Our monetary system is based on nothing more than promisary notes. A ten dollar bill is actually worthless. The federal reserve denotes its value as ten dollars though, and we accept that value--but a ten dollar bill is really nothing more than a piece of paper. If our system were to totally collapse, a ten dollar bill would only be worth a worthless of a piece of paper.Coins, on the other hand, have value. A modern coin, although more valuable than a paper bill, does not have the same \"melt value\" as its \"face value.\" Coins are basically metal promisary notes, or tokens. For instance, a modern penny\'s primary metal is zinc and is only worth about 1/2 cent, although we recognize it as one cent. Pre-1982 pennies were made primarily of copper and are worth a little less than two cents each in melt value.The following video breaks it down for you, with the current melt values of your coins.For more Economic Meltdown Tips, got to meltdowntips.tripod.com bargains, budget, budgeting, crash, credit, crisis, economic, economy, finance, financial, frugal, government, grocery, market, meltdown, money, saving, savings, shopping, stock, tips