Pennies?

Basic rule is no metal cutting for any laser with this low of a wattage. You’re looking at fiber laser territory though by no means does that mean only that I know of. Someone else with actual knowledge can chime in.

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Yeah. I thought of that. Except 333 t18 says:

…to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued…

Used to be a $5 gold coin was worth $5. A penny was one cents worth of copper. But that was long ago. I have a $5 cold coin in my collection that’s worth about $2500. And a real copper penny is actually worth more than a one cent. Which is why the government is withdrawing solid metal coins from circulation and replacing them with clad coins…

Coins qualify as “other evidence of debt”. They have no intrinsic value without government backing, just like paper money.

Definitely not cut any metal - search the forum (and online) for Cermark and Cermark alternatives to see about “etching” or rather marking metal. Anodized lasers well with the :glowforge: - search the forum for examples of that as well !!

Don’t these two points contradict themselves?

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No. My point was that in the past coins had intrinsic value by virtue of their being composed of “precious” metals in quantities equal to their face value. These coins were not instruments of debt, because the coins were literally worth their weight in the metal they were made from. Solid copper, nickel, silver and gold coins haven’t been manufactured in decades. The coins we get now look similar on the outside only because they are clad in a thin layer of the precious metal they used to be made from (or some other random metal designed to look the same). Modern coins have no intrinsic value on their own (or very little). Their value in metal is much less than their denomination. These modern coins are instruments of debt. As such, they probably fall under the aforementioned title/statute.