Why do we still mint cents?

six of one, half dozen of the other. a hoard is a hoard, whether you notice it happening or not. If you want to ignore them tell cashiers to keep the pennies and round the change (they will round down though) and it won't become a hoard in cans and jars around the house anymore. demand would also drop if this were done by people. businesses wouldn't keep getting as much cents in their change orders.

 

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They have to keep minting them because someone keeps hoarding them. Any idea who is doing this?

 

This pandemic of COVID-19 as well as the "coin shortage" (or "coin circulation") has converted us to VISA payment. All of my monthly bills (utilities, insurance, etc.) are drafted from our checking account. All of the other purchases are done with our VISA card. (I have frozen my credit with the credit reporting companies so that credit thefts are avoided.) I am able to look at my bank accounts any time I want to see how they are going. I record all purchases (cash or credit) are recorded on an EXCEL spreadsheet. By using our VISA, we don't have to "round up" our purchases. Once the penny is no longer made our used, all vendors will round up, not down, even if it is a penny, unless the government makes a low as to how vendors are supposed to round the amount of the purchases.

 

CASH IS KING

i never use plastic!

 

Why do we still mint cents?

To make them smell good, silly! Imagine if they "pooped" them...

 

There are billions of the modern cents minted, I don't think it'll affect prices all that much. I know when they transitioned out of silver, from what I've read people hoarded them for obvious reasons. If the cents were still mostly copper, then I'd have more affinity towards them.

But given how they're mostly zinc and other countries use a steel core for lower denominations given inflation, and how much more impractical the cent will become in the future (less value and even more expensive to mint when it costs more to produce than its face value), we should really do away with the cent. Canada already rounds everything off if you pay by cash after abolishing the cent. Most transactions are via card, too.

That said, I can see an argument for a small run of proofs, BU, etc. for collectors via mint sets every year. This would be despite any elimination of the cent.

 

I have bags of pre 1982 copper pennies. I'm so overwhelmed with them that I now check each cent and only keep the ones that matter to me as a collector. And because my wife said do, duh...

 

Getting rid of the cent/penny didn't seem to be or cause a problem in Canada.

 

We're insane.

It's more important a few men get rich than that we stop waste or exercise common sense.

A few get rich as the penny is like the albatross on the neck our financial system ruined by greed and deficit spending. We'll wear this albatross until the entire society collapses because people don't care and don't care to know.

 

Please tell me MORE!

 

Then how do you explain all the problems in Canada?

 

The U.S. mint makes a profit, and a very tidy profit off of everything else besides the cent and the nickel, I've written on here before about where the mint loses, and where the mint wins, and the overall WIN size each and every year where they give money back (seigniorage) to the government.

which brings me back to my point, Canada, finds themselves now using more nickels than before at a cost of 11.2 cents to make each, instead of the 1.6 cent per cent, so to give a nickel as change they lose 6.2 cents instead of the 2.4 cents for 4 pennies for each nickel that needs to be made since it's doing the work of the cent now... so now they are talking about getting rid of the nickel next... then what? clearly there's a cycle/pattern here..... Canada saved 11 million annually by stopping the cent, however, they are spending many more millions on nickels now and now the nickel is the problem and since getting rid of the cent was so "painless" according to the PR around it why not the nickel also....

which will increase the need to manufacture more dimes and quarters, which will increase the price of raw materials to do that, which will in turn push it's cost up from 5.69 cents each dime to some higher number at a later date. we can probably stop on the quarter for a while, it only costs 9 cents to make now, so there's that I suppose.
Once you get it started, it's had not to just keep doing it, so, do you really want everything rounded up to the nearest quarter? the cent is a baby step, and maybe nobody misses it, but it starts the cycle to it all changing for good as each denomination gets killed off, and then currency gets revalued because hey, everything costs at least a dollar now, so why not make the dollar worth $10 or $20 and slide everything else up also, so it will appear like you got more bang for the buck.
What could go wrong? It's just a cent, nobody will miss it....
Maybe not, but if you do, it's gonna be way too late to go back.

