Damaged Coins??

mauirat · Jul 2, 2015

I've never given it much thought but I have a few dozen damaged coins (mostly zinc pennies - but a few clads) and wondered if there is anything that can be done with them?

I just decided to clean, roll and re-circulate all the clad stuff (help defray the cost of the new ATP) but have no idea if those damaged things have any value whatsoever.

Grumpysrb · Jul 3, 2015

I have heard you can send them to the mint or treasury, and they will replace them.

Then, I guess you could return the Zincs back to the wild.

Mick56 · Jul 3, 2015

Here is from the US Treasury website. I think the cost of sending the coins in would probably equal the actual coins value.

I have some coins that were damaged. Where can I redeem them?
The Treasury Department has prescribed regulations regarding uncurrent and mutilated coins.

Uncurrent coins are whole, but are worn or reduced in weight by natural abrasion. They are easily recognizable as to genuineness and denomination, and they are such that coin sorting and counting machines will accept them. Merchants and commercial banks will generally accept or refuse these coins at their discretion. However, Federal Reserve Banks and branches handle the redemption of uncurrent coins. Uncurrent coins are replaced with new coins of the same denomination by the Federal Reserve Banks, then forwarded to the United States Mint.

Mutilated coins, on the other hand, are coins that are bent, broken, not whole, or fused or melted together. The United States Mint is the only place that handles redemption of mutilated coins, and they should be sent to:

U.S. Mint at Post Office Box 400, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Phone: (215) 408-0203

All uncurrent or mutilated coins received by the Mint are melted, and the metal is shipped to a fabricator to be recycled in the manufacture of coinage strips.

itsaring! · Jul 3, 2015

Bent coins just hammer out and spend at a store. At the beach we wind up with a lot of thin clad a coin machine will kick out. I drop mine in a coin machine at my bank so I get 100% return. The ones that get kicked out I keep in a cup and spend them in stores mixed with good clad.

mauirat · Jul 3, 2015

Good Advice - Thanks!

Thanks for all the good advice. Just for fun, I may send all the chipped and broken ones back to mint!

In a weird sort of way, it could be considered helping the economy by possibly keeping a few folks at the mint employed! And, from a "green" standpoint, I would be recycling too!

Who'd have thought? THing could be considered a "Shovel Ready" project! Instead of funding those green energy companies (like Solyndra which took 500M and promptly went bankrupt), perhaps the Government should have bought and distributed high-end metal detectors (to existing hobbyists of course). In exchange, the recipients would agree to: 1) Dispose of all trash (which we already do) 2) Recycle all metal & 3)Send all damaged coins back to the U.S. Mint. What a great program! CAMRI (Coin And Metal Recycling Initiative)

Ok, I'm joking (sorta) but honestly, considering how many wasteful ways Congress throws away tax dollars this isn't such a bad idea. At least there would be some productive return on the dollars spent (unlike many programs)!

C-Dredge · Jul 4, 2015

Bent ones I just flatten and spend. The odd balls that been hit with a mower etc are kept as novelties. Come to think about it, I haven't found one in some time.

HarveyH48 · Jul 4, 2015

I throw the corroded zinc pennies out in the curb strip in front of my house, so other hunters can at least find something in my neighborhood. Had a guy with an ATPro through there a couple months ago, didn't dig even one, only spent a few seconds on my strip, compared to how long he spent on the neighbors. Little disappointing...

GabbityGabby · Jul 4, 2015

If they're too damaged for the coin machine to take 'em, I just throw them away in the trash.

MD-Mainiac · Jul 4, 2015

the mint does redeem mutilated coins.

Look up an article recently in Coin World Magazine.

The chinese were sending more mutalated coinage in for redemption( mostly halves), then had ever been produced...
It only took the mint paying out millions of dollars before they smartened up.

the crooks said they were recovering them from junk cars.

metaladdict · Jul 4, 2015

GabbityGabby said:
If they're too damaged for the coin machine to take 'em, I just throw them away in the trash.

Me too.

MD-Mainiac · Jul 4, 2015

I don't know... I have some pennies where the only thing left is the copper outer jacket...

JWalker3 · Jul 7, 2015

Mick56 said:
Here is from the US Treasury website. I think the cost of sending the coins in would probably equal the actual coins value.

1 good zinc penny weights 2.5 grams, aprox 12 pennys to the ounce.
1 ounce postage = $0.49 . Each additional ounce will cost $0.22

Its a 37 cent loss minimum for 12 pennys, not counting they have to pay 49 cents to send it back to you, thats an 86 cents loss per 12 pennys!

I could spend them but they remind me of all the work I did to get the good stuff. I just let them pile up in a jar and the cost is zero!

MD-Mainiac · Jul 7, 2015

JWalker3 said:
1 good zinc penny weights 2.5 grams, aprox 12 pennys to the ounce.
1 ounce postage = $0.49 . Each additional ounce will cost $0.22

Its a 37 cent loss minimum for 12 pennys, not counting they have to pay 49 cents to send it back to you, thats an 86 cents loss per 12 pennys!

I could spend them but they remind me of all the work I did to get the good stuff. I just let them pile up in a jar and the cost is zero!

I agree that pennies are not worth sending in to redeem.
Banks and other companies, like Brinks, etc.. will do it, because they wait until they accumulate tons of the stuff.

Usually, your local bank or Credit union will exchange damaged coins, other than pennies.

Damaged Coins??

mauirat

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Grumpysrb

Mick56

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itsaring!

24K Larry

mauirat

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C-Dredge

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HarveyH48

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GabbityGabby

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MD-Mainiac

metaladdict

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MD-Mainiac

JWalker3

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