On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:49:24 -0400, "Glenn Ashmore"
wrote:

I just KNEW my kid's Hot Wheels collection would be worth something some
day. :-) Maybe I should pull all that pot metal kitch out of the yard
sale.

Seriously, if the price of zinc rises to much there will be zinc castings,
broken souvenir beer mugs and old kitchen utensils appearing out of the wood
work. There is an amazing amount of zinc sitting in peoples' closets and
junk boxes.

Save your pennies. They're almost all zinc. The older, copper
pennies (before 1982, 95% copper, 5% zinc) are worth 2.2 cents now in
copper. A nickle is worth 5.1 cents in the metal value (75% copper,
25% nickle). But a current penny (97.5% zinc, 5% copper) is worth
only 1/2 a penny in metal value. That should go up if we really start
running out of zinc.

For a list of US coin's melt value vs. purchasing power see:

http://www.coinflation.com/

Steve