Blackwater 53393 Posted February 10 Posted February 10 The US Mint system produced 3.2 billion pennies last year at a cost of $.02 apiece! A net loss in production vs. value of 32 million dollars!! It’s only a drop in the bucket considering the size of the budget and the national debt, but just how ridiculous is this?? 1 1 Quote
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Many other countries have stopped producing their smallest denomination coins. 1 Quote
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 The nickel is next… Quote Nickels also cost more to produce than they're worth. Each of the $0.05 coins cost almost $0.14 to make. As recently as 2022, the nickel cost about $0.10, but rising raw materials costs have made them more expensive to produce. Quote
Rye Miles #13621 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 I don’t know seems weird not to have a ONE in the money chain. 1 Quote
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Well, the dollar’s days are numbered. 1 1 Quote
Cypress Sun Posted February 11 Posted February 11 (edited) 29 minutes ago, Blackwater 53393 said: The US Mint system produced 3.2 billion pennies last year at a cost of $.02 apiece! A net loss in production vs. value of 32 million dollars!! It’s only a drop in the bucket considering the size of the budget and the national debt, but just how ridiculous is this?? Pennies cost 3.7 cents each to make. Nickels are even worse @ .14 cents each to make. I just read that somewhere recently. I also read that only Congress can approve the elimination of U.S. monetary coinage. Edit - Marshall beat me to the punch! Edited February 11 by Cypress Sun 2 1 Quote
Rip Snorter Posted February 11 Posted February 11 My first thought was to have a limited redemption period for penny hoarders at 1.5 cents - many folks I know have a beer mug or similar full. Be enough for long circulation and a saving. At one point I had two Almaden jugs full - my then new wife didn't like my Lamps idea. A good few bucks when I took them to the bank - can't recall just how much. 1 Quote
Howlin Mad Murdock SASS #4037 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Trump is not banning pennies, just stopping production. Somewhere around 160 billion pennies in circulation. They are not going away. 4 Quote
John Kloehr Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Sure, production can stop without eliminating them, but at some point they will get scarce. No idea how many 5 gallon water jugs of pennies there are in this country. Coins were in short supply during CoViD and folks were not taking them to the bank. Stores give out more coins than they take in. I have some wheat pennies I'm saving for no good reason. Other than that, I occasionally roll up collected coins and toss them in my bank account. I did figure out counting and rolling up pennies is a roughly break-even minimum-wage activity. The CoinStar machines at grocery stores take a big percentage for counting change but the time investment is compelling. But I rarely carry change, I toss it in a tray at the end of the day. When the tray gets heavy, I sort. When I get enough and remember, I take it with me to the bank if when I need to go to the bank. And it ends up back at some store to make change. Psychologically, I don't like the thought of losing the penny. Practically, not sure how to handle purchases considering sales tax and how that will be calculated. We are still saddled with mils (tenths of cents) in gasoline prices. That really is pretty silly, 2.99.9 per gallon is $3 per gallon for practice purposes, off by 2 cents for a 20 gallon fill-up. I once had a mil, made of wood. Gas stations used them to pay at delivery. No idea if they still do. And I could argue that while a penny may cost nearly 4 cents to produce, it gets used many many times. The cost per use is very low. And for how long will we be able to trade them in after they do go out of circulation. But for pennies and being practical... I just looked it up and the penny was introduced in 1793. As was the dollar. With inflation, today it take 31.83 to buy what a dollar bought in 1793. Somewhere around the time inflation required a $10 dollar bill to buy what a dollar originally bought, the penny was too small to be a denomination. Now at 31.88 to the original dollar, dropping a decimal point makes sense. And that does mean the nickel can go too. A dime today is worth only 1.3 times the first issued pennies. Quote
Cypress Sun Posted February 11 Posted February 11 37 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said: My first thought was to have a limited redemption period for penny hoarders at 1.5 cents - many folks I know have a beer mug or similar full. Be enough for long circulation and a saving. At one point I had two Almaden jugs full - my then new wife didn't like my Lamps idea. A good few bucks when I took them to the bank - can't recall just how much. When I first met my gal 19 years ago, she had "spare" change in two large Igloo Playmate coolers. The quarters, dimes and nickels, I rolled in coin wrappers. The pennies, I took to a couple of the 'Coinstar' type machines in the grocery store. I say a couple of them because there were so many pennies that they filled up the first machine so we had to go to a second machine. I don't remember the exact amount of pennies but it was over $47 and that is with 10% (or whatever the vig was for using the machine) off the top. The other coins we took to the bank, it was about $500 + or - a few bucks. That was a bunch of coins! Years ago, a friend of mine and his wife saved their change by putting it into a 5 gallon glass water dispenser jug When it got near the top, they decided to wrap the money in coin wrappers and turn it in for paper money. The second they tried to move the jug, the bottom broke out of it and made a helleva mess all over their green shag carpet! 3 Quote
