Dime will make nickel?????

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by mintmark-s, May 10, 2010.

  1. mintmark-s

    mintmark-s Junior Member

    Hello cointalk,
    My friend told me that nickel will add dime? No longer copper w/ clads.:confused::confused::confused:
     
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  3. wokeupscreamin

    wokeupscreamin Junior Member

    i heard they are ending the trade embargo with cuba
     
  4. Dimefreak

    Dimefreak Senior Member

    what are you asking?
     
  5. rlm's cents

    rlm's cents Numismatist

    I'm sorry, but you are going to have to translate that for me.
     
  6. BR549

    BR549 Junior Member

    There is already the metal nickel used to strike the US dimes. The outer layers are composed of 75% Copper, 25% Nickel to make the alloy cupro-nickel which jackets a 100% copper core. I'm also writing a book that will blow the lid off the upholstery business.
     
  7. Lehigh96

    Lehigh96 Toning Enthusiast

    I think someone told him that the mint is changing the composition of the dime to nickel instead of clad. He wants to know if that is true. Now that I have translated, someone else will have to answer. I know nothing about moderns and only use them to pay for stuff.
     
  8. Dimefreak

    Dimefreak Senior Member

    oh, as far as I know things are staying the same. that would be awesome though!!!!:D
     
  9. BR549

    BR549 Junior Member

    Well, still not quite sure, but I think the OP is referring to the appearance of this article:

    MAY 10, 2010.Will Nickel-Free Nickels Make a Dime's Worth of Difference?
    Plan to Mint Cheaper Coins Tests Mettle of Laundromats, Zinc Lobbyists.

    By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON
    It costs the federal government up to nine cents to mint a nickel and almost two cents to make a penny. So, in addition to overhauling Big Finance, President Barack Obama wants to tinker with America's small change.

    The president's plan to save money by making coins from cheaper stuff seems simple on its face. But history shows it would rekindle an emotional debate among Americans who fear changing the composition of their currency will hurt its value.

    The idea of changing the composition of the currency sparks an emotional debate. Above, penny blanks at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.
    .
    On top of that, trade groups from the coin-laundry owners to the Zinc Association have lobbied for years to keep small change just the way it is.

    Like many things produced in Washington, U.S. coins aren't what they seem. A penny is a copper-coated token made mostly of zinc. The nickel contains more copper than it does actual nickel. And no coin contains silver anymore.

    Market forces, not metal prices, determine the value of American currency. Yet Americans persist, on websites like coinflation.com, in tracking the value of the metal in their currency.

    "People believe that we are still on some sort of precious-metal standard," says Rod Gillis, educator at the American Numismatic Association.

    As the White House looks to cut costs across government, "making coins from more cost-effective materials could save more than $100 million a year, which isn't just pocket change," says Dan Tangherlini, the Treasury Department's chief financial officer.

    The government isn't saying which new materials it might use in coins. Most coin experts say creating non-metal coins would go over like a wooden nickel. Still, industrial porcelain, embedded with an identification chip, is seen as an outside possibility. A more likely candidate: an aluminum alloy, used by other countries for coins. But any switch is likely to be controversial.

    Already, Mr. Gillis spends a chunk of his day at the coin-collectors association taking calls from Americans worried that the Obama administration will confiscate their gold coins to prop up the economy.

    He often asks people what gives a paper dollar its value. "Eight in 10 people make some sort of reference to the gold in Fort Knox," he says. But America has been off the gold standard since 1971, and gold currency stopped circulating in 1933.

    .No other stable nation has changed the metal content of its coinage less frequently. World War II shortages compelled the creation of a steel penny in 1943. The mint returned to copper after a year, even though that required smelting spent shell casings. The nickel's composition has gone unchanged since Thomas Jefferson's likeness was put on the coin in 1938, again with the exception of World War II, when for a brief period silver was added, because nickel was needed for weapons production.

    In 1974, with copper prices soaring, President Richard Nixon suggested making the penny from lighter, cheaper aluminum. Machine vendors and most of the public were horrified. The plan fizzled when Mr. Nixon resigned that year.

    In 1981, the Reagan administration proposed making the penny from zinc. The Copper and Brass Fabricators' Council sued, saying the plan would shackle the U.S. government to the whims of capricious foreign zinc miners. (Much of the zinc used in the U.S. comes from Canada.) It took the government two years to fully introduce the copper-plated, one-cent zinc piece.

    So far, about 10 special interest groups say they're monitoring Mr. Obama's coinage proposal. "This needs more concerted action than the mint saying, 'Let's make it cheap,"' says Ute Wartenberg Kagan, executive director of the American Numismatic Society in New York.

    A native of Germany, Ms. Kagan recalled Communist-era subway tokens and money made from plastic or from metals that rust. "Toy money," she says. "Is it worthy of a country like the U.S. to have coins of this nature?"

