ISRI seeks clarity on mutilated coins

The Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has received a response from the U.S. Mint to its July letter with questions about the timing and structure of the Mint’s redemption program for mutilated coins.

Operators of automobile shredding plants recover mutilated coins in their downstream sorting systems. A redemption program formerly operated by the Mint that made partial payment for such coins was suspended in July 2019.

The Oct. 6 response, from John F. Schorn, chief counsel of the Mint, offers incomplete clarity on the return of a redemption system or what type of remuneration value coins may have if the program returns. Instead, Schorn focuses on “safeguards and fraud detection methodologies” the Mint characterizes as its reason to suspend the program. Adds Schorn, “We are reviewing and considering changes to the regulations for the program that will better enable the Mint to ensure the integrity of material being redeemed.”

As to when that review might be complete, Schorn writes, “We plan to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the coming months to solicit public comments on the changes to the regulations. The Mint’s goal is to publish the final regulations in 2021.”

The U.S. Mint chief counsel also notes in his letter, “Recyclers, like everyone else, are able to melt dimes, quarters, half dollars and dollar coins for their scrap value.”

In a summary of the correspondence to its members, ISRI comments that it has “strongly communicated” to the Mint that shredder operators receive a much larger redemption value from the Mint compared with the return received by remelting, “and this value is priced into the scrap.”

ISRI states, “We will again go back to the Mint with assistance from our Congressional allies to push for the quick release of these new regulations and the resumption of the mutilated coin redemption program.”