Posted on 11/27/2012 1:30:24 PM PST by angelcindy
The U.S. is following Canada's footsteps regarding the production of pennies and nickels. According to U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Giethner, our U.S. Mint intends to remove the penny and nickel coins from circulation beginning early in January 2013.
(Excerpt) Read more at wealthwire.com ...
I would lay odds-against getting rid of the next one, the “Roosevelt” Dime. It is the Democrat memorial to FDR and would be a real battle since then the next move would be to replace some other DWEM currently on the currency. [I’d predict Grant / $50.]
Actually, I predict that this would be a partial stoppage, these coins would still be minted for US Mint ‘collectables’.
“Pretty soon a dollar won’t be worth the paper it is printed on...”
They’ll use cheaper and/or smaller paper; it still must cost less than the coin. The coin’s longevity is the biggest factor in its favor.
The article says retailers will round up items to the nearest tenth. Ok, but what if my 1 dollar item is taxed at 7 percent?
No you wouldn’t. There’s a reason the money we used moved FROM metal TO paper. Paper is malleable which makes it easier to store and sort and lighter. Put 10 dollar bills in one pocket and 10 quarters in another. You’ll see immediately that in fact you don’t want dollar coins, and why they will continue to fail in the marketplace until they take the paper money away.
Only problem with your nickel is the date. You may want to dig it out and look again!
The Buffalo nickel or Indian Head nickel was a copper-nickel five-cent piece struck by the United States Mint from 1913 to 1938. It was designed by sculptor James Earle Fraser...
... Despite attempts by the Mint to adjust the design, the coins proved to strike indistinctly, and to be subject to wear—the dates were easily worn away in circulation. In 1938, after the minimum 25-year period during which the design could not be replaced without congressional authorization had expired, it was replaced by the Jefferson nickel designed by Felix Schlag.-Wiki
There won’t be any environmentalists left alive.........
Well here's the case against pennies as a perky video:
Death to Pennies And in the middle of it the case against nickels is presented as a throw-away line.
BTW, I agree with abolishing dollar bills, once we don't have pennies or nickels, we should move to the more economical dollar coin, and probably add a two dollar coin as well.
Lots already do take the existing quarter sized dollar coins, between color and weight differences they’re pretty easy to mechanically differentiate. Apparently the vending lobby thinks big coins are bad, I’ve never figured out their excuse. But with pennies and nickles out of the mix resizing could “fix” a lot, leave dimes or make them penny sized, shrink quarters to nickle sized, and then the dollar coin is a unique size and less annoying to users. Of course they’re still not as convenient foldable paper so we still won’t convert.
They studied just going to dollar coins last year. There are a lot of costs involved, especially from vending machine companies to convert to only dollar coins so the plan was scrapped.
Saving pennies and nickels is a can’t lose investment. They are guaranteed to be worth at least their face value, but could end up far more valuable. Best of all there are no transaction costs.
The newer dollar coins were a great improvement just by changing the color; the Susan B. Anthony dollars (”Carter quarters”) were confusing to some people. They are definitely larger than a quarter, and with the gold color wouldn’t be mistaken for one.
“The whole physical money thing is on the path of obsolescence.”
It has been years since I have seen cash used as widely as I do now in NJ; the underground economy is growing, and to the illegals/welfare cheats/tax dodgers cash will ALWAYS be king. Cash is disappearing for working, taxpaying Americans who play “by the rules”; unfortunately they are disappearing anyway, and what is replacing them knows they can’t have transactions show an electronic trail.
So, how do you figure out the gov’s precious “taxes” then which count on pennies and fractions thereof to accumulate.
The nickel is presently worth about 30 cents as scrap metal.
Depends on whether it's a tax or a product.
But no bank would take them. There’s 2 billion coins locked up somewhere in DC.
If only they had put Obamas ugly mug on them.
Then MSM could claim the banks’ as racist and they would have to cave. Problem solved. /s
They can still price it in impossibly precise prices. When was the last time you used a 0.9¢ coin?
The last coin we got rid of was the half cent in 1857. 0.5¢ back then is worth about 11¢ now, so dumping it would be equivalent to dumping the penney, nickel and dime today and just going directly to the quarter.
My suggestion:
1. Dump the penny. It is worth 5 seconds of labor at minimum wage and therefore is just about worthless.
2. Keep the nickel for now because without it you would have to dump the quarter too and just go dime-half-dollar for the coins.
3. Replace the dollar bill with a coin.
4. Consider the next coin, maybe $2. You should be able to buy a cheap lunch for a couple coins.
>> “Nickels are 75% copper and 25% nickel.” <<
.
If that were so, they would be bright pink.
Except the gold color tarnished to silver, and they weren’t that different in size. And of course in the end they’re still heavier than paper.
I pretty much only use physical money at bars and the barber, largely because for that kind of tip oriented transaction it’s easier; or for very small transactions because I feel goofy using the debit card for $5. But I’ve noticed my threshold for “too small for the card” is dropping
Anything in an “odd” amount will have to be paid with a debit or credit card.....
Up next: rounding to the closest fifty cents.
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