No More Penny/Cent ?

Will the penny/cent be gone soon?

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/24335254/detail.html

Probably just a lot of hot air - but one never knows!
But you can post your vote at the link above.

 

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I think there are a billion other ways for the government to save money, but, if it costs 1.6 cents to make something that is 'worth' 1 cent, it isn't good economics.

I want them to continue making the penny, and that shield reverse ain't so bad looking in person....

 

The Mint has been making pennies, and nickels, and I think dimes, at a loss for several years now.

 

They can shrink gov. spending by getting rid of half its employee's...

 

No, dimes are still profitable for the mint.

 

they could just make the pennies small like the size of a dime

 

That would only buy a little time, and you would have the problem of having two different size coins of the same denomination in circulation.

It would only buy a little time because it is rapidly approaching the point where the labor cost by itself is approaching the face value. A little more and the cent would be a money loser even if the material it was made from was free.

 

I've been hearing about this possibility for at least 10 years.

 

Which means this move is long overdue.

 

I believe it is long overdue as well. What do you think would happen? Would they simply stop making new cents and redesign the nickel? Maybe a smarter option would be to revalue pennies to 5 cents, make new 5 cent pieces the same composition as the penny and simply stop making nickels out of nickels. Other countries have handled this different ways. I believe the US in the past has simply stopped making the denomination. If they drop both current designs and have a new 5 cent piece, without revaluing the current penny I think there would be a severe shortage of 5 cent pieces, since everyone would know to hoard the old nickels.

Regarding costs to the mint, if they stop making both 1 and 5 cent pieces they will lose money on dimes and maybe quarters. The reason is the way overhead is allocated, that without production of all of the pennies and nickels, overhead burden of the dime will be much, much higher. You know they would never lower overhead in a government bureaucracy.......

 

How about a half nickel?

There were half dimes at one time.

 

How about eliminating to penny and the nickel altogether, then if the goverment wanted to streamline further, replace the $1 and $5 with $1 and $5 coins, and get rid of the $100 completely (a lot of retail establishments don't accept hundreds any more and I will bet money that the hundred sees most of its usage in drug deals and organized crime).

 

The $1 and $5 coin will never work unless you withdraw the notes. Every other country has learned this but our politicians seem to be tone deaf on the issue.

$100 bills may be used for those things here, but overseas they are the preferred US currency and smaller bills get exchanged for lower rates. I believe most US $100 are overseas, not even circulating in the US.

 

That's what I meant-demonitize the bills. The British demonitized the old currency when they redid the pound in the 70's, and everything seemed to go smoothly.

 

That makes too much sence, we can't have that here...

 

The way I see it is if the government eliminated the cent to save a few bucks, they'd just waste money on something else, so whats the difference?
Guy~

 

For those who have missed it on Tuesday, you may be interested in watching the entire hearing on the state of US Coins & Currency.
http://financialservices.house.gov/hearings/hearingDetails.aspx?NewsID=1325

 

Hey folks, first post here...I don't understand how it is possible to get rid of the cent...without minting new pennies they will all eventually be removed from circulation. Then, how can you expect someone to pay for an item that requires a penny...will all prices be adjusted to the nearest 5 cents? Or do you expect someone who doesn't pay electronically to eat the remainder because the cashier couldn't give them pennies in their change. Rounding to the nearest 5 cents would be a burden on the consumer because all retailers are going to round up. I'm not against it, I just don't understand how it would work. Seems like a step in moving away from paper currency and towards an electronic currency.

 

Also, I'm for replacing dollar notes with coins. And lets get the big ones back.

 

Years ago a public outcry was listened too and heard, nowadays the public doesn't mean squat. These people are gonna do whatever suites them and more than likely it'll be something stupid. I still believe that 3 or 4 common folk have a whole lot more sence than a room full of educated idiots...