Apparently, It’s Not Really Our Money After All

Just in case you thought that those coins in your pocket were yours to use as you see fit, the U.S. Mint has other ideas:

WASHINGTON — People who melt pennies or nickels to profit from the jump in metals prices could face jail time and pay thousands of dollars in fines, according to new rules out Thursday.

Soaring metals prices mean that the value of the metal in pennies and nickels exceeds the face value of the coins. Based on current metals prices, the value of the metal in a nickel is now 6.99 cents, while the penny’s metal is worth 1.12 cents, according to the U.S. Mint.

That has piqued concern among government officials that people will melt the coins to sell the metal, leading to potential shortages of pennies and nickels.

Unless I’m missing something, doesn’t that also mean that the Mint loses almost 2 cents on each nickel it makes and loses money on each penny as well ? Yea, that makes sense.