Treasury Dept. to stop producing pennies and nickels?

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pmbug

pmbug

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The U.S. is following Canada's footsteps regarding the production of pennies and nickels. According to U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Giethner, our U.S. Mint intends to remove the penny and nickel coins from circulation beginning early in January 2013.
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http://www.wealthwire.com/news/inflation/4210?r=1

I'm aware of calls for changing the metal composition for the coins, but this is the first I've heard that they will be phased out altogether. The quoted article does not list a source for their claims - I'm not able to corroborate it anywhere... Probably just a bad interpretation of remarks Geithner made last March.
 
I'm pretty sure we have heard rumblings of this before, at least for pennies that is.

The treasury could save money if they just STOPPED PRINTING IT!!!!!!!
 
This is actually going to create a lot of practical problems for businesses and consumers in states with sales taxes. Will prices just automatically be rounded up/down to the nearest dime on cash transactions?

To me.. This is part of a transition to a "cashless" society that is even more dependent on debit cards. Not exactly a good thing in many ways.
 
I went thru a nickel stage- in the end it was a wash. While I did find a few buffalos- there were slugs in some of the rolls- in the end- I cashed in the $400 and bought some silver
 
This is simply the natural effect of inflation in fiat currency. If the money itself has no intrinsic value (copper / silver / gold content), then it will become worthless as inflation rises.

On a sound, gold/based currency this problem would not exist because there would not be inflation.

For me, I really don't care if the pennies and nickels cease to exist. Eventually, as in Germany, our dollar won't be worthy anything, then it will be the five dollar bill, etc. But I think there will be a systemic crash and reset before that happens.
 
* bump *

They pile up in drawers. They're taken or left on a whim at store counters. Vending machines and parking metres won't accept them. And last year they cost the U.S. Treasury $100 million more to produce than they're worth. Despite all this, the penny -- America's copper-plated 1-cent coin -- persists.

For decades .U.S lawmakers, journalists, and penny-jar owners have debated whether the coin's declining value justifies its continued production. All the while it gets less valuable with each passing year. Inflation has hit it from both sides: production and distribution costs have gone up while the actual utility of the coin goes down.

While the volume of cash transactions may be declining, the penny has never cost more to produce than it did in 2022, at 2.72 cents per 1-cent coin. Meanwhile, it is now worth just 80% of its value in 2017, the last time a major legislative effort to phase it out was introduced. ...
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https://www.ft.com/content/2a4332d1-9faa-4325-a2b7-26203c44f12d

h/t: https://gata.org/node/22577

Will Congress take up the issue again?
 
Because I'm a hoarder by nature, I had to stack a few dozen boxes of nickels and maybe a ton or so of pre 82 american cents. I came across the cents at a coin store in $50 bags and the guy wanted them out of the way so I paid him $60 per bag. I just threw all that junk in a corner and forgot about it.
 
Art Carden - American Institute for Economic Research said:
As more candidates throw their hats into the 2024 Presidential ring, I'd like to offer a proposal that should have immediate bipartisan support: stop minting pennies and nickels. The economic case is a slam dunk. It costs about 1.5-2 cents to make a penny and about 7-8 cents to make a nickel, subject to fluctuating copper, nickel, and zinc prices at a point in time. If we stop using two cents worth of resources to create something worth one cent, and seven cents worth of resources to make something worth five cents, ditching these coins offers a pretty handsome return.
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www.aier.org

Small Change: Let's Put Pennies and Nickels to Rest | The Daily Economy

"If we don’t have the vision and political will to do something as unambiguously beneficial as to stop minting pennies and nickels, then perhaps ' ...
www.aier.org www.aier.org

Will momentum build for this?
 
pmbug said:
www.aier.org

Small Change: Let's Put Pennies and Nickels to Rest | The Daily Economy

"If we don’t have the vision and political will to do something as unambiguously beneficial as to stop minting pennies and nickels, then perhaps ' ...
www.aier.org www.aier.org

Will momentum build for this?
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I would have to guess no becuase congress has been talking about this since 1982. All they've done is changed the composition of the cent. Plus, the US govenement doesnt belive in saving money. They sincerely don't care.
 
pmbug said:
Will momentum build for this?
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I, for one, sure hope not.

If the gov insists on controlling the money and then mismanages it, the gov should pay the price it takes to produce the coins that the public needs in order to properly make change.

It's not our fault they f'ed up.

Gov: "hey everybody, we devalued the currency to such a degree that some of it is now virtually worthless. Please let us stop making them so we can further line the pockets of our buddies."


If we had politicians that actually desired to enforce the intent of the Constitution they swore an oath to protect preserve and defend, gold would still be $20.67/oz, silver coinage would still be in circulation, and the gov would not be in $31Trillion of debt.

Instead, for almost 100 years we've had a gov virtually filled with people who swear an oath to the Costitution, but then immediately turn around and defecate all over it.
.....and the majority of the people, mostly out of pure unadulterated ignorance, cheer it on.
 
I am probably in the minority on this issue, but for what's worth by doing away with both the penny and nickel what we are doing is increasing the cost of goods and services. Cost of labor and finges will be going up slightly. After the initial cessation of these coins no further added cost will be noticed.

So can it be done. Yes. Should it be done - who knows.

Any savings that the government will realize by doing away with these coins will be wasted away the government. Cost savings earned by the government will be lost almost immediately.
 
walkingnam said:
I am probably in the minority on this issue, but for what's worth by doing away with both the penny and nickel what we are doing is increasing the cost of goods and services.
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Absolutely not. It's a given that businesses would round prices up.

It would make no sense for them to round down.


walkingnam said:
Any savings that the government will realize by doing away with these coins will be wasted away the government. Cost savings earned by the government will be lost almost immediately.
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Exactly. If the gov is going to waste money either way, I would much prefer that the money be wasted doing the things our gov is supposed to be doing as opposed to wasting the money on more stuff the gov is not supposed to be doing.
 
...
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) has a suggestion for President-elect Donald Trump’s new “Department of Government Efficiency,” a non-governmental agency that will be lead by billionaire Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

He suggested this week that the U.S. should eliminate the penny from its currency and convert dollar bills into dollar coins, according to his post on social media platform X.
...
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www.nj.com

Eliminating the penny? Democrat governor proposes new idea for Trump’s DOGE

Should the U.S. get rid of the penny?
www.nj.com www.nj.com

 
Nope, I like the ever present reminder that our corrupt government has made our money worthless...we could always devalue our money by a factor of 10 though, but keep our coins...
 
searcher said:
^^^^^^
Creating a dollar coin would hasten a cashless society (no one will carry them around) and hurt strippers (where are ya gonna put them when they dance for you.)
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Strip clubs will just start using Two $ bills instead. Inflation, ya know.
 
Did you ever see a stripper pick a quarter up off the floor with her snatch?
 
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