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Probably a billion Lincoln Cents are lying on the ground.

Worthless for commerce, they are remnants of a previous pre WWII era where a few of them could buy you a cup of coffee or a chocolate bar.
A billion cents is ten million dollars, but spread across millions of square miles, any type of accumulation is impossible.
Nickels and dimes are nearly as worthless, but seem to get picked up when found.
Never have found a dollar coin on the ground. Find three and you can buy the Sunday newspaper.
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Yep, but you still have to have them. I have never found a Dollar coin either, but have found several Dollar Bills. Even a Twenty once.
The figures are of course incomprehensible, but I’d think it would easily be a few hundred billion, especially if you count the ones in landfills. We've manufactured about a half-trillion of them and we keep minting around 8-9 billion per year.
I'm sure the people making them feel a deep sense of pride for their contribution to keep our modern society functioning efficiently, LOL.
I suppose we probably still need the dime, but anything smaller is just a nuisance.
Half trillion would be about 1500 per US resident. That is a lot of jars under the kitchen cabinet.
Quarter would be coinage enough. Commerce would not suffer. Plenty of griping of course from the old timers, but it will distract them from the bursitis and gout.
I find plenty of them, I find the most in 7-11 parking lots.
Walking thru Manhattan last week, I found 5 cents on the ground in one spot
Metal detecting I probably average 200+ a month
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Plenty of griping of course from the old timers, but it will distract them from the bursitis and gout.
Pocket change still circulates but not as frequent. I'm surprised we haven't eliminated the cent and nickel yet since most cents end up in jars, car floor boards, and on the ground. But I'm most surprised they haven't been eliminated since we are going more cashless now. Just did a quick search and saw on the Fed's SF Bank website that 55% of all transactions under $10 are in cash. I'm sure that will drop drastically over the next 15-20 years as the older generation passes on.
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I disagree.
There are many billions of cents in the ground but the new ones completely disintegrate very quickly so the total number is falling fast.
More and more are just tossed out of car windows or thrown out in the trash which keeps Jarden hopping but this number is probably not increasing so rapidly since pennies have been less than worthless for many years now (late-'80's).
I picked one up last night.
Funny you say that. I once put a Zink'n in some jewelry cleaning acid and left it in there for a few days. When I removed it some of the copper was gone but the zinc was hollowed out. LOL
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We still need the nickel to make change but it can be replaced by a little aluminum coin to reflect its actual value and to allow them to be made at a profit. This would greatly increase revenue and decrease costs of "penny drives" which have become a thing of the past since you need to rent a backhoe to accumulate any significant money. Then you have to tie up mechanical coin counters for days to count it all. As I said, pennies are literally less than worthless. They impede commerce and waste everyone's time as Jarden profits and we all suffer just a tiny little bit as billions more are made.
If we can't have an aluminum nickel then a small copper one can still be made at a profit.
Why is a cent worth nothing? End the Federal Reserve.
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
gone
The half-cent was last made in 1857 due in part to insufficient purchasing power. A cent in 1857 had the purchasing power of 29 cents today.
By the same logic, we could easily get by with only the quarter.
When do we get the wheatback 29cent piece?
If you any of you don't want your small change then refuse to take it at the supermarket, bank etc. just tell them to round (in their favor) and give you the increment you want.
Leave the rest of us alone.
I'm sure I have more than that dated pre-'82.
I'm glad to see I'm part of the problem, and not part of the solution...
Then how did they ever manage to buy penny candy if the smallest denomination was worth 29 cents?
But seriously, there is some sort of other factor involved that I have occasionally wondered about. If the smallest denomination was worth 29 cents in today's money, how did they deal with transactions that had cents after the decimal point? In other words, imagine that all transactions today that involve an amount (either the whole amount, or a larger amount that included cents as part of the figure) had to be in increments of 29 cents.
