Fun With CoinsHobbies & Crafts

Get Money For Your Damaged Coins Through The US Mint Mutilated Coin Redemption Program

Did you know the U.S. Mint will pay you for your damaged coins?

A handful of damaged coins.

It’s true!

Since 2009, the US Mint has paid more than $100 million to individuals who turned in their damaged coins. (See update below!)

It’s called the United States Mint Mutilated Coin Redemption Program, and it was established in 1911.

How To Get Money For Damaged Coins

The US Mint currently pays $20 per pound for damaged dimes, quarters, and half dollars, and there’s no limit on how many mutilated coins you can submit.

What counts as a mutilated coin?

Here are some examples:

The US Mint pays money for damaged coins through its Mutilated Coin Redemption Program.

The coins you turn in to the US Mint through its redemption program will be redeemed as scrap metal and recycled.

So how does the US Mint mutilated coin redemption program work?

It’s quite simple. Just bag up the damaged coins — sorted by denomination — and send them to the U.S. Mint. You will receive payment for eligible submissions within several weeks of the US Mint receiving your coins.

What About Pressed Pennies And Coins Made Into Jewelry?

Technically speaking, the following are all forms of damaged coins:

However, submitting them to the US Mint Mutilated Coin Redemption Program isn’t necessarily the best way to make money from those damaged coins.

All of the coins I listed above have their own types of collectors markets and are worth far more to individuals who enjoy collecting those coins than you’ll earn submitting those pieces to the U.S. Mint at a scrap exchange rate of $20 per pound.

You can get money for pressed pennies from the US Mint, but you might get more money from a collector.

Here’s what those coins may be worth to novelty coin collectors:

  • Pressed pennies — 25 cents or more
  • Colorized coins — $1 or more
  • Coin jewelry — Various amounts from $1 to $25 or more
  • Magician’s coins — $3 or more
  • Other types of altered coins and strange tokens — 25 cents or more

What Are Contaminated Coins? Can They Be Redeemed, Too?

Ever wonder what happens to coins that have blood, urine, stool, or vomit on them?

What about coins found inside the body of a person or an animal?

How about moldy coins? Coins slathered in gum?

Hope I didn’t gross you out, and I certainly hope you weren’t munching on something tasty while reading this.

But, hey — aren’t you curious where these coins go?

Contaminated coins can be redeemed, but must be submitted to a special government address.

As it happens, they, too, may be redeemed. But they don’t necessarily go to the same place as mutilated coins that don’t have an “ick factor” about them.

If you have contaminated coins, you basically have 2 options:

The Difference Between Mutilated Coins And Uncurrent Coins

You may have heard the term “uncurrent coin.”

How do uncurrent coins differ from mutilated coins?

An uncurrent coin is one that:

  • Is heavily worn but still recognizable
  • Weighs less than a standard coin of its type, due to natural abrasion
  • Is recognizable and known to be genuine and can be counted by machine
Uncurrent, or heavily worn coins can be redeemed through any Federal Reserve bank for face value.

Instead of putting these heavily worn coins back into your pocket change or coin jar, you can get full face value for them!

If you have uncurrent coins, do this:

The U.S. Mint gets a lot of value from the redemption of damaged coins. It gets precious metals back so they may be used in new coins and protects the integrity of the U.S. coinage system by taking older coins out of circulation. Once the U.S. Mint had a better understanding of the process in which the coins are recovered, it was really a no-brainer.

Source

UPDATE: FROM THE U.S. MINT

The United States Mint’s Mutilated Coin Redemption is permanently closed. The United States Mint is no longer accepting bent or partial coins for redemption.

If you’ve been paying attention to news from the US Mint and US Treasury, you may have heard about the temporary suspension of the US Mint Mutilated Coin Redemption Program. (See update below!)

So, what’s going on?

Unfortunately, it looks like a few bad apples have ruined the coin redemption for the bunch — at least for a short while.

Some of those scrap coins have contained silicon and other trace elements that authentic US coins shouldn’t contain.

The US government, concerned about receiving potentially million of coins from abroad that may be counterfeit, temporarily suspended the US Mint Mutilated Coin Redemption Program while it investigates the coins further.

The plan has been to restart the coin redemption program once the US Mint determines how to make the initiative more secure and weed out counterfeit coins in the future.

If you’re interested in reading more about this temporary halt and the millions of dollars in possible counterfeit coins submitted to the US Mint from China, check out the following articles:

What About Damaged Bills?

Paper money that's been damaged by fire.

Yes, the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing — which prints American currency — replaces partially destroyed or badly damaged bills as a free public service.

They’ve been doing this since 2005.

If you have damaged bills that you’d like to redeem, do this:

If you find our content helpful, please consider making a one time contribution to help keep our content free.