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The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
21–30 of 151 posts
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#22Do you not just shred them and send them to a scrap metal processor?
Only pennies before 1982 are worth scrapping as they are made of copper.
The newer pennies are not really worth the effort as they are mostly zinc.
Ironically if they are no longer illegal to melt down (IANAL but I would think this is true?) they actually would be more worth it to scrap because of the negated risk.
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#23Do you not just shred them and send them to a scrap metal processor?
Only pennies before 1982 are worth scrapping as they are made of copper. The newer pennies are not really worth the effort as they are mostly zinc. Ironically if they are no longer illegal to melt down (IANAL but I would think this is true?) they actually would be more worth it to scrap because of the negated risk.
We can turn them into suntan lotion!
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#24This is all a bit hyperbolic. Stopping minting pennies made sense and has precedent. There used to be half penny coins.
Also, pennies are still legal tender. Folks can take them to a bank or other venue and cash them in. They’re not “trash.”
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#25100 fuses for $1, awesome! ;-)
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only pennies before 1982 are worth scrapping as they are made of copper. The newer pennies are not really worth the effort as they are mostly zinc. Ironically if they are no longer illegal to melt down (IANAL but I would think this is true?) they actually would be more worth it to scrap because of the negated risk.
We can turn them into suntan lotion!
hahah ok actually I love that.
I think however the problem would be the trouble in seperating the zinc from the copper, I think you would likely operate at a loss still but this is just a guess.
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#27Do you not just shred them and send them to a scrap metal processor?
Only pennies before 1982 are worth scrapping as they are made of copper. The newer pennies are not really worth the effort as they are mostly zinc. Ironically if they are no longer illegal to melt down (IANAL but I would think this is true?) they actually would be more worth it to scrap because of the negated risk.
> The newer pennies are not really worth the effort as they are mostly zinc.
They're still worth $1 per lb., and you have to destroy them, anyway.
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only pennies before 1982 are worth scrapping as they are made of copper. The newer pennies are not really worth the effort as they are mostly zinc. Ironically if they are no longer illegal to melt down (IANAL but I would think this is true?) they actually would be more worth it to scrap because of the negated risk.
> The newer pennies are not really worth the effort as they are mostly zinc. They're still worth $1 per lb., and you have to destroy them, anyway.
It's their mix with copper I beleive that makes them less valuable than their raw value in zinc if thats what your number is based on...
because the cost of seperation from the copper is greater than simply sourcing other materials.
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#29According to Marketplace.org, pennies are treasure for some businesses now because the regional Feds aren't distributing them. https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/11/13/businesses-face...
I've been listening to Marketplace less because of stories like this. The half cent went away, the penny went away, other countries have discontinued currencies. You keep accepting pennies and you round when people pay in cash. At some point, your register will do the rounding for you. There isn't really a story here.
The register might already do the rounding if it was designed to work in Canada, which got rid of the penny over a decade ago.
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#30Several points: firstly i would assume every country has a process for disposing of bad and worn out notes and coins. If not i'm sure someone could work out how to profit from recycling dead pennies in true capitalist fashion. This leads on to my second point which is when the government has time they should get around to issuing a bill removing pennies (and maybe other smaller denominations) from legal tender.
But there is a wider point which i want to discuss. How long will physical cash last? I'm very fuzzy on this but i think in some of the Asian countries it is practically an endangered species. Tax people don't like large denomination notes. And virtually no legal big transactions take place in cash. America must profit massively from the fact that in many other countries dollars are the go to black market currency but that is a very singular advantage.