Rip Snorter Posted February 11 Posted February 11 25 minutes ago, Cypress Sun said: When I first met my gal 19 years ago, she had "spare" change in two large Igloo Playmate coolers. The quarters, dimes and nickels, I rolled in coin wrappers. The pennies, I took to a couple of the 'Coinstar' type machines in the grocery store. I say a couple of them because there were so many pennies that they filled up the first machine so we had to go to a second machine. I don't remember the exact amount of pennies but it was over $47 and that is with 10% (or whatever the vig was for using the machine) off the top. The other coins we took to the bank, it was about $500 + or - a few bucks. That was a bunch of coins! Years ago, a friend of mine and his wife saved their change by putting it into a 5 gallon glass water dispenser jug When it got near the top, they decided to wrap the money in coin wrappers and turn it in for paper money. The second they tried to move the jug, the bottom broke out of it and made a helleva mess all over their green shag carpet! If you have green shag carpet, the Pagan Gods are against you! I had to cut the Almaden jugs with a bottle cutter, though I could lift them easily, to get the coins out. 1 Quote
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Quarters and dimes are $20/lb. 1 Quote
Yul Lose Posted February 11 Posted February 11 I have my doubts that this will stick even though it should have been done long ago. Remember a few years ago we voted to end daylight savings time, it’s still here. 2 Quote
Rip Snorter Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Just now, Yul Lose said: I have my doubts that this will stick even though it should have been done long ago. Remember a few years ago we voted to end daylight savings time, it’s still here. One is done for now - the other has been discussed. Daylight Savings Time is only an issue if you have dogs! Their watches take a couple or three weeks to reset. 1 Quote
Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 (edited) Up here, in the proposed 51st state, we discontinued the penny a few years ago. The difference is rounded up or down on cash transactions or exactly on credit card payments. We have also discontinued the 1 dollar and two dollar bills and substituted them for "Loonies" (One dollar) and "Toonies" (Two dollar) coins. Edited February 11 by Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 3 Quote
Trailrider #896 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Back in 1943, with WWII in full swing, and copper being needed for defense purposes, they minted steel pennies. Don't know how much it would cost to go to something like that nowadays. I would guess they would have to retool the dies for the harder material, so I don't know whether it would be cost effective or not. No problem detecting the steel pennies as they were all magnetic. While I was only a year old in '43, the steel pennies would pop up every now and then for the next ten years or so. Might be collectors' items now. 1 Quote
watab kid Posted February 11 Posted February 11 just as ridiculous as funding GLBT chit in foreign countries , there is so much waste of our taxes and i want an investigation of any politian thats been getting kickback from these slush funds as well as convictions ...oh and the insider trades too as long as we are at it , they prosecuted so many citizens over the years - time for the politicals to pay up as well , the normal taxpayers cant get by with that , 3 Quote
Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 2 hours ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said: Up here, in the propose 51st state, we discontinued the penny a few years ago. The difference is rounded up or down on cash transactions or exactly on credit card payments. We have also discontinued the 1 dollar and two dollar bills and substituted them for "Loonies" (One dollar) and "Toonies" (Two dollar) coins. here in the suggested 53rd state we did the same, got rid of the copper coins (1c & 2c). our smallest value coin is 5c. did away with $1 & $2 banknotes and replaced them with "gold-ish" coloured coins. banknotes are now some sort of plastic material and sized up to $100, each a different colour. prices are rounded up or down (seldom down) to nearest 5 or 10 for cash sales and retained in card sales. and we still have decimals in our fuel prices ...... like $1.99.9 per LITRE 😒 2 Quote
H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Pennies should only be produced on an as needed basis, not automatically every years. When the "stockpile" gets below a certain level, that's when a few more should be minted to bring it back up to needed levels. (Whatever that may be.) Circulating pennies should just be left in circulation instead of "recalled" for recycling. So does this mean new pennies will be made every 3 to 5 years? Who can say. While we are at it, let's do away with the dollar bill to encourage the use of the dollar coin and the $2 bill. Let's also do away with the 50 cent piece. And bring back the $500 bill. Quote