Back then there was no state sales tax and I assume they bought things in larger quantities. Also, the adjusted cost of at least a few things was actually more expensive then than they are now. For example, the first US postage stamps issued in 1847 were of the five and ten cent denominations. The adjusted cost is much more expensive than the cost of a postage stamp today.
There are certainly millions of cents on the ground...maybe billions.... Some members on the MD forum are still finding plenty of IHC's....The zincolns do deteriorate fast though....Cheers, RickO
I would say easily a billion and I pick up every one I see.
I pick them up as well. it all adds up and needed when you need a few bucks to get a coffee or gas when you need it, just saying
I always pick them up and say to myself hope you have good luck, but has everyone forgotten about Lost Penny Day on February 12th we should only spend Lincoln cents on that day for everything we buy clean out the sock drawers or where ever you have them if you got them, spend them, fill up the bank vaults, fill up your wheelbarrows and go see a Movie and take the Better Half out to dinner!!
2438.9 of them will fill up a small car.
Hey @ricko just made reference to my recent IHC exploits.
Is the USA the only government that hasn't demonetized coinage? Inquiring minds want to know. Peace Roy
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I like to use cash so I can get change, just to see if I get anything interesting. Lately there has been a trend among gas stations, liquor stores etc. If make a purchase for $3.01 and give them 4 dollars, I am expecting 99 cents in change, but these "lazy" folks just give me a dollar bill as change. I hate that.
Lately I have noticed this trend.
If my change is a small amount, say less than 10c, the cashiers have been asking me if I want it.
Then when I say, "Yes, I want it. Why wouldn't I ?"...they look at me as if I'm a cheapskate.☹️
Maybe my behavior is borderline nuts, but I often take a quick look at change if it’s just nickels and cents and then toss it in the trash.
Not lazy...it costs them more than a cent to handle the change.
...and what kind of cheap booze are you buying at the liquor store for 3 bucks?
At least a 100,000 of them seem to find their way on to this forum annually.
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
And those are only the errors.
And think of all the coins tossed into fountains, other bodies of water, cliff ledges (think Grand Canyon), and other places for "good luck."
Gonna get me a $50 Octagonal someday. Some. Day.
We should be able to extrapolate. 100,000 cents found in parking lots. What percentage of the U.S. land mass is paved
I always pick them up. My interest bearing checking account pays me 2c a month. Now, I understand the true value of a cent!
good 1😎
I see folks using plastic for rediculously small purchases. Sadly, change may become a relic.
I believe I calculated once the $.01 in 1793 was worth about $2 today. And we all know the scale and and quality of manufacture that those coins had! Today's cents are not just less than worthless, but they are made of toxic zinc and struck in a way that maximizes their manufacture at the expense of any kind relief depth, and in turn, potential for design.
The evolution of pennies: Purchasing >>> Place Saving >>> Placating
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Boy you're really bad, I usually wait until I get out to the parking lot and then toss it on the ground
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If you think Pennies are bad try Russian Kopecks! I was chastised by my wife for picking up a Kopeck laying on the ground in Russia! Didn't matter to her it was because I was a coin collector. She really was embarrassed!
May have shared this story before. Neighbor of mine was at her parents house across town for the holidays. She was working for me part time and mentioned the coin business to a guest. He brought her $270 in Lincolns. Said he didn't want to bother counting the things and gave them to her as a gift to search through.
After about an hour I said they were destined to the coinstar machine. It was my first experience. I didn't realize that it took forever to process that many coins. We were standing at the front of the supermarket shoveling the damn cents into the hopper.
About a half hour in an old lady walk over to us and handed my friend a can of tomato soup. Said that we could probably use it.
Would have been more fun picking up Russian Kopecks.
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These billion cents will make for interesting future online coin chat conversations; "look what I found in the parking lot of my local Wal-Mart, a 1957-D cent with neat wheat stalks on the reverse. What is this coin worth?
Some of the grocery stores here have jars for people to leave change they do not want to keep.
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