Just wait till copper goes up in value a little bit. In the 00’s gangsters were melting pennies down by the ton for the small amount of copper in them. Wouldn’t call them “trash” exactly…
I assume by recycled you mean melted down into an alloy similar to what it was before? I.e., aluminum. During the Great Recession the gangs that were melting down pennies were very much doing so to separate the copper from the zinc. and the zinc wasn’t that worthless either.
It had a lot of folks worried. This was back when the US Federal Government actually did things and wasn’t controlled by horrible, stupid people. Even GWB saw some value in the concept, but I digress.
Just wait till copper goes up in value a little bit. In the 00’s gangsters were melting pennies down by the ton for the small amount of copper in them. Wouldn’t call them “trash” exactly…
They’re not copper anymore
Yes. I know.
Since 1982 Pennys are zinc with a thin (2.5%) copper cladding.
You mean copper coated zinc. Which can’t be recycled, and already has about 5 cents of metal in them
I assume by recycled you mean melted down into an alloy similar to what it was before? I.e., aluminum. During the Great Recession the gangs that were melting down pennies were very much doing so to separate the copper from the zinc. and the zinc wasn’t that worthless either.
It had a lot of folks worried. This was back when the US Federal Government actually did things and wasn’t controlled by horrible, stupid people. Even GWB saw some value in the concept, but I digress.
www.usmint.gov/news/press-releases/20061214-united-states-mint-moves-to-limit-exportation-melting-of-coins