanmanD87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Darn no more fun with Fresnel lenses
  • dusingaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Mints can't make laws.
  • dragstarking, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The first Australian decimal 50c coin in 1966 was worth more as scrap than as a coin. The ever smart government quickly fixed this. BTW our 1's and 2 cent pieces have been gone for ages and it hasn't killed us. But we only just got electricity for the Sydney Olympics so you are still better than us America.
  • spoozer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What about those little machines you see at the zoo where you put the penny in and turn a crank. After turning the crank it stretches the penny and stamps it with a zoo animal.

    Those still legal because my kids love them...
  • QueenMary, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1As far as I knew growing up, doing this has always been illegal because currency is property of the government.

    However, shouldn't this really be telling the government something? STOP MAKING FRAKING PENNIES. I recently heard a debate about this on NPR. My favorite quote was "when a unit of currency is of such low value that it is not monetarily worth your time to pick it up off the street, it has lost it's use in the economy."

    The penny should stay in use only in digital form. Beyond that we should only be using nickels and up. If the mint was smart, they'd recall all pennies, melt them, and sell the metal for a profit. Morons.
  • brindon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Who is responsible for these new, "giant head" European-style dollars and coins? This is the USA dammit!

    Why, for the love of God, are their heads so BIG?
  • noouch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Look at me, I'm melting pennies, but I'm outside your borders so you can't do anything. Take that! Damn, now I'm wanted in the US :(
  • jmcantrell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2go ***** yourself... i'll melt a damn penny if i want to...
  • h00paj00, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Just change the penny from 1 cent to 2 cents.
    5 to a dime. 50 to a dollar.

    Personalyl I'd say get rid of the penny. Make the nickel out of zinc. (and shouldn't it not be called a nickel since it's not nickel anymore...)

    Oh, and bring back the gold standard :D
  • Fornbogi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1WTF mate?
  • liquidcola, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is why it's a GOOD thing to have the penny... It keeps inflation in check. The (privately owned) Federal reserve can print up all the paper money they want with nothing to back it and drive inflation through the roof. Having coinage with at least SOME base value (the actual metal) is very valuable. If it starts to cost you 3 cents worth of metal to make a one cent coin (even after you've switched to the cheapest metals you can get to make the coin) there is a serious problem. There was a time when you could buy a whole meal for a handful of change. A (mediocre) burrito and medium drink at a la salsa restaurant at LAX cost me 14 bucks yesterday. Sheesh.
    • scottykempf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, and you could buy a gallon of gas for .43 cents. It's called inflation. Prices go up over time, usually wages do also.
  • Conwaysb0718, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You'll never take me alive U.S. Mint enforcement agents! MUAHAHAHA.
  • demonsnake69, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The penny being cost to make more than its worth is a sign of another economic collapse. I've also heard that none of our paper money is backed up gold, silver or any other precious metals--we're just printing a bunch of paper with inkblots on it. Can't the government just create a plastic button and call it a penny?

    I also wish that they'd turn 99cents into a dollar already, and round up the 9/10ths of a cent for gas to one cent. Why is it so hard to fix such a simple problem?
  • ThatGuyJay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What I want to know is how the hell the US mint got the power to make laws that are not acts of Congress and were not voted on by the people!
    They can send your ass to jail for 5 years for melting your own damn pennies. The existing laws were about fraud or shaving the coins to make a buck.
    If you work and earn your pennies that is your property and now one can tell you what to do with it or who to flick them at.
  •  

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