Have you heard ?

I hope you don't make this political, but I heard on the news tonight that the Obama administration is planning on changing the material makeup of the penny's and nickels to allow the Treasury to at least break even on the manufacturing of U.S. coins. It appears that todays cost of producing the cent & nickel's
cost more than the coins are worth. Maybe it's a good time to stock up on the old high priced stuff before they bring on the junk.

 

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Do you know what they are going to be made of?

 

http://www.coinworld.com/articles/mint-begins-trial-strikes-in-composition-test/

 

Nope, sorry but I am not a Metallurgist.

 

Yeah, it wasnt a matter of if, but when. They have been toiling with the idea for a while now.

 

If the US Mint needs to change the cent's composition from what it is now to something cheaper, then all minting should be stopped or limited to about 100 million per year ($1,000,000 loss for every cent the price goes up rather than $50-60 million)

 

They could make up the current loss easily if they got rid of the Dollar Bill and just issued dollar coins.

 

I'm not trying to sound simplistic, but isn't the obvious answer to get rid of the penny?

 

but aren't today's cents worth less then one cent?

 

Then everything would be rounded up.

 

"cost to produce the copper-plated Lincoln cent is 2.41 cents, while that for the copper-nickel Jefferson 5-cent coin is 11.18 cents."

I hate to say it. but I think they could stop making cents - we'd survive without them. No more $xx.99" sales though.

 

This is actually kind of sad. I guess my future grandchildren will grow up in an era when a nickel is not made of nickel, and you can no longer purchase an actual treasury bond. Did we really allow ourselves to get into such a pickle that we have to alter the contents of U.S. coinage?

 

and 6% sales tax will be rounded up to 10%. there's not 1 level of government (city, state, federal) in the USA that would drop it to 5%.

 

The nickel is 75% copper and only 25% nickel, but I hear what you are saying. TC

 

TC, I just want to point out that although I have an absolute pashion for coins, I know nothing in comparison to the rest of you.

 

The article I read mentioned steel as a possible alternative. The guy who was being interviewed (a treasury official, I assume) specifically stated that getting rid of the penny is not being considered at this time. I'll see if I can dig it up.

Edit--the one I read was first, another from NPR added. Google news search "coin" and there are a bunch.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/15/news/economy/pennies_nickels/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...ge-change-shift-looms-for-pennies-and-nickels

 

Well, other countries are using steel as their base core metal, might as well jump on that bandwagon if it means saving money.

 

YES, now I won't have to bend over if I drop a coin, I'll just use a magnet. But puts a end to easy roll searching if they apply it one dimes and such

 

Ew steel coins.

 

If they switch the composition of the nickel, letps petition to rename it for it won't have any nickel in it.