Will the cent last another 10 years.

Given the cost of 1.4 cents of material to make a penny do you think the govenment will eventually be discontinued? Or will they use a cheaper medium?

 

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I meant the pennies not the government. lol

 

The mint is finally making money on the newer cents at $8.95 profit on a $1.00 face value. This will hold them over for a little while, dont know if will last ten years. I want to say that the mint loses money on the cent and nickel but makes money on dimes and quarters.

 

i dont think it will last 10 year maybe 5 at the most

 

10 years... NO, unless they find a way to make it not cost as much.
I say the half dollar and penny won't last another 10.

 

They don't even put the half into circulation anymore do they?

 

No they do not, but they do pop up into circulation every once in a while.

 

It's hard to say. Even though they are taking a loss on them, it takes an act of Congress to change coinage. I would bet it is more likely to change the material than get rid of the coin.

 

I vote for gummy coins or chocolate pennies. They are worth about the same as a penny and if I get hungry I can eat them

 

Chocolate would be pretty sweet.

But, I think an aluminum cent would be interesting. I know they had a few trial pieces in 1974...but maybe it is time to think about those again.

 

i think it will stay the same unless stores want to start rounding down

if the price of zinc goes way up then maybe but vending machine companies wont be happy to retool them even if the price goes up toward melt value.

 

Do vending machines take cents?

 

well vending machine is sorta vague - i should of said self-serve machine

but the vending machine at my post office takes pennies

plus the self-serve machines at Walmart, BJs Wholesale, Home Depot in my home town all take pennies. Plus the coin counter at my bank would be considered a self-servce coin machine also.

i would think that if pennies were changed in metal content - wouldnt all these machines would have to be retooled ??

 

I don't think it would be that big of an issue if they changed them. They added the "golden" Sac Dollar in 2000 without too much of an issue and they changed the composition of the dime, quarter, and half in 1965 (and the half again in 1971) and the cent in 1982 and everything was fine. I don't see why they couldn't do it again.

 

even though they lose money on the cent, don't they "make" money on the rest of the coinage? which should outweigh the loss?

 

Well, I don't think it's so much an issue of loss or gain...but that the coin has more intrinsic value than face value. In the past they have changed compositions to prevent this from happening and they probably will again. Typically, coinage has less intrinsic value than face value. This was even the case back when coins were silver and gold.

 

Hard to say if it will last. I'm not too concerned about the discontinuation or continuation of the cent which is a good thing since I'm not in the loop to affect the decision. What I would really like to see is the paper dollar to be discontinued for a coin, but increase the printing of the two-dollar bill.

 

I think both the $1 and $2 should be substituted with coins. That seemed to work well in Canada...I believe their lowest denomination bill is a $5 (I could be wrong though).

 

I don't think we would be able to do that from a public sentiment standpoint. Just the discontinuation of the one dollar bill would be a major accomplishment for "leadership" we have in Washington. I think they are too spineless to tackle the one dollar discontinuation, let alone also the two-dollar bill.

 

What happens if you leave your chocolate pennies in the car and they all melt? What if your 5 year old eats real coins thinking they might taste like chocolate?

We should do away with the cent or at least limit it to mint set only. Are 50c coins still made for circulation without the satin finish? If we would rid the $1 bill, you bet those dollar coins will see widespread circulation. Forget the $2 bill, start minting bimetalic coins like Canada does!

Yea get rid of the penny and round prices to the nickel when paying cash. No need to round when paying with plastic or checks. I also would like to see $2 coins in America!