A Penny Melted is a Sentence Earned
On a lighter note:
Picture this scenario. You’re in prison, and jawing with the other residents during chow time.
What’er you in for?
“Murder”
What about you?
“I robbed a bank and critically wounded a bank teller”
“And you?”
I melted my penny stash.
It seems that it is now illegal to melt pennies.
Now I have to admit, it never crossed my mind to stick all my years worth of pennies collection into a furnace, but now that I know it’s illegal, I’m really going to be tempted…
Seems pennies and nickels are worth more melted down than as coins. $.0173 each for pennies and $.0834 cents for nickels.
The new law also forbids unlicensed exportation of these coins.
Breaking these new laws could result imprisonment of up to 5 years and a fine of up to $10,000.
Labels: Miscellaneous
thoughts from Ms.Green @ Tuesday, December 19, 2006
4 Comments:
I heard somewhere that copper is becoming rare so expensive. Perhaps that's the thinking behind it being illegal to melt pennies. Why would anyone want to melt them anyway?
What about the pennies that are pressed out of shape for souvenirs is that illegal over there, yet?
Carolanne,
I guess some would think it would be worth collecting pennies and selling them.
I don't understand the logic. If a person has a penny collection and they never spend it, thus keeping it off the open market, that' ok. But if they melt them and sell them to make a pittance of a profit, that's somehow detrimental to our monetary system??? Just isn't logical to me. But then Government regulations seldom are.
As far as altered money, I'm not sure what the law is on that. I've seen coins used in jewelry, as well as sold with imprints on them after being smashed/pressed. Haven't heard of any gift shops being raided in this regard.
Thanks for stopping by.
You have an interesting blog here :-) Thank's for stopping by my place. Merry Christmas
I don't think copper is becoming rare, but it's price is now worth more than what a penny costs... So it's a simple matter to say, exchange $100 of pennies, and return a profit for doing nothing.
Of course, the sky is the limit on how many pennies you could melt.
And we ALL know how much folks like getting something for nothing...
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