OT Did You Know It Costs More Than a Penny to Make a Penny?

[Metspitzer]

They should stop making them.

[Jim Elbrecht]

Nickels too? They cost 9.2 cents last year. 80% over face value, they are a worse/better buy than pennies.

29]

I'm not ready to round everything off to 10cent increments just to save $42million.

Jim

[ransley]

They say we must add to the 17,000,000,000,000 debt, thats trillion.

[Metspitzer]

I haven't done the math, but a friend claims he has. He says the national debt is around 6 times the total amount of cash in circulation.

[jeff_wisnia]

Yes, I know much of the rest of the world has gotten rid of their low denomination coins, so why can't we?

I hope some investigative journalists dig deep enough to tell us the whys and whos about congress being against getting rid of pennies for quite some time now.

Who is influencing our "hired hands"* in Washington to keep pennies in existance? Is it the metal producers, the US Mint workers union, the transportation companies who take them to the banks, or probably all of the above?

Jeff

• "Our hired hands in Washington" is how Will Rogers referred to congress.

[DA]

I don't believe their production costs have direct relation to the face value. Since they take part in hundreds (thousands?) of transactions, their production cost is pretty much the government's cost of enabling this many transactions, each of which will get taxed at some point. If there was VAT tax in the US, it would make the calculation a bit easier but in any case, someone will get some income from the transaction which will then be taxed either on personal or corporate level.

Yeap, I thought so, too. Since there is no inflation in the US (or so they say anyway), the only result of the elimination of the penny would be the rounding up of all prices to the next smallest coin.

------------------------------------- /\\_/\\ ((@v@)) NIGHT ():::() OWL VV-VV

[hallerb]

We REALLY NEED some efficeny experts to make necessary changes.

one and 5 dollar bills shouldnt be paper, make them low weight coins for easy carrying.

round everything to quarters, elminate pennies nickels and dimes.

We DONT need a post office on every corner, none closer than say 5 miles, contract out much to grocery and other stores, elminate saturday and wednesday deliveries. they arent needed.

If you did this all thru government we wouldnt have a deficit:)

and taxes could be lower

[Kurt Ullman]

Most of the polls don't want to stop making pennies. Largely because it is viewed as a way for state governments to get extra money by rounding sales tax up to the nickel.

[Tony Miklos]

Yes but the US Mint and the US Treasury are two separate entities. In Canada $1 coins (loon?) are used all the time because they stopped making $1 bills. That is why we never adjusted to the dollar coin, because the Treasury won't stop loosing money making paper dollars.

The pennies are really bad, just think of how long they have been our lowest value coin. It's time to say goodbye to the pennies and the nickels and make dimes the lowest value. Then the treasury can start making $1000 bills again. Although I think the thousand $ bill will never return, with the trend of electronic payments that never need coins or paper bills. Paper money is too difficult to trace.

[Steve B]

I have metal detected for nearly thirty years now. The new pennies will degrade in the ground in a year or so. The old copper ones last decades, and will degrade, but only in acetic or basic soils. In neutral soils, they will stay good for a very long time. Silver and gold, too.

Steve

[jeff_wisnia]

Are you saying the state gummints would only round sales tax up and not down?

I'm not saying I don't think they wouldn't, but.....

I was really amazed when Massachusetts, my place of residence, repealed the sales tax on liquor which had been put in place last summer.

Jeff

[Harry K]

Dunno about where you are but it is becoming common here for businesses to ignore the odd pennies. If the change will include 4 pennies, they just give you a nickel. Change includes 1 penny, they charge 1 penny less. Customers commonly toss odd pennies on the counter over and above the bill.

I find it very odd considering the non-respect of a penny that gas stations still price gas at $3.19 9/10. Businesses should round their prices up or down to eliminate the odd pennies at the end.

Harry K

[Harry K]

One of the major reasons for the dollar coin flop is the size. It is too close to a quarter. I thought that after the Susan B anthony fiasco they would have learned but nooo...here comes the new one with the same flaw.

I would much rather carry a dozen dollar coins than have my billfold cluttered up with paper dollar bills. I have tried using the dollar coins but businesses really don't like them.

Harry K

[Kurt Ullman]

Pretty much, especially in current budget conditions.

[Rick Brandt]

I hear that a lot, but I don't buy it. ALL paper money is exactly the same size and weight. Solution? You actually have to look at it. No reason the same doesn't apply to coins.

The dollar coin will be hugely successful the moment they stop printing paper ones.

[hallerb]

the blid cant identify the difference between bills, theres a lawsuit about this.

money must be redesigned, better to go efficent, and give vending companies a short term tax break to cover upgrade costs.

many vending machines accept credit/debit cards.

which is more efficent minimizes break ins and no cash counting

[Harry K]

There is a big difference between "successful" and "popular". Give the coin a distinctive size so you can tell it by feel would be a big start. that the "powers' can't seem to _get_ that simple concept is amazing.

Harry K

[Rick Brandt]

To make it very distinctive would cause people to complain that it is too large and also drive up cost and weight. We had large coins and people didn't carry them.

Screw "popular". It's money. Someday we'll be doing it all with our phones or other e-methods anyway.

[Tony Miklos]

The Canadian ones are the same size and they are used a lot because they stopped printing $1 bills. Our treasury doesn't want to loose any business so they keep wasting money on $1 bills. That's why the US dollar coin isn't used.

[Tony Miklos]

Exactly.