If you advocate for killing the cent, then you must advocate for killing the nickel at the same time, it's an even bigger loser than the cent is. It costs 2.06 cents to make each penny and 7.53 to make each nickel....
Each cent made loses 1.06 cents, each nickel made loses 2.53 cents.
yet nobody is talking about killing the nickel also..... and should be.

 

No it doesn't. The Mint is not a business. The mint can make as much seigniorage as it wants, or lose as much as it wants and it has zero meaning. The only thing that really matters is that people don't melt all the coins down for their intrinsic raw material market value.

 

I advocate killing them off because they are USELESS and a PIA.

 

It helps me to make money. The zinc ones I roll and sell back to the bank. They are happy and I get a few good coins or paper money at cost. The Wheat Cents I add to my collection and the copper Memorial Cents I sell in my antique shop for $1.00 a roll so I double my investment. Works for me and it’s fun to do.

 

No it doesn't because it circulates, and it lasts decades. It costs nearly nothing. It comes out of circulation when it is destroyed. But it might be cheaper to melt eecessive nickels into new nickels if that is cheaper to produce.

 

Regarding pennies ( aka “cents”), here is what I do:

Circulation cents are checked for condition of AU58 or better. I check for major ( read that: egregious, or famous ) doubling and if no joy, back to the spend pile. I weigh 1982 and 1983, check 1988 for a transition reverse, check for double ear on ‘95 and all CLAM and WAM years. It’s all about probability and I don’t waste time on the minor doubling (anymore).

I got 40 coins change in the past few days and only saved one cent from 1996 because it met all my criteria...AU58+ Red...somehow it had survived circulation or a new heir got his mitts on it and used it for gas money.

All other cents were too worn or corroded, damaged, stained, excessive contact marks or had die deterioration. These all were returned to the spend pile and have been spent.

Been doing it this way for 4 years or so.

Hoarders of cents create a nightmare for themselves because 95% are spenders. Coffee cans full? Time to take out the axe and make some brutal cuts...jmho...Spark

 

The production of pennies is just a symptom and symbol of the rot that has engulfed us. Every time a penny is used it is counted twice and it's worth less than the cost of counting and handling it. If you throw it away to stop the madness they just make another one to replace it and a rich man gets more money. And more of the earth's resources and oxygen are consumed in the process. Rich people have representation in Washington so their interests are considered and they can explain to lawmakers how losing money in every transaction is good for the economy. They call themselves "Americans for Common Cents" but in point of fact their arguments obscure the real issues about the toxicity, instability and wastefulness of pennies. As with everything we dig our resources out of the earth and combine them to make CO2 and garbage to shovel right back in the earth. Now the taxpayer will need to shovel out more money to "fix" a problem created by waste and greed and guess who'll make the most money "fixing" it. In the meantime don't expect any disruption to the status quo such as the elimination of pennies or a change in nickels to make them less costly.

The nickel should simply be made of aluminum and non-negotiable and non legal tender. When people get used to it it should be still aluminum but about half its current volume. Pennies should be collected for safe disposal outside of landfills. they are good for galvanize, etc. Nickels can be used as chill scrap in industry and they'd love to have them. The entire transition would be profitable to the mint and make a great deal of sense so it's not going to happen. There is no lobby in Washington for common sense.

 

The production of nickels would have increased anyway. The reason that more nickels is needed has nothing at all to do with the lack of pennies. It occurs because there's more room in peoples change jars without the pennies. They can accumulate them for months or years before they have enough to buy a fancy meal. It happens because of deficit spending and the inflation it causes. A 2021 Canadian nickel is now worth less than .006 1967 Canadian dollars. It has gone from being worth a candy bar to needing more than 20 to buy the same treat. People don't even use quarters much any longer but they add up fast enough to bother taking them to the bank.

Non-negotiable nickels would also build up in change jars but nobody would be hoarding them. More importantly they can be made for less than 2c each so it's a profit for the mint. They take up less space and are lighter to transport. Counting costs are well under 5c.

If government started paying interest on money instead of taxing it through inflation we could soon make ten dollar coins out of gold again but we all know that's about as likely as getting rid of the penny.

 

Which problems are you thinking of?