i just went thru like 30 pennies in my drawer and found only 1 1982....how can this become more effecient??..im in...
My guess is that banks already do this and exchange them for newer coins. The problem would be transporting them. You try to take a lot out of the US to melt and you will get friction from the patriot act.
This whole affair was just declared illegal recently (mid-December), melting, transporting for the purposes of melting, etc. Prior to that (at the time of the original posting), it was not illegal. A simple google search on the idea will tell you all about the recent events and the fact that it has recently become illegal.