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

Yes. I know.

Humility? Is that possible with the new conservative movement? I remember good old Richard Nixon, he stepped down, apologized, and disappeared.

Just wait till copper goes up in value a little bit. In the 00’s gangsters were melting pennies down by the ton for the small amount of copper in them. Wouldn’t call them “trash” exactly…