it is illegal to melt American cents,what about Canadian cents?

chumley

Canada stopped producing copper cents about 2 years ago ,the banks in Canada do not even accept them now(true in New Brunswick Province at least).So I am wondering if Canadian cents could be sold as copper scrap?Any overhomers have any knowledge on this? thank you

keyman64

It is not legal to melt US copper CENTS. That I know.

mrdq

I don't see how melting foreign coins in the US would be against any US laws. Go for it.

291fifth

Here in the Detroit area I still get Canadian cents in change, but not nearly as often as in the past. I used to average about 50 per year. That is now down to about 25 per year.

I don't see any reason why they couldn't be melted in the US. The US law only applies to US cents, doesn't it?

silverpop

i'd read the law carefully and see what it covers and doesn't

Wabbit2313

<< <i>i'd read the law carefully and see what it covers and doesn't >>



This clears it up!

LindeDad

Takes a lot of energy to melt copper doesn't it?

mrearlygold

Canadian banks don't accept Canadian cents because they are made of copper? Send em here! How much is copper/lb ?

ProofArtworkonCircs

Recent Canadian cents are not copper. 1997 started copper plated zinc cents. Eventually they switched to copper plated steel.

winky

The banks don't want them so Melt them.

lkeigwin

Melt cents and do what? Make bars? How heavy would a $1000 copper bar be? That's silly.

Spool it. Wire's got value. But the cost to do this isn't cheap.

Like 90% silver, in most cases it's just smarter to leave it alone. Everyone knows the value of a bag of Morgan's. No question about its silver content. Same for a bag of wheaties.
Lance.

TwoSides2aCoin

<< <i>Melt cents and do what? Make bars? How heavy would a $1000 copper bar be? That's silly.

Spool it. Wire's got value. But the cost to do this isn't cheap.

Like 90% silver, in most cases it's just smarter to leave it alone. Everyone knows the value of a bag of Morgan's. No question about its silver content. Same for a bag of wheaties.
Lance. >>



Maybe start bronzing MegaStars' Nike Shoes, or Reebok's …. and selling them on ebay. It would take a few pounds of bronze, for the size of some of them shoes

tradedollarnut

<< <i>Canadian banks don't accept Canadian cents because they are made of copper? Send em here! How much is copper/lb ? >>



Appx $2.65

Doubt it's worth doing at the moment

coindeuce

Good luck getting tonnage of copper Canadian cents through U.S. Customs. Don't think for a NY minute that the DHS doesn't have a hairbrained scheme like that on their watch list already in their escalated vigilance for money laundering for the benefit of radical T-rists, who for the most part have much better schemes in place anyway. Believe me when I state that Customs Inspectors are NOT nice guys just working for a fat paycheck.
At the commodities price of $2.65/pound that TDN posted, one would have to be bringing railroad car loads of them in to the States every day from the Great White North to make the venture profitable, even if it were a legitimate commercial operation.

sparky64

<< <i>Text it is illegal to melt American cents,what about Canadian cents? >>


Go ahead. I won't tell.

DaveG

You might want to check with some Canadian collectors, but my understanding is that the Canadian Mint has, for the past few years, been actively pulling their older coins out of circulation and melting them to recover the metal value.

My understanding is they first started doing this with their nickel coins and then moved on to their copper cents.

According to this LINK web page from the Canadian Mint's website, Canada didn't just stop producing "copper cents" a couple of years ago, they started phasing out the cent as a denomination - which is probably why banks won't accept them.

Of course, their own mint calls them "pennies" - but what are you going to do?

By the way, my understanding (from a post here a while ago) is that the copper recyclers really only want pure copper and offering them melted down cents will only get about 25% of the current copper price due to the expense they have to go through to refine the melted-down cents.

cladking

Recyclers around here think it's illegal to melt Canadian coins.

Who knows? With the hundreds of thousands of laws on the books it just might be.

Kyle

<< <i>Canada stopped producing copper cents about 2 years ago ,the banks in Canada do not even accept them now >>


I'm not sure where you heard this, pennies are still legal tender in Canada and all banks accept them.

RCM - Phasing out the penny

SaorAlba

Canada minted their cents in a slightly larger size than USA cents until 1979 then they started downsizing. By 1983 they went to the thin 12 sided coin. In 1997 the RCM started minting the copper plated zinc cents, then ca. 2003 copper plated steel. The steel and zinc cents were minted through early 2012.

I am a roll searcher and I find literally hundreds of them a week in the NE of the USA - I keep all the pre-1979 cents, send the post 1979 back to the bank and throw the steel in the Canadian coin bag that I eventually sell on the BST. I also save pre-1982 Canadian five cent coins and of course pre 1968 Canadian silver ten and 25 cent coins. I find enough Canadian silver to make it worthwhile - more people are unfamiliar that Canadian coins prior to 1968 are silver than they are with pre-1965 USA coins.

jdimmick

There are a lot of older collections especially from the north that contain lots of older Canadian change

I just did one last week that had like 2300

ProofArtworkonCircs

SaorAlba - what per centage of your current Canadian cent finds are copper?

Years ago there was a crook who melted US silver coins, added copper and sold it as Canadian silver.

I suspect melting Canadian coins in the US is legal. However I doubt that border agents on either side would tolerate large quantities of coins crossing the border.

SaorAlba

<< <i>SaorAlba - what per centage of your current Canadian cent finds are copper?

>>



Approximately 90% of the Canadian cents I find are copper - they made them in the 12 sided thin type until 1996. What I have found curious is that I have bought rolls of cents in Canadian banks back when they had them and could find even GVI cents in them. QEII YH's are still fairly common too, especially the 1964s. With the five cent coins YH's are scarce, but I find a dozen or so every month. What are really scarce are GVI five cent coins, especially the chrome plated steel ones. And I have only ever found a couple of the tombac five cent coins from 1942.

The earliest Canadian cent I have found in roll searches is a 1920 GV, the rarest the 1925. Earliest five cent coin is a 1926. Earliest 10 cent coin is a 1938, and 25 cent coin a 1936 GV.

TwoSides2aCoin

<< <i>SaorAlba - what per centage of your current Canadian cent finds are copper?

Years ago there was a crook who melted US silver coins, added copper and sold it as Canadian silver.

I suspect melting Canadian coins in the US is legal. However I doubt that border agents on either side would tolerate large quantities of coins crossing the border. >>



LOL @ that.

Went to Canada in 2007 for 3 months. I didn't want to leave my rolls of silver at home because I let my ex wife stay at the house with my daughter during that time.
Forgetting about the ammo box full of rolled silver in the back of my truck delayed my entry into Canada for several minutes.

These guys wanted to know WHY I had all this silver in an ammo can. They laughed when I told them why.

ricko

I have a pile of Canadian coinage... some old... I should check it one day for any rarities...definitely some silver there... Cheers, RickO