Ozark Huckleberry Posted February 11 Posted February 11 (edited) The argument that pennies should be eliminated because it costs 3.7 cents to produce a 1 cent coin is specious. The mint isn't producing money when it mints coins -- it is producing a representation of value to be used in a transaction. The question to be answered is how many times does that coin have to be used in a transaction during its lifespan to produce enough revenue to make it worthwhile for the government to mint it. Depending on where you look, pennies last from 20 to 40 years. ETA -- so if a penny is used in (hypothetically) 20 transaction a year, and last for 30 years, it goes through 600 transactions. 3.7 cents divided into 600 transactions means the penny only has to generate an average of .0062 cents per transaction to be worth minting. Round up/round down? Sure -- a lot of the kids manning the counters now have a hard enough time counting out change. What do they think will happen when the kid has to make a decision about whether to add or subtract based on what the register readout says? Some POS systems would be updated to automatically round (the major chains), but certainly not all. And cashing out the drawer at the end of the clerk's stint at the check-out? Figuring how much over/under is within limits for the transactions? Have fun. Edited February 11 by Ozark Huckleberry 3 1 Quote
Rye Miles #13621 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 7 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said: Back in 1943, with WWII in full swing, and copper being needed for defense purposes, they minted steel pennies. Don't know how much it would cost to go to something like that nowadays. I would guess they would have to retool the dies for the harder material, so I don't know whether it would be cost effective or not. No problem detecting the steel pennies as they were all magnetic. While I was only a year old in '43, the steel pennies would pop up every now and then for the next ten years or so. Might be collectors' items now. I have a few of them steel pennies, I don’t know why I’m keeping them!🙄 Quote
Chili Ron Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Howdy, Just fer the record the gummint never made pennies. They are cents, not pennies. And it should have been done in 1982 when they stopped copper. And the half dollar is what they should KEEP. Or get to the root of the problem and stop inflation......no problem....right?? Best CR Quote
H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 13 minutes ago, Chili Ron said: And the half dollar is what they should KEEP. Why? What purpose does it serve? When was the last time you actually used one? Quote
Capt. R. Hugh Kidnme Posted February 11 Posted February 11 I believe it was in early in George W. Bush's 2nd term that the cost to make a penny exceeded it's face value. Quote
Chicken Rustler, SASS #26680 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Having prices with odd numbers of cents is just a game to make people think they're selling for the lowest possible price. There's a lot of Trump supporters in favor of this even though they were the same ones with the conspiracy theories about the government forcing us into digital currencies, and there's a lot of Trump haters against it even though they pay for everything with their phone. Quote
Texas Maverick Posted February 11 Posted February 11 (edited) This has brought two thoughts forward for me. 1) Getting rid of the penny would hurt a lot of the skimmers who skim the pennies off of accounts to make millions. LOL 2) I had a clerk ask me once when making change if I wanted my 7 cents back since they were just pennies. I said if they are just pennies then please give me back 10 cents to make it easier on herself. She said she couldn't do that because it would mess up her cash drawer. I asked her how keeping my 7 cents wouldn't. She never did get it. TM Edited February 11 by Texas Maverick 1 2 1 Quote
Colorado Coffinmaker Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Except for skimmers and scammers, the One Cent coin is useless. With current digital processing, there is no excuse for pricing that results in "pennies." Except for parking Meters, Nickels, Dimes and Quarters are just as useless in everyday transactions. I haven't seen a Half Dollar in circulation in many years. Many municipalities are actually changing to credit card parking meter machines. Quote
Pat Riot Posted February 11 Posted February 11 My 2¢ Wait, if they dump pennies my 2¢ will be a nickel? Or a dime? Or not worth a da**? 2 Quote
Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 11 hours ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said: here in the suggested 53rd state we did the same, got rid of the copper coins (1c & 2c). our smallest value coin is 5c. did away with $1 & $2 banknotes and replaced them with "gold-ish" coloured coins. banknotes are now some sort of plastic material and sized up to $100, each a different colour. prices are rounded up or down (seldom down) to nearest 5 or 10 for cash sales and retained in card sales. and we still have decimals in our fuel prices ...... like $1.99.9 per LITRE 😒 We did the same thing here. 5s; 10s; 20s;50s and 100s We can now really launder the money, (in cold water, 'cause it's made of a vinyl and will shrink in hot water or the dryer. Quote
Rye Miles #13621 Posted February 11 Posted February 11 A penny for your thoughts? Oh wait, a nickel for your thoughts or maybe a dime? 2 Quote
Rip Snorter Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Penny wise? Penny candy? Pennies from heaven? There are a lot out there and they last a long time! 3 Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.