Is the Cent Wothless?

A lot of people (including numismatists) think the U.S. Cent is wothless and advocate eliminating it.

In relationship to our economy this like seems a good idea, but (a big BUT) in many parts of the world the U.S. Cent is a coin to be desired (as are all the Nickels, Dimes, Quarters, Half Dollars and Dollars).

I'm not going fill pages and pages with examples. This one should suffice:
Let's look at the Venezuelan New Bolivar.

The official exchange rate is 2.15 New Bolivars to 1 United States Dollar. Since 100 Centimos equals 1 New Bolivar, the U. S. Cent is worth 2.15 Centimos. "So what?" you ask.

You remember the first four words of the above papagraph? "The official exchange rate." That's the exchange rate you'd receive at any Venezuelan bank or the government's own exchange outlets.

Do you know how many New Bolivars you could get on the black market for each U. S. Dollar? 5.7.

In the byways and business districts your U. S. Cent is worth 5.7 Centimos (over twice as much!).

In some countries the US. Cent is worth hundreds in their currency. When I was in Berlin, courtesy of the U. S. Army (specifically April 1957) my father sent me a $50 bill. The Army exchange would have given me 210 Marks for it. A local Berlin Cafe owner gave me 450 Marks and wanted to know if I could get more!

You don't want the Cents, send them to me, drop them in the Salvation Army's kettles, spend them at the Goodwill Store, or donate them to The Red Cross.

I know! Take a bunch with you on your next trip abroad and use them for tips or as treats for children. They're worth more than you may think!

Clinker

 

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Some good points.

PS - I have never advocated the elimination of the cent.

 

It's still one of, if not the, most collected coin in US numismatics. Funny how many people forget that when they advocate eliminating it.
Guy~

 

Not sure if this fits here or not, but if you look at any time you buy fuel products it is broken down even further then the cent. Gas at the pumps is broken down into 9/10th of of a cent ie 2.459 and propane is broken down even further. My last propane bill was broken down to 1.9901

Dave

 

No we don't forget, but if it eliminated another coin will become the most collected. People use the argument that most new collectors start by collecting cents so we shouldn't eliminate them. Well if you do then the new collectors will start by collecting nickels. Some will say "Well yes but the nickel is five times as much money and that will stop some people from collecting". Todays five cent pice may have five times the face value of the cents I started collecting, but its purchasing power today is HALF what the cents was when I started. So a new collector starting out with nickels will actually be getting started cheaper than I did with cents.

 

I'm advocating the elimination since I have a gazillion of them. I love collecting pennies (please no centsless comments) but they would certainly increase in value a couple of years after elimination.

 

If there were serious plans afoot to chuck the penny I think it would cause a bubble in prices for cents, it may even last for a few years, but in the long term I think it will cause collectors generally to lose interest in them, and their value would drop.

Maybe I am wrong, america has had other denominations that were dropped but are there any stats on price trends with those denominations that were no longer issued?

 

How about the 3 cents, half dime, and 20 cents to name a few?

 

Description---------------------Denomination---Metal Value
1982-2009 Cent (97.5% zinc) *----$0.01--------$0.0048882
This price quote was taken today. I do not understand why it keeps being said that the metal is worth more than the product. Unless the actual process to produce a penny cost more than $0.0051? being that they are produced by the millions, I don't believe manufacturing cost to be greater than the material cost.
But, to answer the OP with my opinion. Yes, as soon as it for fact cost More to produce the penny they should either stop production of the penny all together or produce them of a cheaper metal mix, say aluminum.

 

The metal prices are lower now than they were a year ago. It wasn't that long ago that the metal cost for the cent WAS close to or higher than the face value.

 

Considering the debt that we're building as a country, you can bet that our currency will soon lose value to precious metals. Of course, as soon as the penny is no longer in production, a key market for these metals will dry up, and they will return to being worth less than a penny. Bottom line, who knows how this one will go.

 

Between a year ago and now zinc has not gone above $1 per pound and is at $0.84 Today? I don't see where metal cost for the cent WAS close to or higher than face value? Unless you are thinking of 1909-1982 Cent (95% copper) *, which today was valued at $0.0178975 melt value?

 

I do see were zinc was at just above $2 per pound about Dec.2006 & into early 2007 before dropping over the months and years to under $1 again which is where it still is now.

 

Nothing that has activity associated with it is useless.

Nothing that has activity associated with it is useless.
I will always love the cent be it old, new or completley worthless in bying power.
If we follow the logic of "buying power' alone as far as I can tell the cent, nickle, dime, quarter, and half are useless and just about the dollar - I buy nothing that stands alone that costs those amounts.
I mean ask yourself do you ever really head off to the store with any of those amounts to buy an object that only costs those amounts??? I don't.
My cigarettes cost almost $7 a pack - when I started smoking they were around .25 cents.
Even if you go to the store to get a cup of coffee or a drink it's going to be between $1 and $2 so with any change you have left you must combine it with more to go back again.
I think we will all be old and grey (some of us are already there) before the cent is elimenated.
It's not dead yet with 2009 issues it is very much alive and in demand so the bottom line is, "yes it's worthless as far as buying power but still has much worth as far as coin collectors are concerned".

 

And these days $50 have a value of €34 which would be about 66 marks. So much for the value of the penny.

Christian

 

The US mint is probably the largest single consumer of zinc. Replace zinc with another metal in the production of the cent and zinc will fall significantly in price and the non-ferrous metal used as the substitue will rise significantly in price.

 

I like when people use the cent's buying power as a reason for it's elimination. Has one cent ever bought much of anything? Look it up, even in it's infancy, a cent didn't really buy much if anything on it's own, so nothing has changed. I just cashed in $85 in cents last week...about 2 months worth of accumulated change. Now tell me they're worthless.
Guy~

 

Personally I would like to note for the record that my true opinion is that all Fiat money is just about completely worthless

 

It had about the purchasing power that a dollar does today. Which means todays cent has the purchasing power of 1/50th that of the half cent back then. And they thought the half cent was too low in value to be needed.

 

Well said!! In historical terms...the cent, nickel, dime, and quarter should no longer be produced. Politicians are too weak-kneed to do anything about it.