JACKSON METALS OF OHIO WANTS TO RESUME MELTING PRE-1982 CENTS Público Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 10, Number 45, November 4, 2007, Article 20
JACKSON METALS OF OHIO WANTS TO RESUME MELTING PRE-1982 CENTS
Dick Johnson writes: "Jackson Metals of Jackson, Ohio,
had been melting cents, as least the pre-1982 high content
copper coins, until the U.S. Treasury issued a ban on their
destruction in December last year. The ban became effective
in April 2007."Company owner, Walter Luhrman, contacted his U.S. Congressman,
Rep Zack Space, who amended a coin-composition bill to allow
his constituant's firm to return to melting the pre-1982 cents.
But Illinois Representative Jerry Costello raised concerns
about how changing composition legislation would affect a
company in his state that supplies the U.S. Mint with coinage
strips or blanks."According to the article Mr. Luhrman argues 'he culls out
pre-1982 pennies, which used more copper than the current
copper-plated zinc ones, and sells some to collectors. He
then redistributes the three-quarters of the pennies left
over to areas of the country where there are shortages. He
maintains that, as a result, the Mint could produce fewer
cents each year. That would be no small item when you consider
that 6.58 billion cents were produced this year at a cost
ranging from 1.4 cents to 1.6 cents, according to the Mint.'"Coin World editor Beth Deisher is quoted as disagreeing
with his argument. She knows of no such areas with a shortage
of cents. 'If there are shortages,' she stated 'he (Jackson
Metals) is creating them.""I wonder where Luhrman is getting his stock of cents where
one-quarter are pre-1982 cents."The story was published in the Columbus Dispatch, written
by Jonathan Riskind, with contribution of numismatist
Gerald Tebben."To read the complete article, see:
Full Story
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