SHOULD THE U.S. CENT COIN BE RETIRED?

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by Robert Ransom, Jul 5, 2020.

  1. -jeffB

    -jeffB Greshams LEO Supporter

    This. THIS poster gets it.

    Except... the purchasing power of a nickel is trivial now, too. I argue for killing everything smaller than a quarter.

    Or, we could revalue the dollar, a one-for-ten reverse split. The buying power of each denomination would be 10 times higher than it is now.

    The problem, of course, is that either of these is a frank admission of what's happened to the dollar's value over time, and no politician will ever stand for it.

    When a hamburger or a cup of coffee goes up to $50, there will still be places that list it as $49.99, and there will still be people who insist on getting their exact change back. And, of course, it'll be the person in line in front of me who decides this is the time to spend all those pennies they've accumulated...
     
    UncleScroge likes this.
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  3. Dimedude2

    Dimedude2 Member

    How about a compromise - how about bring back the 2 and 3 cent piece?
     
  4. Raymond Walker

    Raymond Walker New Member

    by them doing away with a penny and round it of to a nickel the government would make billions of dollars off us. They will make it off us one way or another so I guess it doesn't matter.
     
  5. whopper64

    whopper64 Well-Known Member

    A two dollar coin will work as well as the $2 note and the $1 coin for circulation purposes, i.e. NOT! But Canada missed the boat, they should have continued to make the penny (cent) for collectors only and charged a premium to actually make rather than lose money. For the U.S. the lincoln cent is the longest running coin in history and is the most minted (and collected) in the world. If the U.S. Mint stops producing lincoln cents for circulation perhaps they could change the reverse every 5 or 10 years just for variety sake. The Sacagawea/Native American coin is a good idea (annual reverse change) and seems to have led to more collectors for that particular coin. However, it would be nice if the U.S. Mint would make a silver proof version of the Sacagawea/Native American coin, thus adding value to the overall collection. Would gold-plating silver coin be possible from the U.S. mint to match current color of the Sacagawea/Native American coin, or would it lead to confusion with the cheaper clad variety?
     
    Robert Ransom likes this.
  6. chascat

    chascat Well-Known Member

    Inflation is getting to the point that any coinage at all is nearly not needed in commerce. The only real need for change is the ability to pay taxes, and very little else. A debt. card is the most convenient method for payment, and would save the Gvmt. billions in production costs. This is how most of us do business anyway, so why not give a certain percentage discount for it's frequent use, and produce a fewer number of coins for the less fortunate, or better yet, no new coinage at all.
     
    Robert Ransom likes this.
  7. Robert Ransom

    Robert Ransom Well-Known Member

    I think the size and weight pose a problem.
     
  8. Robert Ransom

    Robert Ransom Well-Known Member

    There's a thought.
     
  9. ewomack

    ewomack 魚の下着

    The problem isn't convincing people that there is a problem. We've had this same discussion over and over again for years now and the vast majority of people on this forum seem to agree that the US has kept to its current circulating denominations for far too long. That isn't the problem.

    The problem is making a new coinage a reality.

    We all know that it takes an act of congress to change coinage. We also know that the likelihood of Congress ever actually addressing this issue remains almost zero. They haven't yet and they don't seem too intent on addressing it anytime soon. They have far more important things to attend to.

    And yes, it's true that it costs more than a cent to make a cent. And it's true that it costs more than a nickel to make a nickel. But that doesn't cover the entire story. The mint more than makes up for those losses with the higher denominations, especially the quarter. So overall it's difficult to make anyone see an actual problem. There's nothing there so urgent that it would turn Congress away from other legislative matters and towards coinage. In the end, it's just not all that important in the grand scheme of things.

    Also, coinage seems more important to coin collectors than it does to the public at large. Most people don't really care or even take the time to understand how it all works. More than once in the last decade I was the only one in a room of dozens of people who knew the person depicted on the dime. And some people didn't believe me and had to look it up. But far more people present simply didn't care.

    Plus, and this remains another hot topic of debate on this forum, electronic money continues to make headway in the economy. True, it may not fully replace tangible money anytime soon, but it has already diminished its importance overall, making it even less likely to appear on Congress's dockets. Congress would likely be far more interested in looking at some sort of e-money than redesigning or re-configuring the current coinage.

