If congress finally gets the courage to eliminate the penny, the next thing would be the dollar. IMO.
In a way I feel bad about introducing this subject being a coin collector and all, but I am also in the printed media business and there are always people saying print is dead. In any case, I think it is important for all of us to discuss this because we all have the common interest...coins.
From a collecting standpoint, nothing could be better for cents than to eliminate them. Prices for modern stuff certainly would not go up but interest in the coin series would get a helluva shot in the arm. "They're eliminating what???" <gasp> How many collectors actually have more than 1 2010 zincoln anyway? How many head off to the bank, endlessly buying and searching rolls for that perfect 2010 zincoln for their Dansco? Who REALLY cares whether or not they continue to produce these other than the folks that supply the raw materials for them? Literally nobody uses them other than to throw into a "pocket change" jar which then gets hauled off to the CoinStar machine to get shipped back to the bank only to repeat the process. How many folks pay for their lunch using cents? Or do folks just fork over $20 bills, get their change, which then gets tossed into the Pocket Change Jar? I mean really, other than receiving that 1, 2, 3, or 4 cents back from the register, these things circulate about as much as a dollar coin does.
A lot of people are misinformed and believe prices would increase. This is a concept being fostered by the lobbyists whose primary interest is selling zinc. Politicians want to be reelected and profits from pennies contribute to it.
The chart numbers aren't "theory," but they certainly bear out what you're saying about inflation in the '70s. I was too young to remember or understand the inflation of that decade, but I do remember the arab oil embargo of '73. Cars lined up for blocks! I also remember the first attempts at energy conservation because of it. As an adult I can't compare now to then because I just don't have the context you have; i.e., didn't have a mortgage, etc. in the '70s, although I remember the high rates at the end of the '80s.
I vaguely remember reading once someone's calculation that bending over to pick up a penny is not worth the deleterious effects to one's health (e.g., wear and tear on the joints), resulting in higher eventual medical bills, compared to the financial benefit gained by picking up the penny. This theory works for me!
If they ever announce intentions to cease production of the cent, I'll probably run off to the bank and ask them to order me eighty boxes. Should keep me busy, roll-searching wise, for at least a few months.
That's hilarious - what's even funnier though is that I thought of this myself one day when I was trying to decide what is the smallest denomination I would bother to pick up. Think of it this way, if there was an endless line of discarded pennies along the sidewalk, far enough apart that you would have to bend down to pick up each penny, how many would you bother with? Would you quit your job and pick pennies full time, and would it be worth your time/effort/aches and pains? If not, what if they were nickels? quarters? dollar coins? It's a fun thought experiment
That's pretty funny. On a serious note, I couldn't imagine a duller full-time occupation than "money picker-upper," regardless of the denomination. Would being able to go sailing in your yacht on the weekend outweigh the daily grind? Not for me. In fact, it becomes a metaphor for a lot of boring jobs, doesn't it?
You want to save the pennies? Kill the union that is driving the cost up! Are coinage has been morphed into zinc garbage because of unions. Period! Are nickels are not even nickel anymore! WTF?
I think nickels have been made of cupro-nickel for as long as they have been called "nickels". The only nickels that didn't have nickel in them were the wartime nickels, which were a mix of copper, silver and manganese. I'm not sure which union you are referring to, but our currency becomes devalued due to inflation. Unless you are blaming inflation on unions? (which is another discussion altogether)
Our nickels (and dimes and quarters) in Canada have been made of steel for over 10 years now. Glad we don't have the same power lobbies here (and that we never used zinc!)
