A perfect example of governmentthink.

Here's the problem:

Some people are melting coins.

Why would anyone melt coins, you ask?

The price of the metals used to make them are on the rise, so the metal content of nickels and pennies is more valuable than the face value.

According to the Mint, each nickel costs more than eight-cents to produce, while each penny costs one-point-seven-three cents.

Hire an accountant, people. He'll tell you that you'll go broke with such value-subtracted stupidity. Maybe he'll also find out why Social Security is going broke, despite the fact that the average person pays in more than $70,000 to the system and collects only $50,000.

The rational position would be to make the coins out of cheaper materials (and, by the way, use modern technology to streamline to process of manufacturing them) so that it would make no sense to melt the coins down.

But no. What does government do?

So the U-S Mint is moving to stop that. They're putting new rules into place that'll ban the melting of nickels and pennies. If you're caught you could wind up paying big money -- a ten-thousand dollar fine. You could also find yourself spending five years in a federal prison.

Why fix a problem with technology when you can issue a ban instead?