From the latest issue of Coin World. Bush administration say's, you can't change the alloy of the cent untill they lose money for five years.
This country has been losing money making, handling, and disposing of this coin since at least 1975. Just how much pain must we endure?
Actually, it was the congressional legislation that specified the need to lose money for five years before the alloy could be changed. It was Edmund Moy (director of the mint, representing the Bush administration) who objected to that provision.
It would be interesting to know what portion of the national debt is due to the "pain" of making Lincoln cents. I bet it's 0.0001%. Why make mountains out of molehills ? If it's fiscal "pain" we're concerned about, let's go after the big ticket items... ... not the penny-ante micro issues.
Congress makes laws, not administrations we may or make not like. XXXX Edited for respect of other forum members
I bet it's closer to .001% when you consider the interest. Of course we're also teaching people that it's OK to lose money as long as you do it a little at a time and that's about half the problem. :whistle:
I am sure we can push it over the edge just give me the word lol that being said: there was a letter to the editor in our local paper talking about gettign cents to recirculate and out of hiding that involved teh mint to stop new production, buying cents back for 0.75 a roll and then re-releasing them, saving the mint approx a quarter a roll based off of current melt prices.... i dont remember any other details (something historical was in there too) but it is an interesting idear
I don't see any problem with that suggestion. I think I will go to my bank and get 10,000 rolls of cents for $5,000. Then I will sell them to the Mint for $7,500. Then I'll take that $7,500 and buy more rolls of cents to sell to the Mint. Yeah. That sounds like a plan.
They wont drop the cent or the nickel. We know this already. They lose money on making them, but they make up for it by the premiums they charge for the coins the sell. It works out in the end. Thats all. And the BPE will never stop printing paper dollars because no one wants to walk around with a pocket full of coins like some old crazy guy on the subway.
Haven't seen the article so there might be something new in the legislation but my understanding is that this legislation basically covers the clad coinage and maybe the five cent piece. The Sec of the Treasury has had the authority to alter the composition of the cent for over a year now.
My father used to say that in Germany in 1922 you needed a wheel barrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread but you could pay off your mortgage with the change. At some point the paper is more valuable as fuel and the coins as ballast. The faster we throw away money the faster we can get there.