Melting down your nickels for fun and profit It is LEGAL to melt down your nickel coins and ultimately make a profit from your actions - so long as you are not intending on turning your nickels into scrap SOLELY for the purpose of making a profit. In other words, you can melt down your nickels in order to make jewelry or artworks, which would later be sold at a profit. As long as you are not intending to make a profit DIRECTLY from your greedy coin melting in the basement furnace, you are okay.
March 25, 2022
“It is not illegal to melt, form, destroy, or otherwise modify U.S. coins, including pennies, unless the objective is fraudulent or with the intent of selling the raw materials of the coins for profit. Projects that use coins as materials are entirely legal in the United States.”
In other words, you cannot profit solely from the value of the metal content of the coins. Yes, you can make jewelry, trinkets or artwork and sell them for profit.
But if you gather a pile of coins and melt them down into scrap metal and sell what is left, that is not OK and is illegal.”
https://www.agrinews-pubs.com/opinion/columnists/2022/03/26/commodity-insite-nickel-market-meltdown/
I put a penny in the kiln- but what in the world happened?
https://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/topic/3219-i-put-a-penny-in-the-kiln-but-what-in-the-world-happened/
Best way to melt nickel at home
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/best-way-to-melt-nickel-at-home.703/