It costs 1.7¢ to mint a penny, and 10¢ to mint a nickel...what is wrong with this picture?

[Atman]

Just heard this on the newz. You know what's wrong with this picture? Who could possibly be lobbying to keep manufacturing coins that cost twice as much to make than they're worth? "Big Zinc." No shit...there is a lobbying group for everything. Including the "Pro Abe" lobby, apparently. Not even making this up. Big Zinc and Pro Abe lobbies. Meanwhile, we cut heating assistance and education and Medicare and........

The madness has got to stop.

[Fumesucker]

1. That would be very valid point..

If coins were only used once..

Like, say cruise missiles.

[Gold Metal Flake]

21. How much does a cruise missle cost again?

Or are we allowed to ask that question?

[LetTimmySmoke]

51. I'm sorry, but you are NOT allowed to ask that question.

Now please renew your patriotism by viewing the following items:

http://whitehouse.georgewbush.org/initiatives/posters/patriotastic.asp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZdJRDpLHbw

Thank you very much

-Department of Infinite Patriotism. Protecting you from your dirty little thoughts.

[Pharaoh]

2. they are in circulation for decades

and decades, then they get much more valuable and people collect them.

[Atman]

14. So we're minting them to support the collector market 50 years from now?

THAT's a good investment?

I understand that pennies and nickels last a long time, and they eventually become collectable...but to whom? A small segment of society that collects coins. But how do pennies benefit the country? The 99¢ price points aren't to screw people...having worked in the home-office side of retail years ago, I found out that those prices are there for a reason, not to try to screw people. For instance, at the giant Casual Corner chain I worked for (1,800 stores...now kaput), we used 00.99 to indicate a regular-priced item. A price ending in 00.79¢ indicated a sale item. 00.59¢ indicated a clearance item, etc. Point being, it helped accounting and fraud control on multiple levels. For instance, if a person returned an item with a 00.79¢ price, the cashier knew immediately that it was purchased on sale, and not to give a full refund. Lots of stuff behind the price points besides the simple, cynical "they're just trying to rip people off." American consumers got past the ".99 isn't a dollar" crap ages ago.

[mopinko]

17. nobody collects modern pennies.

at least, not for profit. maybe kids still like to full up those little blue coin folders (or do they have photo covers of justing beiber now?)
even the old pennies with the wheat backs are only worth 2 cents.

eta- i hate pennies. the sooner they die the better. nickels can go too.

[Pharaoh]

30. yes, we should get rid of the pennie. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

41. Those "old wheat backs" are worth a lot more than 2 cents.

If they are the 1909-1982 Lincoln Copper Cent.

A roll of copper cent(s) has 50 coins and is valued at $1.29 when copper is at $3.9198 / lb and zinc at $0.9622 / lb (exact value is $1.2930851537651).
That is today's copper price quoted.

[Botany]

3. Their value to the economy is worth so much more ...

... than just the cost of production.

[mimitabby]

15. how so?

[muriel_volestrangler]

46. They enable retailers to sell things in multiples of 1 cent, rather than 5 cents

If pennies ceased to be legal tender, all prices would need to be multiples of 5 cents. And the chances are most retailers would round up, rather than down, so there'd be a blip in inflation, on the small value items (which are more important to the poorest).

[stellanoir]

4. Politicians are paid a miniscule percentage of what it

costs them to get elected.

What's wrong with this picture. . .?

[elias49]

5. Pennies are ridiculous.

I think their sole purpose these days is to populate those little bowls next to cash registers.

[KittyWampus]

9. I pick up off the ground, on average, about 10 cents a week.

[Atman]

12. This same story said that the time it takes you to bend down and pick up a penny...

...amounts to LESS than being paid minimum wage. Nothing profound, just interesting.

[KittyWampus]

16. ah, but bending down is good exercise!

:)

[geardaddy]

37. That sounds like the GOP's next motto.

Bending over is good exercise.

