Posted on 01/24/2025 9:34:10 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has a new target to cut down costs: the US penny.
DOGE said on X that the penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in the 2023 fiscal year. “The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced,” the post read in part.
The US Mint in 2023 reported it circulated around 4.1 billion pennies. In fiscal year 2024, the US Mint said in its annual report that the US penny costs about 3.7 cents to produce and distribute, up more than 20% from the previous year. The rising cost of metals, including zinc and copper, is part of the reason it’s getting more expensive to make the coin.
Musk isn’t introducing a novel idea. For years, people have advocated eliminating the penny, as pennies are rarely spent as change. And since the Covid-19 pandemic, more consumers are shopping online or avoiding physical currency altogether.
More than 20 years ago, in a 2001 episode of the political drama “The West Wing,” fictional character Sam Seaborn goes into a rant about the penny.
“Majority of pennies don’t circulate. They go in jars, sock drawers,” Seaborn said.
(Excerpt) Read more at channel3000.com ...
Just put AOC's profile on the 2-dollar coin and you can still call it the Loony.
Electronic transactions and checks can still be accurate to the cent - no rounding needed. Cash transactions can be rounded up or down to the nearest 5 cents. This is already being done in some stores.
I hardly ever use cash, and use coins even more rarely.
Turns out this is just a rebranding of the digital services office launched by Obama in 2014. No doubt Musk is there to rush us into everything digital—from currency to ID to workforce replacement.
rather. 3,4 rounded up, not 4 & 5.......duh
This is true.
I take up a lot of, many a clerk's time to fish pennies out of my pocket so that I do not collect them in my pocket.
I do try to save the true copper pennies that I receive however.
Items would not need to be repriced. Items could still sell for 1.99. What will change is the calculation after sales tax is added. Right now the final price (merchandise plus sales tax) is rounded up or down to the nearest penny. All that will change is the rounding (up or down) will be to the nearest 5 cents.
Eventually all physical forms of currency will be deemed ‘too expensive’ to manufacture, thus saving money.
Cut production to 50 million a year, and watch collectors fall all over themselves to pay several $$ apiece for them.
Why don’t they just switch back to cheap pot metal instead of copper like they did during WWII?
They are only copper coated since 1983. Mostly zinc with a thin copper coating. 1982 and previous was about 95% copper. I really wouldn’t miss them, and saving them to roll and cash in is a pain. Takes a lot of time to make .50. Roll a $10 roll of quarters in much less time. I say bye to the penny. Of course there are millions in circulation and will be for a long time.
Dump the penny!
COL
Chuckling out loud.
The solution is to re-decimalize the currency. A dollar pre LBJ would be the equivalent of 10.38 now. So a 10-1 would be reasonable. The French did it in 1960 on a 100-1 basis. Poland did it in 1950 on a 100-1 basis, and in 1995 at 10,000 to 1.
It’s time to stop making pennies. This is a no-brainer. People pay electronically for most things, and cash transactions almost NEVER involve pennies (I pay cash for lots of services to help small businesses avoid taxes). The only use for pennies seems to be those machines at tourist areas that mash the penny into a souvenir token.
No...It’ll be $1.
Nah. Keep the penny.
It’s part of the culture.
I agree....The nickel should go to.
"This is another example of a blazing obvious decision that just needs to be made to cut down on government waste."
The states actually didn't give themselves a choice to use pennies when they constitutionally mandated themselves to use only gold or silver coin for legal tender.
"Article I, Section 10 Clause 1: No State shall [all emphases added] enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility."
On the other hand, debit cards are practical imo. So in addition to getting rid of pennies and electing a new, Trump-supporting, Constitution-respecting Congress, the Constitution needs to be amended to allow the use of debit cards.
OH WAIT!
Is there an international copy right on ‘Loony’?
Maybe we could still put AOC on the coin and call it the ‘Crazin’
The good workaround: plastic coins. Then use copper and aluminum alloys for higher denomination coins.
At the same time, the US constitution permits individual states to mint coins, as long they are either gold or silver. And they should do so. But with a twist.
Gold and silver coins typically have a low face value compared to their value as metal. However, state legal tender should have a value much higher than their value as metal. For example, 1 oz of metallic gold is currently worth about $1,800. So a 1 oz gold coin should be worth say, $5,000. This would be its face value.
So silver is much more practical as a state currency.
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