RIP...US Mint

But-but-but what about checking everything for varieties?!!?

 

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They don't sit in those jars. Every moron is dumping them into Coin Star and paying a ridiculous 10.9% (up from 9.5%) to turn their coins into cash.
As for the soda, that 10 cents is at the beginning. But it doesn't go through too many levels of sales (distributors, wholesalers, whatever) before it gets to the company that is stocking the machine. And even taking into account the 2-3% that the credit card company is taking, they are still making enough of a profit, or they would carry a less expensive brand, a smaller size for the same price or a different product.

 

Really? 1/10 of a 1967 cent? Care to edit before I disprove?

 

The first inflation calculator I pulled up just now suggested that one dollar's worth of stuff in 1967 would now run just under $7.30.

 

And by that one, you have to get all the way back to 1950 before you get to 1/10. It's bad enough, but what's 17 years among friends?

 

Not every one of them. If they were then the mint wouldn't be making anywhere near as many coins as they are. That's what happened in the crash of 2008, a lot of jars did get dumped and coin production plummeted.

cents
2007 7.3 billion
2008 5.3 billion
2009 2.35 billion

Nickels
2007 1.2 billion
2008 .65 billion
2009 .08 billion

dimes
2007 2.1 billion
2008 1.1 billion
2009 .15 billion

quarters
2007 2.7 billion
2008 2.4 billion
2009 .64 billion

So many coins came out of jars in 2008 that mintages didn't reach pre-crash levels until around 2012 (and believe me not all the jars got dumped. Also those jars got dumped because people were financially hurting. A cent shortage will NOT cause people to dump their jars). Coins were going into jars again. The mint doesn't make the huge numbers of coins it does because the economy is growing so much that it needs that many more of them each year, it makes them to replace the coins pulled OUT of circulation each year that are lost or in those jars. Yes there are always some jars getting dumped and the coins rotated back into circulation but I would bet that the majority of them are not and stay out for many years.

 

But you have to also account for all the 1982/3 and later cents that simply dissolve into a pile of shmutz.

 

I use the "Snickers" rule.

In 1967, a full size (2oz) Snickers bar cost 5¢. Try to find one today for less than 50¢.

In 1967, a postage stamp was 5¢. Today, a postage stamp is 49¢...and the USPS is losing $Billions.

7¢ or 10¢ is irrelevant...the point is...why wasn't the lack of granularity a problem in 1967?

Answer: It wasn't...and isn't now.

Let's take the Cent off life support and let it pass with dignity. Cents will likely become more collectible once they become obsolete.

 

Exactly! The reason coins are going into jars and staying there is because they're useless...so why not make useful coins instead?

Amassing a hoard of coins because you hate them...isn't "coin collecting".

 

Sometime in the last few years, there was a point where my rising income and the falling value of the cent crossed a trend line with my aging, slowing body -- and I realized that taking a couple of seconds to bend down and pick up a cent from the parking lot didn't pay as well as sitting in an office chair.

I also noticed when I was doing the bicycle commute that I was seeing more nickels and dimes in the road than cents. Occasional quarters, too. I wouldn't take my life into my hands by stopping to grab them, but when I was a kid, most people would have gotten out of their car to retrieve a dropped quarter.

 

Because, yeah, after all this is the Twenty-Teens and actual data has no place any more. Anecdotal atypical examples are MUCH better. Now, instead of using Snickers bars, something I NEVER buy, why don't I "randomly" choose a thing I buy the bejabbers out of - computing power? I wonder what the negative inflation rate is based on MY choice.

It's ALL about what you buy, and the CPI doesn't take into account either a) substitute goods or b) seeking discounting, so the whole thing is overstated. But then again, if you're already buying chicken thighs at WalMart instead of T-bone at your own butcher, well, you've pretty much run out that string, huh?

 

Interesting about prices in 1967
And
Chicken thighs were 65 cents lb
Tuna fish 4/1.00
And the price of tea in China was???


Computer power
http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/1967/

https://www.thocp.net/timeline/1965.htm

 

Interesting. Farm products -- milk, meat, eggs -- have gone up much less proportionately than other goods (and incomes). Behold the power of factory farming...

 

Some price increases are "inflation", but many are not. Some are just a manifestation of where monopoly / oligopoly power is being wielded. Force true competition, and clamp down on M&A, and watch inflation disappear completely.

 

What does proof ASE stand for

 

American Silver Eagle

 

Seems to me the ccac stands for "corrupt cronies affecting collectors".