Q: What determines the mintage numbers?

As of Mar. 6, 2017...a CBS News report stated it cost 1.5 cents to make a cent, costing $46 million dollars. In the report it showed a bar graph of the relative cost per denomination. 1.5 cents to produce a cent, 1.25 cents to produce a nickel, and .25 cents each to produce dimes and quarters. There was no breakout of cents produced for circulation versus those minted for sets.

They were talking about the year 2016, saying it was the 11th year that it cost more than face value to mint a cent. 2017 would be the 12th, this year is the 13th......

Spark

 

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Those numbers are more than a little suspect as is much of the Mint's accounting. How do you divvy up the cost of equipment, security, overhead, etc. By time, by value, by what?

By way of an example you have four shifts of security guards, each works 5 shifts a week and there's one shift of overtime that a shift picks up once a month. So you pay for 21 and a half shifts.

You only run the presses 10 shifts a week, say 1 each of nickels dimes and quarters and 7 of cents.

Do you charge 70% of the security costs to cent production (time)? Or 7/47ths (value). Or some other value?

 

Lincoln Cent = Tax Token

 

That covers the second paragraph in my last response.

Yes but it means that they MUST make what the Secretary feels necessary, If he decides the appropriate number is zero then the mint shall or must make zero. So there is no law that says that cents HAVE to be made, just that they HAVE to be made if the Secretary decides they need to be made.

 

The paddles with the ball were the most dangerous toy during my childhood. When the rubber string broke it became my mom's weapon of choice when I needed discipline.

 

This may come off as a little naive...how do you get the FedRes to stop ordering them? Is that probable? I'm thinking the Gov. would launch a study of some sort, costing more millions, to come to the conclusion that the American populace just can't abide doing without Ole Abe, that their fear of rounding is justified, that too many jobs would be lost and we would just end up where we are now...crappy zincolns and a dysfunctional process...Spark

 

Did she drill holes through it to reduce air resistance

 

It doesn't cost 1.25 cents to produce a nickel.
It also doesn't cost .25 cents to produce a dime nor .25 to make a quarter.

 

I just looked at the US Mint's 2017 financial report. The materials, production costs, selling, advertising, general administrative, and distribution is considerable. The lower cost of copper had helped but they are high than 2016.
Total costs to the Mint is:
$.01--$.0182
$.05--$.0660
$.10--$.0333
$.25--$.0824
When Seignorage (The difference between the total production costs and face value) are applied this is the result:
Figures are based on $1.00 face value.
$.01--($.82)
$.05--($.32)
$.10--$.69
$.25--$.69
Do the math and it's easy to see that it costs more to produce Cents and Nickels than they are worth. But in the end the US Mint makes hundreds of millions of dollars every year that is pure profit to the US Government.

As for the BEP, here's their breakdown:
$ 1.00--$.056
$ 2.00--$.056
$ 5.00--$.110
$ 10.00--$.117
$ 20.00--$.108
$ 50.00--$.129
$100.00--$.132
Since twenties are the most common bill it costs less to produce them than fives and tens. Think of the seigniorage on paper money.

 

No she didn't but she did remove the staple that held the rubber string. My biggest memory of her and the paddle was when climbing a tree I wasn't supposed to. She was at the base of the tree, paddle in hand, calmly telling me to come down.

 

No argument from me, I found this CBS News report on the internet...it has to be true! (lol).

Collecting Nut found better info.

Spark

 

Quotes on the internet are not always correct
--Abe Lincoln

 

Abe tweets too much!

 

The law says the decision as to what the nation needs is HIS. In practice he accepts the Fed's requests but he doesn't HAVE to.

 

Dude, try to keep it under your hat, would ya?
They might get wise to our plans!

 

I also spend my change. Banks (at least in NYC) are starting to give customers a hard time when they bring in rolls of coins. The Savings bank I use put a limit of ten rolls of coins that they will accept. The first time I ran into this I brought about 30 rolls of various denominations. (They were my wife's and daughter's). When the teller said they were only allowed to accept 10 rolls and was giving me a hard time I threatened to take all my money out of all my accounts. She went to the manager and finally they agreed to take all the rolls. The larger banks seem to give people a difficult time with cents but not as much with dimes, quarters, and halves. I went into a Bank of America branch to cash a $100 bill. At first they refused to change it because I didn't have an account with them. I raised a little hell with the manager asking what was the purpose of the bank if you won't change a bill for me. They finally changed it for me.

 

Most banks here in Germany charge a fee when you come with a lot of coins. The "threshold" varies from bank to bank, and in some cases it is still free for private customers (especially account holders). From a bank's POV ... handling cash costs money too, while interest rates are close to zero.

And yes, when using cash, it does make sense to spend the change.

Christian