If the Treasury Secretary or POTUS would just ask, millions of people would bring in their change to banks and businesses. There,I said it
I agree there was a guy next to me at the store self check out today. It was busy and I asked where my cent was. The guy next to me responded with if everyone would just stop throwing away or hoarding cents we would have plenty. I laughed..
On the contrary I think it would cause those same people to hang onto them tighter. They will be worth big money soon if Treasury wants them that bad!
Agreed, several non-collector friends and acquaintances have commented how valuable cents will be when they're discontinued. When I point out there are many billions of them in existence they're not impressed. On a side note, I plan to take as many as I can carry (they're heavy!) to the aforementioned swap, 100% ROI is too good to pass up. [edit] nerd alert: $100 is 10,000 coins which weighs approx 55-68 lbs depending upon the number of zincolns.
If treasury/admin went out and begged people to turn in their cents because they're desperately needed for circulation, won't that only make them look stupid? How about if you just make more of them then? To me it only works the way Canada did it - you can't spend these anymore, so turn them in while you can.
Won't work. They tried it with the cent shortage back in 1974, it failed to bring in significant numbers of cents, They also tried in back in 1942 appealing to peoples patriotism shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack. Copper was need for the war effort and if people would just turn in their cents it would greatly reduce the amount of copper needed for cents in 42. The effort failed completely. People didn't turn in their cents.
And how do you arrive at can’t spend them anymore? And nobody has to ‘beg’ the public to do the right things. A quick post would do wonders.
Back in 1942 or 1974 or even 1990s virtually all transactions were coins or small bills. Different world now. People wanted to hold their $ in their hands. No longer the case. Think 401k or IRA. Can’t put that in your mattress. The cost to ask real people to bring some coins to the banks is 0 Don’t really know what % might respond but it’s sure not zero
IF banks and credit unions still had coin counting machines to dump the hoards into, probably a billion coins would be turned back into banks. As it is, they are a nuisance, mostly zircs which are horrible and turn into garbage after a couple of years in circulation. Nobody thinks it's worth their time to roll those, put their bank account on the outside of the roll, and deposit them. It's just not worth it under those guidelines. Easier to just let them sit in 5 gallon jugs in the closet.
Once everything is rounded to 5c, they're mostly useless. Canada had a plan. Merchants and consumers were instructed to return them to banks, merchants were instructed on how to round cash purchases (on the total after sales tax), armored carriers carted billions of them to processing centers where the metal types were separated and melted. It's been what, nine months here and as far as I know all our government has said is "we're not making any more." Everybody figure it out on your own I guess. If they said, everybody bring your cents to banks - for what exactly? Because circulation needs them? Because we're going to melt them? What's the plan?
My bank needs them for their business accounts. And for making exact change by tellers. I took in some rolls this morning. Some were UNC , some from my junk box. Some needed a quick wash but the manager was very happy
I have a $50 box and a couple of tall folders cans full. I can't see how that will stimulate the shortage, I heard the news talking about the shortage. The local Kings doesn't have them in the self checkouts.
Just weighed my bucket, 20.2 lbs. I went through them a while ago for the major rarities, AM's,82's, major DD's They are like a burden, I use them at the drive through trying to deplete my stock hoping to die penny less. This will take many decades. There must millions of people with the same question. What do I do with these damn things.
