I assume by recycled you mean melted down into an alloy similar to what it was before? I.e., aluminum. During the Great Recession the gangs that were melting down pennies were very much doing so to separate the copper from the zinc. and the zinc wasn’t that worthless either.
It had a lot of folks worried. This was back when the US Federal Government actually did things and wasn’t controlled by horrible, stupid people. Even GWB saw some value in the concept, but I digress.
I assume by recycled you mean melted down into an alloy similar to what it was before? I.e., aluminum. During the Great Recession the gangs that were melting down pennies were very much doing so to separate the copper from the zinc. and the zinc wasn’t that worthless either.
It had a lot of folks worried. This was back when the US Federal Government actually did things and wasn’t controlled by horrible, stupid people. Even GWB saw some value in the concept, but I digress.
www.usmint.gov/news/press-releases/20061214-united-states-mint-moves-to-limit-exportation-melting-of-coins