On Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:12:14 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry Muso
wrote:

It is illegal to melt pennies. If it was not, the pennies would all
disappear, because they would be melted down by those who have no
interest in maintaining the government's penny-sized zinc-ingot
program for recreational jewelers. Support the penny!

First, I'm not sure what this post had to do with jewelry, other than the word
in that last line. But whatever. If one is sufficiently bored, one can be
amused by all sorts of interesting investigations, such as how to destroy a
coin. Rolling mills are good for this too. And in these tough economic times,
melting a penny for your evening's entertainment is cheaper than going out to
dinner and a movie. Getting your date to share your enthousiasm might be a
problem, but at least one is saving money. In sort of a money destroying way.
Interesting irony there. Oh, and don't try this method with those world war 2
vintage irony pennies. You'd need more than a propane torch to melt that irony.
(grin.)

However, one point of contention. The zinc cored penny was developed because
copper prices had gone up enough so there was more than a penny's worth of
copper in the coin, thus creating the temptation to melt em. So far as I know,
the cost of the zinc in the current penny is still not yet a penny's worth, so
there's no strong incentive to melt the things down, other than simply the
thrill of melting something... correct me if I'm wrong, of course. But zinc
is still pretty cheap, and you can make a LOT of pennies from a pound of zinc...

Peter