Pursuant to this act, over thirty million copper-nickel cents, of both the Indian Head and Flying Eagle designs, were redeemed; the Mint melted these for recoinage.
Cooking for Carats Raw gold at the mint was melted and refined to remove impurities.
In 1702, the alchemy-obsessed master of the British Royal Mint, Isaac Newton, melted down and minutely analyzed the coins of a number of countries to determine their exact content.
Five thousand pieces were returned to the Mint for melting.
Eventually, arrangements were made to return a million half dollars to the Mint for melting.
Although six million people visited the Exposition, 859,408 of the 1,000,000 half dollars were returned to the mint for melting.
Those remaining in the Company's hands were redeemed by the Mint, which melted them; the fee for this service was forgiven by act of Congress.
Hoffecker was able to sell about 20,000 coins, four-fifths of the issue: the remaining 5,000 were returned to the Mint for melting.
Despite efforts by Zerbe which Bowers finds "enthusiastic or even heroic", only about 35,000 were sold to the public; the remaining 215,000 were returned to the Mint and melted around 1914.
According to Bowers, "distribution efforts were not particularly well coordinated" and 63,606 pieces were returned to the Mint for melting, leaving a total of 86,594 pieces distributed to the public, including the assay coins.
