Abolishing the Cent: new developments

A little basic research goes a long way. The mint director's annual report presents the costs and seignorage (profit) for each denomination.

https://www.usmint.gov/content/dam/usmint/reports/2024-annual-report.pdf



Will this change a bit as fixed costs are reallocated from circulation-quality cents to other programs? Sure.

 

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Can't imagine the nickel will be far behind really, but I think they wisely are choosing not to do too much at once.

 

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There's no way I can see to keep a 5g "nickel" using zinc.

Density of the 75% Copper - 25% Nickel is 8.93 g/cm³. A 5g "nickel" is then 0.56 cm³.

Pure copper is 8.96 g/cm³
Pure nickel is 8.90 g/cm³
Zinc is 7.14 g/cm³

The maths of combining two lighter materials to make a clad coin of the same size and mass doesn't math.

 

Well then... don't. Vending machines already don't take pennies; the world won't end if they also don't take nickels. People use cash a lot less these days anyway, even for vending machines, many of which take cards now.

Either don't keep it 5g or... don't keep it, period. If the law says they have to be 5g, well... laws can be changed. Or it's a moot point if they just discontinue it altogether.

I think the only reasons nickels haven't been discontinued too is because they don't want to do too much at once, to ease into the transition.

We've been using nickel 5 cent pieces for less time than we've been using pennies, even if you only count small cents. If we can do without pennies, we could do without nickels.

 

The small cent was introduced in 1857. The five-cent copper-nickel alloy coin was introduced in 1865. That's not much difference.

 

Actually, copper-nickel small cent started in 1856/7 and the bronze cent started in 1865.

As for the wider question, we should ditch all our current coinage and change to 10 cent coin (as smallest), 25 cent coin, $1 coin, $2 coin and $5 coin, then start with $10 bills.

 

1856 Flying Eagles are generally called patterns. Albeit struck in much larger quantities than any other pattern and widely distributed.

The 88% Copper, 12% Nickel alloy gave the mint a lot of trouble in the striking. (And the 75%/25% later alloy was worse.

 

I agree for the most part but would eliminate the 25¢ and make a new 50¢ that is about the same size as the current nickel. 10¢, 50¢, $1 and $5 coins, then $10 (eliminate the $20), $50, $100 and $500 bills.

 

They need to bring back $500 and $1000 dollar bills.
These hundreds are annoying and just clogging up my wallet.

 

I'd gladly take them off your hands if you don't want them lol.

 

What could change the fixed costs more would be closing the SF and possibly W mint after eliminating the cent and moving their production to the extra capacity at P and/or D. Just over half of the coins made were cents (approx 3.2B cents, 5.9B coins total). Mint marks on special coins are no longer a big deal now that privy marks have become profitable.

 

Instead of doing something that might benefit Americans, like fixing Daylight Savings or a radical update of coinage, our politicians do what? (don’t answer that because it might get you in trouble)

 

Feeling bad for you brother, just not that bad

 

Both stupid ideas...

We tried permanent DST, people forget that school kids went to school in deep dark (not just dawn) and there were several horrific accidents. In the 1970s.

Changing our coinage and bills has costs that would fall disproportionately on the poor and populations underserved by banks.

The # of cash transactions per month per person hasn't changed all that much since 2020 (it's half what it was in 2016).


https://www.frbservices.org/news/research/2025-findings-from-the-diary-of-consumer-payment-choice

 

If there's a safety problem due to school starting too early in the (solar) day... just spitballing here, but might the solution be to adjust school schedules, instead of adjusting an entire society's schedules?

 

There has been some motion there, with many districts scheduling the high schools to start AFTER elementary schools because studies have shown (I know, surprise) that teenagers don't do mornings as well.

We see this where the local school zone is active for over 90 minutes.

But there's a limit to how much you can shift before you start disrupting families that have kids in multiple schools. And if you start too late, after-school activities run into the dinner hour.

 

Again, parents of schoolchildren could change their dinner schedule, instead of forcing everyone to change their dinner schedule.

Because that's what the DST/standard time switching does, really. It makes everyone shift all their schedules. In some ways, that's simpler than piecemeal changes. But it carries a terrible cost. (The number of people dying due to sleep disruption is likely a good bit larger than the number dying due to darkness-related accidents.)

 

Sleep disruption kills? Now I am surprised I am still typing :-D

 

It can wreak havoc......the wife, lately, has been getting me up at 3 or 4 AM. Her sleep issues are becoming mine and the results ain't pleasant. I find myself foggy eyed and short tempered. Heaven forbid that I should wander out into traffic.......