Who cares if melting is illegal?

First, an intro on dropping the penny from circulation. I visited Australia a decade ago. They already had dropped the penny from circulation, but prices sometimes were more precise than nickels. After "sales tax", the merchants rounded to the nearest $.05 or $.10.

I can't imagine the penny ever leaving the USA. We're too politically attached. I think it will go obsolete, but probably at the same time that ALL of our coinage goes obsolete ... right when each of our body imprints becomes our personal debit cards.

Does the Mint really believe our penny supply is perilously low? and that's why they don't want pre-1982 coppers melted? It's strange, then, that melting would be illegal, but hoarding would not be.

When the Mint announces the penny's obsolescence, perhaps the coins will be recalled. The Mint could even offer a 10% premium over face to encourage the [voluntary] recall, and they would still make a killing on the copper melt. Perhaps the federal government wants the sole right to melt its own money and make a profit in the process.

Remember the decades it was illegal to hoard gold. Because of the Fed's actions in the 1930's, gold is much more valuable now relative to the dollar. But many business strike gold coins, due to scarcity after the melt, merit hefty premiums today.

So, I say, go ahead and hoard your coppers! It's hard to imagine a scarcity of 1967 pennies ... but when most are melted and there are "only" 100,000,000 remaining ...

Okay, that argument's ridiculous. (Just like I can't believe rolls of 2009 Jeffersons and Roosevelts are still going for over 1000% of face on ebay.)

But, there's already a market for plain copper pennies. I'll already buy them at spot (between $1 and $1.50 a roll). So do others. That market's not going away. And the big copper melt will happen in the next 40 years. If you've got the space, why not hoard?