McCain Bill To Suspend Production Of Cent

Wouldn't hold my breath on this. It's been over a month and no action has been taken. Seems like we get one of these ceremonial gestures every year now

 

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Rounding to the nearest nickel, what's the big deal? I do my major shopping once a month and it seems like everything I buy goes up by way more than a nickel every month. I buy larger quantities at stores like Costco.

 

Well next you end up like Australia who is eliminating the nickle now their inflation is so bad. Just one of those things once it starts it won't stop

 

Interesting - maybe there are several Australias out there. The one I read about has an inflation rate that is way below the 2 to 3 percent that the central bank aims at. Quote from about a year ago: "At its meeting today, the Board decided to lower the cash rate by 25 basis points to 1.75 per cent, effective 4 May 2016. This follows information showing inflationary pressures are lower than expected."

In each and every Scandinavian country, cash totals are rounded. Even Switzerland does that ...

Christian

 

Take a vacation there, their prices are insane on common goods. Regardless of what they report it is literally cheaper for them to order most thing from the USA even after the shipping costs. As their currency falls that may change but one example would be about 5 dollars for a Mcdonalds double cheesburger that is a dollar in the USA.

 

While I know about the Big Mac Index, I don't buy cheeseburgers anywhere. My point was that doing away with low denomination coins is not necessarily related to inflation. Switzerland, by the way, is also an "expensive" country (certainly from a German POV) and yet their inflation rate is extremely low too ...

Christian

 

So for those Germans that don't care for Hamburgers, do they have say Dusseldorfers? I know they have Berliners, but those are a pastry.

The highest prices I noticed in Europe when I travelled mainly through Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Vienna were in the latter.

 

The cent an nickel are already trivial because of the inflation that's already happened. In fact, I'd say that they were trivial by the end of the 1980s. Even if inflation fell to zero today and stayed that way forever, the cent and nickel are a silly waste of time, attention and resources.

 

We do have Frankfurters which BTW are pretty much the same as Wieners - sausages. Now the spicy mustard you may have on top of these may come from Düsseldorf. Pastry, ah yes - that is a must regardless whether it is from a pâtisserie, a Konditorei or a pasticceria. Unfortunately most businesses in Germany still use 1 and 2 cent coins, unlike the neighboring Netherlands ...

Christian

 

* - except for the Germans.

 

Good luck to him.

The cent outlived it's usefulness 30 years ago.

 

a herd of elephants would be heard

 

So....would I have to stop saying...."It's not worth a red cent?"

 

Depends on the date on the cent.

 

I just checked. The intrinsic value of a bronze US cent is about 8 tenths of a US cent. The problem with economically producing cents of any metal is the cost of manufacturing. That would be roughly the same for bronze or copper-plated zinc, or aluminum. The zinc cents are presumably more expensive to produce than bronze cents because the zincs are clad coins. I agree the US cent has outlived its usefulness.

In fact I hate them in change. Before 2009, in New Jersey some merchants would round up or down, and usually down. I don't think I'd miss pennies at all.

But I would be a little sad to see them change the nickel because it's the only non-clad coin the US Mint still strikes at it's original metal content. But, that's me being sentimental. The density of copper and nickel are very close. Copper is more conductive than nickel, so I suppose vending machines might be affected. If not I see no real problem with even a bronze "nickel".

I'd still like to see bronze cents and copper-nickel nickels (at the current alloy) in my proof and uncirculated sets.

 

In the US we have a history of eliminating obsolete denomination coins. I'm thinking of the half cent and three cent piece, which were both victims of inflation. We also change the composition of coins for the same reason, as we did with the clad dimes, quarters, and half dollars in 1965.

 

Well, sorta. Before 1866, they were silver half-dimes.

BTW, welcome to CoinTalk!

 

I would suspect the added copper might make up for lower copper usage in the penny, as well as make the minting of the nickel easier.. Nickel is also getting harder to get and mine. Look for a more corroded nickel in time if it went through.

 

The US mint should just eliminate all of the three useless lowest denominations of coins. When the US eliminated the half cent in 1857 it had the equivalent purchasing power of a current quarter dollar.

The only presently circulating coin that has any purchasing power is the quarter. There should be circulating half dollars, and a dollar coin but coupled with the elimination of the $1 bill.