    Add to that the alleged lobby that a manufacturer of paper has with the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, people have mentioned this here before, and that makes the elimination of any banknotes politically unlikely. If the dollar bill doesn't get eliminated, a dollar coin will never circulate. And if the lobby remains powerful, then the BPE won't shift to polymer, either, which could also lessen the need for new coins.

    In the end, we can talk about the problem all we want. I think we all agree. But I also think anything happening anytime soon is probably unlikely because overall the country isn't losing money with the current configuration so the issue will probably never become important enough to address in the foreseeable future.

    Congress's direction of the mint would have to stop, making a situation similar to Canada, for anything to happen soon. Or more people would have to start to care about coinage for the issue to rise above its current status.

    So likely things will continue as they are until something happens to change them. Things do sometimes come along unexpectedly, so it could happen. But, barring that, things will likely remain the same for a while.
     
  10. mynamespat

    mynamespat Well-Known Member

    You can't throw coins at exotic dancers, and I'm not throwing $5 bills at them (unless they have earned it of course).

    PS I haven't been to a strip club since a buddies bachelor party 10+ years ago. I don't really like the experience to be honest.
     
    xCoin-Hoarder'92x likes this.
  11. Santinidollar

    Santinidollar Supporter! Supporter

    Two points about the cent:

    1. it should be retired.

    2. It ain’t gonna be.
     
    -jeffB likes this.
  12. Dimedude2

    Dimedude2 Member

    bring back the trime!!
     
  13. chascat

    chascat Well-Known Member

    That's exactly why we even use currency at all...a very large percentage of it is used for less than noble purposes. It's untraceable in most cases.
     
    xCoin-Hoarder'92x and LA_Geezer like this.
  14. Cachecoins

    Cachecoins Historia Moneta

    An argument could be made that coinage in general is no longer needed. Certainly we don't need 1 dollar coins. Most people don't use them and many people don't even use bills (any physical medium of exchange) anymore. The general public, if they use physical currency, only use bills and do not want all the change. Coinage is seen as impractical to many.

    I think if we keep coinage we should eliminate the 1 cent at the very least. It is not needed and it is a waste of resources to even make them and the same argument could be made about the 5 cent as well.

    I say all this with regret as a person who is obviously very fond of the coin (especially fractionals currency which is even more useless today) but I fear its days may be numbered as people more and more prefer the digital currency for it's ease of use. I keep cash and I keep quarters but only use them when I need to and otherwise use a card for most transactions. All the rest just piles up until I cash it or I give it to a homeless person.
     
    chascat likes this.
  15. bugi1976

    bugi1976 Member

    I can never understand why people put their change in jars and not back in circulation - there are so many places where you can spend change - I do live in Europe but I always try to spend all of my coins when I am in the US - at the beginning of the holiday I do CRH and spend everything.

    There are self checkouts, there are toll stations, I do buy gas (15 $ with 5 $ in quarters), I do buy bus tickets, or buy a coke or a water for 1$ - and i know a cheeseburger is 1.07 incl. tax - so I do spend 7 pc. 1 Cent coin there.
     
  16. bugi1976

    bugi1976 Member

    You can - they do this in Canada (at least people did it in 2003 when I have been to a strip club in Edmonton)
     
  17. chascat

    chascat Well-Known Member

    Is your nickname "Jingles"?
     
  18. Phil's Coins

    Phil's Coins Well-Known Member

    Nor do I.
     
  19. -jeffB

    -jeffB Greshams LEO Supporter

    I don't see how you can reach this conclusion, unless you completely don't understand how rounding works.

    But, sure, I guess Big Government could stick it to me by overcharging me up to two cents on my five-figure tax liability. TYRANNY!
     
  20. LA_Geezer

    LA_Geezer Well-Known Member

    Well, they're going in the wrong direction down here. Twenty-five or so years ago Louisiana passed a law forbidding the surcharge on anyone who pays for his gas with a credit card. NOW the law has been rescinded and you will get a 4¢ per gallon discount if cash is used for payment. OK, so I get a 5% discount from my credit card company for using my card to buy gas, so that's about 10¢ per gallon they'll pay me not to use cash. I'm still ahead using the card, but the cash discount might be bigger in other states, possibly making the opposite true.
     
  21. LA_Geezer

    LA_Geezer Well-Known Member

    The presidential dollar coins are only slightly larger than a quarter. Don't know the weight, though.

    You are a wise man, @ewomack . Your points are well taken and better said.
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2020
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