Alright, I know about the controversial double die obverse 1 "double ear." Here is something I learned more recently. It was stated in The Official Red Book... "George E. Hunter... said major strengthening of details has been done on the plaster models for the 1997 obverses of both the Lincoln cent..." I have noticed a sharper and strengthen detail with 1997 Lincolns. Here is where I am a bit curious. Is this common or uncommon? A thin outline around Lincoln's ear connecting to the upper jaw. I found this on many 1997 BU pennies that still have high lust & detail. Here is one penny. Here is a second penny, sorry for the difference in light & color. You have noticed where there is still the continuous line around the ear going down to the upper jaw. Just would like some thoughts. Thanks!
It's getting to the point where I wish the Lincoln cent had never been made! I think we should do away with the cent! Chris
Then you would miss all the fun and enjoyment we have in this forum. I can't wait to see what's posted next!
Will this coin ever end? Good gosh, 106 years of praising a politician who suspended Habeus Corpus, on a denomination that should have been discontinued 30 years ago. One of my prime examples of how the US simply does not have any real leadership.
Why should we get rid of the penny? You know how it works. Get rid of the penny first, then the nickel followed by the dime until all the change is gone. Then they'll start on the bills and before you know it you got what you asked for-A cashless society. Even Donald Trump stops to pick up a penny on the street. Why? Because it was one cent that he didn't have. Stop and think about that! Leave the poor penny alone.
Or, how about saving BILLIONS of dollars in efficiency, and hundreds of millions at the mint, and simply round up transactions? You can still stop and pick up a nickel. We used to understand in this country. In 1857 the half cent was discontinued, not due to minting costs but because it was no longer practical in commerce. As an aside, the cent WOULD have been gone decades ago except for government. The ONLY need for cents is due to sales tax. Short of that, retailers would simply price everything at the nearest nickel and NEVER carry a cent in their registers. Again, the government creates the problem, and their solutions will be even worst than the problem they themselves created.
The flip side of that (penny) coin is the billions of dollars that would be lost due to collectors not having anything to collect. The mint sales alone would drop. People don't drop as many nickels as they do pennies. Sure I bend over more but I find a lager amount. Those little pennies add up. Ever give a sales clerk a penny after they opened the cash drawer? They can't figure out the correct change to give you. Imagine what would happen if you gave them a whole nickel. Without out cents the space for them would be taken up by the extra nickels that are required to give change. Not to mention the number of jobs lost due to no pennies. Not just jobs at the mint but from the maker of those round blanks and the container that they are shipped in, the truckers that carry them to the mint, the miners and refiners that produce the metals necessary for minting, the designers of the coins. Since they will all be out of jobs, the money they have been spending will be lost to local economies. No more nights out, or going out to dinner. No need for a baby sitter so the sitter will stop shopping. Less stops at the local convenience store. Some of those people will loose their jobs in the trickle down effect. Before it's all over and done with we have a recession. Why? All because we stopped making the penny which I enjoy and love to collect as do millions of other Americans. I submit that the penny does more for commerce than what we think it does. We also stopped making the $.02, $.03, and $.20 cent coins. The public rejected them for use. If the penny was not in demand, we would not be producing hundreds of billions of them every year. The public demands their usage.
If the public "demanded" them, why does every single store dealing with change have a penny jar? No one wants them, the only reason business "needs" them is due to sales tax. The only members of the public who really wants them are coin collectors. Fine, have the mint continue to strike them for collectors. They effectively do this for half dollars, another denomination the public rejects. Actually, in my town most gas stations already ignore the penny and simply give you change down to the nickel rounding up. They say its cheaper to simply give a little more change than to mess with cents. As for your argument to continue making them so the mint employees and their suppliers have something to do, that is laughable on its face. We can hire anyone to do anything non-productive and have the same outcome. In fact we do. Burdening US businesses with billions in inefficiency so a few dozen mint employees can keep their cushy jobs is ludicrous.
I am so conflicted about it. I would love to see the cent continued, but with a different design, both sides. Yet, so much of our transactions now are with credit, thus making, frankly, all change near obsolete, for good, bad, or indifferent
I pull pennies (yes yes, I know, you call them cents and only cents) out of my pocket change and throw them into a plastic coffee container. Sometimes when I'm low on cash and it's still two days from pay day I'll roll them up and take them to the bank. If it weren't for pennies, I would never save a dime!