    Laundromats and makers of vending machines and coin-counting machines are poised to weigh in, too. Their machines recognize the size, weight and alloy content of current U.S. coins, so any change could force costly retoolings or replacements.

    "We're all taxpayers, and we're all in favor of being able to mint coins at a more reasonable cost," says Brian Wallace, president of the Coin Laundry Association. "But we want to make sure there aren't unintended consequences that could deeply impact the small-business owner during a recession."

    Some groups say they fear cheaper coins could lead to a wave of counterfeiting. Convicted forger Frank Abagnale pooh-poohs that idea. "People would be more apt to counterfeit casino chips than American coins," says Mr. Abagnale, who advises governments and companies on how to avoid fraud and forgery. "I'm one of these people who would be in favor of doing away with the penny. I'm always in airports, and people just leave them all over the place."

    Talk like that worries Americans for Common Cents, a group that has for years lobbied on behalf of the penny. "The penny is a hedge to inflation," says Mark Weller, executive director of the group, which is funded in part by the zinc industry. Without it, he argues, merchants would round up to the nearest nickel.

    In 2006, when surging metal prices prompted Congress to consider eliminating the penny, the group released a study under the title, "Lincoln Penny Still America's Sweetheart Even Though It Doesn't Make Cents."

    A least one group would support a sweeping change in the nation's coinage. Nickel, the most expensive and commonly used metal at the mint, is also the most allergy-producing metal in the world. According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, people allergic to nickel who have sustained contact with the metal—used in nickels, quarters and dimes—develop an itchy, poison-ivy-type reaction that can last up to a month.

    "My husband always has these weird rashes on his leg from the change in his pocket," a treasury official involved in the coinage plans says. "Maybe he would benefit from a plastic quarter."

    Write to Elizabeth Williamson at elizabeth.williamson@wsj.com
     
  10. mintmark-s

    mintmark-s Junior Member

  11. mintmark-s

    mintmark-s Junior Member

    Yes Yes right thank you very much :thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb: Tim
     
  12. panda

    panda Junior Member

    interesting thanks for the articles guys!

    i am not sure how i feel about the proposals.. it don't make much sense for them to make nickels that cost 9 cents to make! i would be for it, if they tested out a few different compositions for a few years and found one that held up. anything but plastic, thinking about plastic coins makes me sick...

    i also think it may not happen. it was easier back in the day to change a coins metal content and weight. back then, you used your coins person to person. now it seems everything you could ever want, you can use a machine to get. even shopping for food! this would be tough on small business. the little grocery store that just invested most of there money into self checkout lanes, to compete with the big chains. not to mention the many vending machines that would have to be redone. just think about how many machines you have in town that takes coins:eek:! all of them would either have to be replaced or taken away.

    sorry if i went off topic:eek:
     
  13. It may be that plastic will be used for U.S. coinage as Canada has recently proposed. TC
     
  14. quartertapper

    quartertapper Numismatist

    I hope we can come up with a composition to make the nickel work with most vending mackines. The problem we face is the nickel was introduced at a time when everything with a higher face value was silver, so they made their base metal coins physically larger. Now that all coins are base metal, we have to make a decision, and keeping the nickel as is would be the wrong one. If we cannot change the composition of the nickel to work with current vending machines, I'd love to see the reintroduction of the half dime. Call me crazy if you want.
     
  15. FreezerBurn

    FreezerBurn Member

    I have a coin. It has a front and a back and an edge. I think it is very rare. How much is it worth?


    ;)
     
  16. Just Carl

    Just Carl Numismatist

    You may well be more correct than you think. Although by plastic, it's the plastic credit, debit cards that will eventually wipe out the necessity for coinage. Not to long ago my Son told me he seldom has any coins or currency at all. I laughed at him saying there will always be coins and currency. However, lately I too find myself seldom ever carrying money. I too now use a credit card for about 90% of all purchases. I used to get irritated at women in stores where they would take out a credit card for a few dollar purchase. I now do the same thing. With the exception of coin shows or flea markets, I never use coins or currency.
    So by plastic, that's all there will be in the near future.
     
  17. jallengomez

    jallengomez Cessna 152 Jockey

    Fairly common to find edges like that. What you really want to look for in your searches are the no-edge varieties.
     
  18. Art

    Art Numismatist?

    Can I get my no-edge varieties certified by a reputable TPG?
     
  19. hontonai

    hontonai Registered Contrarian

    Yeah, but think of all the new jobs that would be created to make those replacement coin counters!
     
  20. jallengomez

    jallengomez Cessna 152 Jockey

    Sure can, and for an extra $5 they'll put it in the special edgeless holder.
     
  21. dayriser

    dayriser accumulator

    I don't know about you guys, but I personally am hoarding all my old PVC flips and containers... They will come in handy for storing all my new plastic coins... Of course, I can just hear it now -- Gas soars to $6.00/ gallon... Plastic being a petroleum product and all, I am sure there will be a shortage of oil to contend with soon enough...
     
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