Catching on, but mostly overseas

BBC News:

Rising metal prices could mean that United States one cent coins become worth more as metal than for their face value.

The Australian:

IT could soon be worthwhile for Americans to melt down their pennies for scrap, if zinc and copper prices continue their current rate of increase.

Copper prices have risen 30 per cent this year, and zinc is up 55 per cent - a rise of about $US550 a tonne in a little more than three weeks.

Another rise of the same magnitude would make the metal content in the US 1c coin worth more than its face value.

Going, going, gone: according to coinflation.com, the metal value of a pre-1982 cent is already 182% of its face value, the nickel 90%, and the post-1982 cent (what both the above articles are talking about) 78%. But it's not the metal that that's becoming more valuable; it's the dollar that's going to nothing.