Can I melt penny's for metal casting?

Question

I heard pennys are mostly zinc with has a low melting temp and are 2% copper out side which has a lot higher melting point. If I had a solder melting pot and melted the zinc inside would it come out of the copper shell?

Answer 1

It's possible. Instead of pennies why not use pot metal or white metal?  Use the pennies to buy the other metals. Most countries have laws against defacing or destroying coins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_metal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_metal

Good luck.

Jeff (weseye) Wesley

Answer 2

you probably could, but why on earth would you?

You would have to use cents from 1982 and later only (only those are mainly zinc), and the metal value of those is about half of a cent. So you spend a cent plus cost of energy to get half a cents worth metal which isn't even clean.

Actually tin has a clearly lower melting point than zinc, it already melts at 550F.

Answer 3

you'd be breaking the law if you did this, something to do with defacing the royal mint, and that can possibly carry a prison sentence. but it's your choice if you want to risk it. just hope nobody grasses you up for it if you do.