"Lincoln Log" heatsink 3/4" copper bar for $0.20 an inch? What?

LED Flashlights – General Info
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Cute dog, my husky never would have held still like that, he probably would have tried to eat the pennies then spat them out and ran across the back of my couch sideways like a berm. Lol at the “Lincoln Log” name, clever title for it.

I grabbed this from an article about cutting coins for jewelry. It looks like it’s not illegal to modify the coins as long as you have no fraudulent intent. In other words, you aren’t altering the value or presenting the coin to be something it isn’t, and you aren’t melting it down to sell as metal. Regardless, I think it’s borderline paranoia to worry about the Feds showing up over $0.20 worth of currency.

U.S. Code is 18 U.S.C. §331 reads: “Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States; or whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled or lightened - shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. [Emphasis added.]”

Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who ’fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States. This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent. (Source U.S. Mint)

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Ok, seriously, bustin your chops over the use of pennies. Any pennies worth using were taken out of circulation long ago and don’t actually fall under law pertaining to current use coinage. :stuck_out_tongue:

BUT, numismatic value could possibly have you breaking a sweat.

This penny was sold for $4,500

Potentially, a stack of pennies pre ’81 could be worth a small fortune, almost assuredly they’re worth more than .20.

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Sounds good to me.

Hopefully our fledgling member OP doesn’t get scared off from posting other tips in the future. :beer:

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hmm because it doesn’t have a mint code?

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My guess is that it has a manufacturing defect. (The bump below and to the right of the last “t” in Trust) That would make it quite unique.

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Nice dog, labrador? :slight_smile:

It’s not easy finding an answer to this on Google but I’ve read in a few place’s that you’ll be breaking the law if you deface bank notes but it’s not the same with coins.

With coins you’ll only be breaking the law if the defaced or altered coins are then passed on in order to commit fraud?

Is that right?

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Doberman. As for the coins to my understanding unless you melt a bunch down in order to sell the copper as it’s worth a little over $.02 copper weight or trying to alter the value nobody will be coming for you. Like I said before for personal use in a flashlight I see no problem. If one was to somehow start to make a profit doing such things I’m sure Uncle Sam would have something to say about it. If you get caught….

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That’s what I mean, manufacturing defects on coinage usually increases rarity and value. But I thought all pennies had the mint mark and that would be a defect, but I looked it up and apparently the penny is the one coin that has often appeared without a mint mark.

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I imagine if would work great if available. All the copper grounding rods I have seen are copper coated. I don’t think they could be driven into hard ground if they were pure copper.

Nice thread Turningbluechips. Great bargain alert.

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IIRC, there “have been” such a thing as “solid copper” ground rods. But if they exist today, I don’t know of it. All I find available in my area are steel and copper clad steel. Even so, the “solid copper” rods were certainly not pure copper, but some alloy. As you said, they often need to be driven into hard ground.

Oh look, I found one! :sunglasses:
From that page:

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Chops busted bud. I guess now I’ll have to put one to use, time to resurrect the micro mag.

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this is one of those “urban myths”. that your not allowed to use pennies to make something. heres some other “legal urban myths”…

1) “common law marriage”. “You know, you and your girlfriend are legally MARRIED, you’ve been living together for 7 years!” “Oh, i heard that was down to 5 years now in this state…” People on TV like newscasters? Know nothing about the law, and when they say “Bob Bobbers, and his common law wife…” what they MEANT to say, 99 percent of the time? is “Bob Bobbers and his live-together-arrangement girlfriend.”

2) “if you have a license to carry a concealed firearm? you shoudl NEVER carry handloaded ammo, only FACTORY ROUNDS… some prosecutor could claim you were trying to make more deadly ammo!” The truth? Its another legal urban myth that got repeated so many times, it isnt even funny. Its NEVER ONCE been a deciding issue in ANY self defense case, ever.

One more time, though i KNOW some of you wont believe me? DEFACING coins? Is a specific legal term. The coin itself has a “FACE VALUE”, which is what its worth… de-FACING the coin? Means trying to alter the coin to spend it as a higher value coin. “MELT-ing” a coin? Another specific legal term. It means MELTING to make a profit on the value of it.

People for some reason, love to say sagely then “well, you know, its best to be on the safe side… you dont want to take the chance…”

can anyone show a single case of someone making a necklace, or making anything else out of a penny, and was prosecuted for it, let alone convicted?

As far as “hoarding” being illegal? if it was at all enforced, no coin collector would be allowed to save up silver coins or anything else… and it would be illegal to SELL silver coins and copper pennies…. because if you had a bunch to sell saved up? You were obviously HOARDING them…

I’m allowed to save up all the pennies i feel like saving up… and you are definitely allowed to make a heat sink out of one if you want to. Me? I used copper pennies to make a copper shelf in a hollow pill, worked great.

we all know penny arcades all have the “squish the penny into a necklace” machines… we all know they make jewelry…. but, can anyone saying “its better not to try it…” demonstrate a SINGLE case?

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But how do the pennies feel about all of this?

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Do traveling carnivals still have those machines that squash and restamp pennies into oblong keepsake mementos?

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It is?
What constitutes hoarding money?

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hoarding COINAGE i dont even believe, but… its more believeable than “hoarding currency is illegal”.

you would tell me its ILLEGAL for me to make a pile of cold hard CASH and put it in my safe? poppycock.

Now, I’m in the united states… Manila, for example? has strict laws against hoarding coins… but if some old “silver” law even IS still on the books here, its certainly not enforced.

this is SO… well, almost silly. Theres machines still around, that make keepsakes out of pennies. I have seen them and made the keepsakes and gave it to my girl. Companies exist all over the united states that make stuff out of coins and paper money too. Its a common scoience experiment to put i think sulfur onto an old copper penny and heat it to make a chemical reaction.

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so banking is illegal
i wouldn’t count on it

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I’ve been hoarding currency since I was a child and proud of it! They can pry it out of my cold dead hand. 8-|

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No, banks (being large enough to wine and dine those who regulate them) are allowed to hold cash. Though I can’t see it, somehow this makes them better than you or me. As to what constitutes “hoarding” it comes down to the individual Judge. It’s generally only applies to persons who are doing it to manipulate a market or value. In the mid-1860’s the US needed more money in circulation so they printed the “greenback dollar” which was only a promissory note that had no actual inherent value much like today’s “Federal Reserve Notes”. It was not accepted by sellers on a one-to-one basis with the gold-backed currency in use at the time which ended up being hoarded, making the need for the “greenback” even bigger. IIRC that was where the”hoarding” regulation began.

But getting back on track, soldering won’t give quite the same results as one solid mass but it should be good enough for this application. And metal casting for making copper slugs to be machined is relatively cheap and easy. I would, however, advise not posting online what my source of that copper was if I were using pennies to do that- no sense in creating a problem where none exists!

Phil

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I can’t say i fully understand this, but since we don’t hear about the large scale prosecutions of people who have currency i assume this is not a common issue for the general public.
I remember reading an explanation about damaging currency on one of those penny stamping into memento machines but i can’t recall what it was