I find it funny reading this story, then thinking, "Oh crap, if they import cents or nickels we will be losing money on the deal!". Our nation and our coin situation is pathetic. Losing billions a year so aas to appease anyone who does not change. Pretty soon the way the dollar is going dimes and quarters will be money losers as well.
As mentioned it's stupid to let them go as they cost US more to make than they are worth. Sounds like another way to make polictical decisions to hurt the American people probably has White House endorsment.
Zimbabwe's economy and monetary system is so badly warped and damaged, no one should be surprised that the country's consumers will do almost anything to maintain some sort of stability.
Too bad for them. It cost more than 1 cent to produce a cent and the coppers are worth almost 3 cents.....not to mention transportation costs.
It's very appropriate that only a country as economically backward and challenged would want US cents. They've utterly trashed their currency so many times that it would take a virtually infinite number of the original to buy a candy bar. By Wedsnesday they might not even want our dollars any longer.
On the positive side it's great to have close ties with a nation which can teach our Congress economic restraint and how to add enough zeros to the currency to keep up with mounting debt.
"Hmm…looks like we found a place for that growing hoard of Presidential Dollar Coins to be used." "I wish I knew where this hoard was..." Federal Reserve. But if you've got $140,000.00 you can order a moster bag through the mint. At over a ton, I'd have a fork lift ready......... http://www.usmint.gov/bulk/
I don't know what they're complaining about. I would much rather get my change in Gummy Bears and Atomic Bombs than a bunch of POS zinc rounds.
i think it would be unfair to use another countrys money and not pay the cost of production. either pay the cost (but more money printed/minted devalues that currency), or print your own money and keep it on par with US currency. correct me if im wrong, i think panama is the place that does this. im not sure how they manage to keep it on par, but they make it work somehow. or they could just go back to bartering.
There are several countries that keep their currency at par with the US dollar. Then there is Ecuador which adopted the US dollar as their currency. There may be a couple of others as well.
I would think paying cost of production is nothing, missing out on seignorage would make most countries to print their own money. Seignorage is a huge money maker, and countries will only give it up if they abuse their printing privileges so badly they are destroying the economy.
not exactly sure what seignorage is, other than here in canada (in the begining of colonisation), the french had seingeuries as settlements. that to me means its your land but really its not (kinda like now) it belongs to the seingueur (god, or in this case lord.) what i can say is it looks like these guys have already destroyed their economy and have abused the printing privileges with trillion dollar notes issued.