Should the penny, nickel go the way of the dodo bird? Sounds like it.

The toll to produce, administer and distribute the 1-cent coin was 1.82 cents in FY 2017 compared to 1.50 cents a year earlier. For the 5-cent coin, the cost went up to 6.60 cents from 6.32 cents. - Coinnews.net

With production numbers of over 4 billion cents made in each Philly and Denver, that means the Federal Government is wasting OVER 65 MILLION DOLLARS annually to produce "pennies." No wonder the mint is charging such premiums for collector coins!! With more and more people using credit cards, debit cards, online purchases, and "fast pay," maybe it's time to do away with cent production.

Per coin?

Most of that is probably Administer

So stamp a nickel on a penny and a dime on a nickel a quarter on the dime and a 1/2 dollar on the quarter and all is good just do away with the name penny! LOL

Up through 1981 (1982 was a mixed year), the U.S. penny was 95% copper and 5% zinc. After the change in 1982, the penny flipped to 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper. The current U.S. nickel is about 80% copper. There have been studies to take at least the nickel to stainless steel, such as the Canadians did with their lesser coins (I'm not sure if the Can nickel, dime, and quarter are all SS or not). I don't know how many in the States know, but the Canadians got rid of their pennies and everything got round up to the nearest nickel. Last I heard, you could still turn in Can pennies for use but you won't get any back.

I'm sure the retailers in the States would love the U.S. Mint to do away with the penny so they could round up as well. Maybe all the state sales tax would just get rounded up to the nearest nickel as well. That's probably the main reason for the U.S. still doing pennies. Maybe not.

Yeah, let's just go all digital money so we can get tracked for every transaction we do. I prefer some shade in at least some of my business dealings...

Seeing as I metal detect, I think they should bring back gold coins. Was a happy day when they started circulating dollar coins.

In the military exchanges overseas, we don't use pennies. The cost to ship them back and forth to US banks is just too high. If the price ends in 1, 2, 6, or 7, then round down to the nearest nickel. If the price is 3,4,8, or 9, then you round up. Ending in 5 or 0, you pay with a nickel. If you're paying with a card, then you get charged the actual amount. It all evens out in the end and I don't even miss having a big jar of pennies on my dresser that I have to roll every year to turn in to the bank.

X 2

Administrative, pensions and good old government wastefulness. I'm sure if the U.S. Treasury Dept. were forced to trim the fat and be run like a business instead of a bloated government department they could make money at half the cost they currently do.

Eliminating pennies is a bad idea in my opinion. Most businesses will round everything up to the nearest 5 cent amount, not round down. It's almost like forcing inflation. Maybe I'm wrong though, it's not something I know too much about.

Wanna get rich? Buy up all the pennies in circulation and sell them back for $0.015 each.

I still think a guy should punch holes in them new pennies and sell them for washers. Dang washer cost more than a penny and probably same for nickles.

Mac

Probably right but how much power does it take to melt the metal, run the presses, maintain them, transport the coins (as mentioned above), etc? Copper was going for $2.69 a pound this morning and there are 480 grams in a pound. A nickel weighs 5 grams so the amount of copper in a nickel (if a nickel was 100% Cu instead of 80%) would be about 0.6 cents each.

I leave pennies at the register for the next person.

We got rid of the penny a few years ago now. It has not affected us in any way.

Do what makes most sense.

Ive heard this before...they still havent done it.

Of course there is a cost associated with producing pennies and nickles just like any other project. And I'm sure the increase in the price of copper has made the cost of producing them more expensive. But government departments and agencies are known for their wasteful spending and practices that would never cut it in a business environment.



I wonder if the Treasury Dept. gets a volume discount or if they pay double or triple because some major suppliers are cronies with some powerful bureaucrats?

A penny saved is a penny earned.

I'm cheap, I pick them up when I see them!

If they would eliminate the penny my $0.99 ($1.06 with tax) McDonalds coffee will probably go up to $1.10! Such a thing could break me...

At one point the copper in a penny was worth more than the penny. That's when they went to zinc. With the value of today's currency, pennies are not practical. They just wear holes in your pocket. I leave mine at the counter.

Wow, Lugnut. Our McDonald's coffee is $1.69 now. It was $0.99 but they raised their price about 6 months ago.

Ok do you think by the time they factor in employees salaries shipping and distribution that it only cost a dollar to make a dollar?????

Money is not produced on a cost/ profit basis. Is was designed as a form of reward for a service or action performed.