[hobbit709]

10. When I was in Italy in the early 70's

The smallest coin made was a 10 lire. If you bought something that came out to an odd number of lire you got your change in candy.

[One_Life_To_Give]

6. Half Penny when eliminated had Dimes Purchasing power

Way back we eliminated the use and coining of the Half-Penny. It had the equivalent value of a dime today, due to inflation.
We could eliminate everything smaller than a quarter dollar and have roughly the same impact as phasing out the half-penny.

[originalpckelly]

7. But then retailers wouldn't be able to say it's 299.99

Come on, don't you want people to dick you out of money and make prices more complex?

[Johonny]

8. still think the future is electronic money

The younger you are the more likely you are to use 1 and 0 instead of coins anyways. Even today with smartphones places like farmers markets are becoming friendly to electronic money. Those I see this problem going away.

[hobbit709]

11. Cash is untraceable and the politicians would NEVER give that up.

[ieoeja]

13. I see a lot of that. And it is probably a good thing. But it is still annoying.

Those Visa (I think) commercials where everything is flowing smoothly until someone pulls out cash instead of a card causing everything to come to a grinding halt is, in reality, the exact opposite of what happens. It is when someone pulls out the card that everything slows down.

Though that does depend on the place. While it brings things to a halt at the lunch counter, it doesn't matter a wit at the grocery store (if you swipe before they finish ringing up).

[Occulus]

26. Then a Carrington Event occurs and suddenly nobody has ANY cash.

Bad idea. Same reason I'm opposed to using cloud computing for really important storage.

[Modern_Matthew]

49. Yes. I never carry cash. I find it a burden. nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. Maybe it's the collectors who make it profitable?

[progressoid]

19. Coins can last loooong time. Paper bills will wear out in 12-18 months

[progressoid]

24. A dollar coin only costs 30 cents to make.

[kentauros]

43. Don't know where I read this, but coins last 30+ years.

Paper bills last 18 months.

However, we could have bills last far longer by going to polymer banknotes :D

I was very impressed with how New Zealand did their currency, both coins and bills, when I visited a few years ago. There's no (good) reason why we couldn't do something similar.

[Blue_Tires]

20. I don't get it...How much do you think it SHOULD cost to mint a penny

from beginning to end??

1.7 cents is pretty economical, imo...If the Pentagon was in charge of minting coins, it would probably be 80 cents per penny...

[Gold Metal Flake]

23. Price to mint penny: 1.7 cents.

Anti-government screed: priceless.

[cbdo2007]

22. there will be some money to be made in pre-1982 pennies soon.

Because of the copper content. I know a guy with literally TONS of them. He buys peoples coin jars off craigslist for face value and sorts out all of the silver and copper. He takes the regular coins to his own bank, and is set to make a killing off the copper and makes a fair amount off of the silver.

[Blue_Tires]

29. who or where does he take the pre-'82 pennies to?

[cbdo2007]

31. no where yet. It's still illegal to melt them down so he's just saving them....

At some point in the future they'll change this law and let people melt them down so for now he just stores them in his barn. I actually know of a couple of people doing this but one guy for sure, literally his barn is full of them. He's already retired so it's kind of a hobby/investment program for him.

[Blue_Tires]

35. good to know...I've been collecting pre-'64 silver coins for awhile

i don't have a whole lot of them, but they are fun to find...

[Atman]

32. Yet, it is illegal to melt pennies for their copper.

You can't legally melt a penny or sell it to a refinery for melting.

[buddysmellgood]

25. We use penny drives to fund education in this country.

[BrendaBrick]

33. Also currently a "round it up" at my local grocery store...

and the extra $ goes towards the Red Cross for victims in the south due to all the recent tornado damages.

[Shagbark Hickory]

27. The coins should be made out of plastic in China!!!

:silly:

[slampoet]

28. That penny collects THOUSANDS of dollars in sales tax over its 30-50 year lifespan

Want to do some REAL MATH besides just figuring the cost of metal?


