Alloy Changes for US Coins

So true

 

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Now there's an idea.

 

Uggggg ! The whole intent of credit cards is to make you spend without feeling you are spending cash money. It should be, get rid of credit cards and spend only cash, then you have an idea of how much you are really spending.

Dave

 

The only numismatic history analogous to that of the US cent, to my knowledge, is the history of the Roman small bronzes of the 4th and 5th centuries. The Romans churned these practically worthless coins out by the hundreds of millions - the 4th century equivalent of the billions of cents the US has produced over the last few decades.

In many markets, these coins were traded by weight, since inflation had devalued them to the point of their copper bullion value, and they likewise shrunk in size, sometimes down to a lilliputian 10-13 millimeters in diameter, weighing less than a gram. (If the Romans had had the technology to employ aluminum, they would have probably availed themselves of it.) Yet they continued their mass production, day after day, year after year. Occasionally an emperor would "reform" the coinage, only to watch it slip back into monetary insignificance, sometimes in a matter of months.

My conjecture - and it's pure conjecture - is that the production of this kind of coinage maintains the illusion of economic stability that has always been a primary concern for the state. Eliminating the US cent would be a tacit admission that inflation has won, and we can't have that. Maintaining the illusion in the case of coinage requires debasement.

The government does this sort of thing all the time, in myriad forms, regardless of its political orientation. For example, why do you think they leave food and fuel costs out of their official inflation figures? If they included those numbers, the illusion of economic stability would be seriously compromised.

The Romans minted their little bronzes up until the dissolution of the empire. I wonder if our history will follow suit.

 

heres my solution: make the cent an NIFC, make the nickel aluminum, and while we're at it, get rid of credit cards (who really wants a piece of plastic that slowly puts them into debt while the government sees everything they buy?), make $200 and $500 bills, get rid of the $1 bill, make a $2.5 coin, change the quarter back to the eagle design, and redesign the dime, half-dollar, and $2 bill.

 

The mint experimented with bakelite cents during WWll but they broke too easily when dropped.

 

with all the talk of the mint eliminating the cent..it should be really left up to the stores to do this and no one I have heard of has jumped on ship to do this....is the profit margin too small or get backlash from announcing this ???
does anyone know of any stores in the US that round up/down ???

 

A while ago there was this story ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/chipotle-rounding-pennies-up_n_1837385.html

Well, if they cannot round (only round down), they can always adapt their prices accordingly.

Christian

 

Ha ! Next time you go to Burger King or wherever, ask for a senior 10% discount. Most likely you will hear; "We don't do that here".
Most likely the new generation of today don't know how to adjust 10% off the bill.
To get them to round off the odd cents would take another major in math, not to mention the adjustment that would have to be made to the automatic change machines that are used so the teller dosen't have to use their brain.

Just saying,

Dave

 

I said debit cards, not credit cards - of course you can't give credit cards to everyone.

 

Yeah Statequarterguy, I see that you did say Debit cards, but to me plastic is plastic. Whether you buy a debit card or pay with a credit card, it's not like carrying good old fashion dollars and cents in your pocket.

Just saying,

Dave

 

I would completely agree with this.

 

Well when you consider that the manufacturing cost of the cent, not including materials, is 1 cent.....NO.

 

i'm too paranoid to carry a debit card. i always think some one will steal it and i'll lose my entire savings. i have a prepaid American Express that i take to the bank and load money on whenever i need to buy gas or order something off the internet

 

So, in your sagacity, how are the homeless supposed to purchase anything? Or does your inevitable future also equal every human having an address? Eliminating all mental psychoses?

Is the government supposed to track down every homeless person via heat-seeking satellites so as to issue each an eledctronic card so that they would use that to beg rather than beg for current physical money?

"Card readers in cell phones"? I will never own a damned cell phone. I have no reason to emergency call anyone vs. the expense it would take per month; and I am very strongly against being on call 24/7 from people I don't want to be bothered by. But according to you--I guess I should be required by law to have a cell phone? Is the government going to pay for that?

And of course everyone will have to have these things. The five year old can't just take a dollar from parents down the street to buy some candy. She'll have to be issued her own cell phone and electronic card, and her parents will have to type "$1.00 allowed" on such.

It's great that you have nothing to worry about. I assume that you also then would agree with a law that required cameras and microphones in every American's bedroom and bathroom, including yours.

 

For many people, myself included, it has become pretty normal to have, carry and use a smartphone. Now card readers for such phones (iZettle, Square, SumUp ...) currently are separate devices which are plugged "onto" the phone - somewhat bulky for individual users. But even without such devices, smartphone payments are already possible. Does not mean you have to use any of this - just as you are not forced to use "plastic". There will simply, gradually, be fewer and fewer options to use cash.

Christian

 

You understand, of course, that the United States has a clearly articulated policy aimed at devaluing the dollar (ie, inflation). It is the goal of the United States to continue to devalue the dollar. Devaluing of the dollar, or inflation, makes U.S. goods more competitive in the global markets, which also happens to be good for our economy.

Considering that inflation is their stated intent, I'm not sure how they would be worried about admitting that "inflation has won."

 

Seniors don't need a discount; they've had longer than anyone else to get the money lol...

 

In our quests for answers, we often times forget that there is an entire society of folks out there in our very own country that are extremely poor.
They have no computer with which to express themselves much less a bathroom with which to clean themselves.

It's real. It's very real and a lot of folks in the country are simply one paycheck away from understanding how real it actually is.

Setting politics aside, the one cent coin is an obsolete for of currency and that is a reality. Many other countries in the industrialized world know this and have taken the appropriate steps toward eliminating the coin. The people within those countries understand and accept this.

The United States, on the other hand, would rather go bankrupt than to take the appropriate steps and possible have to explain WHY they are taking the action.

 

And so goes the understanding an empathy that the youth of this country "used" to have.