If the US discontinues production of the cent, will all of those elongated penny machines have to be re-tooled to accept nickels? How are the dealing with this in Canada?
Don't know why you assume that the US would do that. Canada also replaced the $1 and $2 notes with coins, and the US government has not done that either. However, Canada may be a bad example in that regard: As far as I know (somebody will please correct me if I'm wrong here) it is against the law to "destroy" or deface Canadian money that way, and I think the machines used in Canada work with blanks that the machines provide. In Switzerland, by the way, most "squishers" take 20c coins which are Cu-Ni pieces. So their look is silverish rather than reddish ... Christian
There is, actually, some speculation that the U.S. may discontinue the one cent coin. The penny elongating machines aside, it would be a shame to lose the longest running coin design (obverse) in the country's history: 103 years and counting. If it does happen, retail purchases will be rounded to the nearest 5 cents if made in cash. Card purchases would still be in cents, because 1 100th of a dollar would still be a viable monetary denomination. I doubt it will happen any time soon though. Certainly not in an election year.
Even if the U.S. stopped penny production, I would think there would still be pennies in circulation for a while. I can't see anyone hoarding circulated 2010, 2011, and 2012 cents because they think they will be valuable any time soon.
I visited New Zealand last year and they discontinued their pennies (When? I don't know.) As far as smashed pennies as concerned, they have machines with a stack of blanks in the machine to elongate and impress the design on. As much as I enjoy collecting and Lincolns are part of my collection, it seems highly impractical, due to cost of production, to continue with cents. Also, IMHO, we should do away with $1 and $2 currency and move to coinage. I know this may be heresey to some of you but it's just my $.02.
I agree that the cent should go bye-bye. You spend $1.96 on something, then get 4 cents back in change. After a few months you have a huge jar of pennies, that have to be taken to the bank. You can't buy anything for a cent, and people frown on you standing there digging out pennies when in a line. A lot of the old biddies are going to whine that purchases are going to cost 1-4 cents more, but I'm glad to see the penny go. I used to work at Target, and would hate it when the line was tied up by an old lady digging out pennies. I think they should get rid of the nickel too, and round up all purchases to say $1.90 or $2.00 1c and 5c change was handy when things used to cost 9 or 16 cents, today you pretty much can't buy ANYTHING for less than 25 cents.
I agree that the dime should be the smallest coin. In the 1960s a cent had the purchasing power of what a dime has now. I want cents to stick around a bit longer so I can continue to mine boxes, bags, and rolls of them for those 2.5 cent pre-1982s while I still can though.
I also have a cookie tin of copper pennies just in case. I don't see it happening soon though despite the fed releasing so many new pennies this year.
On a similar thought...I recently purchased a Series 1902 $10 note and someone asked me how much it was worth back then (basically...it's purchasing power). In 1906, $10 had the equivalent purchasing power of a little more than $250. So, basically 25x. Based on that, the cent (our smallest denomination then) had the purchasing power of a quarter today. If they got by with essentially a quarter (in today's value) as their smallest denomination...I would think we could survive without the cent and the nickel.
It is a bit challenging to compare relative values, the results can be skewed by norms, exceptions etc. For one thing, child labour was much more the norm in 1902, not to mention that women were also paid substandard wages. Most people were not cranking out Ford Model T's albeit a bit later, rather they were labouring in mills, sweatshops etc. Immigrants were paid substandard wages, more so then than now. Let us not forget that many people were labouring and living in "company towns" where their wages were paid in scrip - I remember in high school our custodian coming into our history class and talking about growing up in Alabama in the 1930s and not even seeing real money until he joined the army in WWII. The old saying "I owe my soul to the company store" or a variation thereof is not unusual. So 25 X face value for a relative association might be a bit of a stretch when you factor in those variables that often are overlooked in the early 21st century.
I started occasionally pulling them from roll searches back in 2006, but more actively in 2008 - at that time about 30% was the average. Now I would say about 20-25% is more the norm. You sort of get to the point I am in now where I sort of loathe the zinc ones - the nasty things are a plague. I lose some money because some of them are not machinable because they are so bad. They have low relief and just look lousy compared to say early 1960's chocolate cents.
Even if the cent is discontinued they will be commonly available in large quantity for a long time so it would be no trouble at all to set up the machine with a coin feeder to feed in a cent preloaded into the machine instead of just a blank as in the machines mentioned earlier.
I agree with you, but we all know they will go on sale immediately on ebay if production ceases. After producing over 100 billion, somehow they will become rare once they are no longer in production.
