Corroded Zincolns; Is the US Mint not aware of this issue??

So after 40 years, no one at the Mint is aware of how nasty these cents get in circulation?

I don't get it.

 

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Biodegradable...they have your money what do they care if they turn to dust.

 

It's a feature, not a bug. They're guaranteeing that they'll always need to be striking new ones to replace the ones that rot away.

Until, of course, we drop the folly of one-cent coins. All the current Mint decision-makers will be long gone before they need to worry about that getting done.

 

The fed does a damaged coin take-back program. It is called the 'Mutilated Coin Redemption Program', where they reimburse you. However, there are apparently long wait times.

More info found here - https://www.usmint.gov/news/consumer-alerts/mutilated-coin-program

 

I'd be fine with 10 cents or 25 cents minimum denomination for US coins.

Might as well even make $1 the minimum denomination with the cost of things these days!

 

That's why my Lincoln cent collection ends at the coppers from 1982. Zinc cents are garbage.

 

Yes, they sure can contaminate a change jar too. It seems like the zinc rot is pretty contagious.

 

Increasing the lowest denomination in your system of currency locks in a floor on inflation.

 

At this point, it doesn't really matter. The cent has no buying power. It is basically worthless. It costs more than a cent to produce it.

The reason I support keeping the cent is for collectors. It is the only U.S. coin that can be assembled as a date set for every year from 1793 to date, except for 1815. I think that the coin could be included in Proof and Mint Sets. Given all the "junk" the mint tries to stick us with these days, I think that would be worthwhile as a collectors' item.

 

It’s not the mint. It’s Congress. And they just don’t care.

 

…HOWEVER…(to give zinc cent collectors hope)…you can preserve them.

The challenge here is finding well-struck, complete design coins with no stains, no plating issues (blistering and splitting), no corrosion and little to no die deterioration. For the 80’s and 90’s nowadays, this is a tall order. For these years I am finding good ones in time capsules set aside 15 years ago. Getting very hard to find them from circulation, unless they have been liberated from a deceased relative’s collection.

2000’s still abound, 2009 was the Lincoln Cent Centennial year but I don’t collect Lincoln Shield Cents…Spark

 

I forgot to add that I do have the copper versions of the four 2009 designs. In my opinion that should have been the end of the cent.

 

Found this in circulation,pretty nice high grade example and the most bubbles I've ever seen on one so I still have it..

 

I never knew they released a Harkonnen commemorative...

 

@potty dollar 1878, that coin looks like it has small pox.

 

That ship had already sailed by the 1970s. I sure don't want a round of deflation severe enough to bring the cent back to relevance.

 

Yes, when you have deflation, the economy is really in the tank. That happened during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

 

Correctthat's actually the nick-name I gave it.

 

Makes sense (cents)

 

Most of them aren't too hard in the mint set but the mint sets won't be around forever. By the time people start trying to put together sets the '82 to '84 issues could be gone. The '84-D comes OK in the set but more than half are spotted and the remainder aren't always pretty. The Philly is the real problem because most of them have rough uneven surfaces. The '82 and '83 rolls are common but most of the coins are tarnished, spotted, and corroded now days. The others are ugly.

Really, all the early zincolns are tougher than people realize. The '84-P might be legitimately rare unless they appear in rolls and I've spot checked a bunch of rolls without any luck.

I find the zinc coins in circulation an embarrassment; not only because they are filthy corroded little slugs but they represent a system geared not to efficiency and productiveness but to waste and greed. History will frown on us because of them. I don't know if anyone will ever want to collect them.