Explain to me how to collect a 7% sales tax without pennies?


Show the math.

[uncle ray]

38. do you really need it explained to you?

eliminating pennies would change nearly every transaction amount by up to but not more than 2 cents, regardless of the amount. it merely would get rounded to the next 5 cent increment. so yes, if you make a 33 cent purchase the tax would be rounded down to zero and you would escape tax free and governments would crash.

[kentauros]

45. Okay, show me the 9/10ths coin for the gasoline taxes.

Someone is losing tenths of a cent here, and it ain't the vendor...

[jeff47]

34. What's wrong with this picture is your assumption that the coins are only used once. (nt)

[Atman]

36. Why would I assume that? That's ridiculous!

The coins are only used once? I said that? Where? I didn't assume it, either, because I have jars of them at home, too. Lots of them are quite old, so assume they've been used MORE than once.

[jeff47]

40. The only reason your argument makes sense is if coins are only used once

So, what's your point? Why, exactly, should coins cost less to produce than their face value? Re-use makes your objection moot.

[thelordofhell]

39. The point is they didn't always cost 1.7¢ to mint

They used to cost less than a penny. We just need to get cheaper metal for penny minting.

[kentauros]

47. Or not make the penny any longer,

and introduce a different valued coin or coins. I'd go with the NZ model, but I'm biased as I was so positively impressed ;)

[Wait Wut]

42. Please, keep the penny.

I don't wanna have to pay more than that for anyone's "thoughts". It's hard enough for me to feign interest by offering a penny. I would be totally unbelievable if I had to offer a dime.

[Liberal_in_LA]

54. lol n/t

[Leopolds Ghost]

55. Sounds like a Twain aphorism. n/t

[Renew Deal]

44. Are people melting pennies and nickels?

Otherwise, does the cost of minting matter?

[JVS]

48. Actually that's good.

It helps discourage counterfeiting. If the mint cannot produce a coin for less than its value, then what hope does an individual without the economy of scale of the US mint have? The mint makes back the money spent on the higher denominations (a $20 costs about the same as a $1) and as a result only they get checked by clerks with that pen.


Also, the repeated circulation of the coin means that they contribute to the GDP multiple times. One of the arguments for a dollar coin is that although more expensive than the bill, it is more durable and saves the mint money in the long run.

[ProfessorGAC]

50. Not Sure That's A Fair Analysis

The penny you're talking about could stay in circulation for 50 years or more. So, it ends up only costing 3.4 millicents to be worth a penny. And, as you obviously know, they don't pull in all the pennies and nickels every year and replace them. So, they're still carrying a monetary value WAY beyond what they really cost in the long run.
GAC

[Leopolds Ghost]

52. What I love is that this thread has collected a hundred replies and NOT ONE criticism of INFLATION

Because people in this country (especially young people in my generation) are so goddamned passive and consumeristic that they have no problem with a cash-free economy even if it penalizes the very poor, and they have NO GODDAMN PROBLEM WITH THE REASON THE PENNY, QUARTER, DOLLAR and FIVE DOLLAR has been DEVALUED because THEY ARE ALL HIGHLY EDUCATED TECHNOCRATS whose income keeps up with inflation.

[Leopolds Ghost]

53. tl;dr version: A CASH FREE ECONOMY IS A COMPLETELY STATE AND PRIVATE SECTOR CONTROLLED ECONOMY.

And inflation is a tool prescribed by the private sector to destroy the labor market and destroy your paycheck (or should I say the working class paycheck, since most young, progressive technocrats no longer identify with the working class in this country) and most people on DU are too young to even REALIZE what things used to cost because they are HAPPY with the high property values and the "high value" boutique stores in their community selling items that the poor can only afford at WalMart.

And you blame the PENNY for having too much (physical) money in your pocket while starving people in other countries are paid to "bend over" and pick through AMERICA'S TRASH that we throw out because it is only worth "pennies"!