Tennessee
I'll put this in this topic since the laws against "burning copper" were made in the interest of "public health" as far a neighborhood pollution goes.
I know how to melt copper at home into a mold or into a one pound brick as this only requires a homemade brick oven and a heat source (as fan substitutes for bellows). 1 pound of clean copper makes a 1 pound brick of copper since there is nothing additional going in with the copper.
There are even manufactured smelting units that are legal to buy that are for home use.
It is not like the illegal act of "burning copper" which is tossing it into a barrel or such to burn the insulation off of it.
Using one of those units or making one yourself is kind of like the many accessories that you find in auto parts stores, "check your local laws first" is the garden variety disclaimer.
Before I do this I would like to clarify if possible whether this law against "burning copper" applies to smelting clean copper which is a process that does not produce the nasty pollution and chemicals that "burning copper" does resulting from incinerating polyvinyl chloride.
The clarification is needed to avoid getting busted on a technicality because, uh, even if it is pure copper, there's the copper, there's the fire and the copper in the fire so technically that's "burning copper".

