Q: Melting down Cu-Ni clad coins...

adamlaneus

I hope the forum will tolerate another question:

Melting down coins. It seems easy when you are talking homogenous mixtures of gold or silver.

Melt it down. Perform an assay and tweak the metal content until it is within spec. Done.

What about a modern clad coin with the two layers?

If you melt a clad coin down, you will get a homogenous Cupronickel alloy.

It will obviously take further refining to separate the Nickel from the Copper. I've never ever heard of folks melting down clads.

I've heard of the melting of cents during WW2 and how the bronze was useful with respect to ammunition shells. And vice versa.

There aren't a whole lot of industrial uses for Cu-Ni alloy that I can think of. Certainly not for the volume of coinage we have. Not sure what the plan is for mass melting of clads, or if there is one.

It sort of sounds non-economical. Like it is easier to mine more native metal than it is to melt down old clad coins and refine/separate the Copper and Nickel.

Can any forum member expound on the methods of recycling clad coins into more clad coins?

I know it is illegal for an individual to do. But it seems to me that this is what the US Mint would do with worn coins; take them out of circulation, melt them, and make new coins.

[edit]
Perhaps I am thinking along the wrong lines entirely, and the coins are recycled chemically. There may be an acid you can use to separate the metals by dissolving one and not the other.


I almost posted this in the precious metals forum, but neither copper nor nickel is a precious metal really. Clad coins...that's pretty much a US coin thing.

CopperWire

As far as I know it is the cents and nickels that cannot be melted. Anything else is fair game. Can someone confirm?

cladking

<< <i>As far as I know it is the cents and nickels that cannot be melted. Anything else is fair game. Can someone confirm? >>



There is no prohibition against melting clads other than common sense.

Clads will eventually be used to make an alloy. This has been the disposition
of many of the modern coins ever minted. They are gatered up and sent to
India or China where they are made into refrigerators and other products.
During the '80's and '90's most of South Americas coins were shipped to Japan
to make Toyotas.

Many stainless steels call for a mixture of copper and nickel which would make
a very convenient place to melt these.

adamlaneus

Ah, yes. Stuff for alloying with steel. Of course.

Thanks! As always, you are a fountain of great information!

Baley

Of currently circulataing US coinage, only the pre-1982 cent is worth more as metal than as money


1909-1982 Cent (95% copper) * Face: $0.01 Melt value: $0.0188494 Melt as a percentage of face: 188.49%

Although the nickel is close:

1946-2009 Nickel $0.05 $0.0459180 91.83%

And Zinolns are actually more valuable as a percentage of face than clad:

1982-2009 Cent (97.5% zinc) * $0.01 $0.0050035 50.03%

Add in the refining cost, and you're far better off spending clad than melting it.

1965-2009 Dime $0.10 $0.0164367 16.43%
1965-2009 Quarter $0.25 $0.0410940 16.43%
1971-2009 Half Dollar $0.50 $0.0821889 16.43%
1971-1978 Eisenhower Dollar $1.00 $0.1643788 16.43%
1979-1981, 1999 SBA Dollar $1.00 $0.0587059 5.87%

The "golden dollars are even worse:

2000-2009 Sacagawea Dollar $1.00 $0.0495903 4.95%
2007-2009 Presidential Dollar $1.00 $0.0495903 4.95%

gonna take a lot more commodity inflation, relative to energy inflation, before it would start to make sense to melt clad