@Estil said:
I was asking if we really need to make as many as they do every year/mint when surely there's several decades worth of backlog to go around?
As far as i know, the "backlog" is not sitting in bank vaults or at the mint/treasury - it is in jars, under car seats, etc. If people freed up those hoards then there would be less demand for new coins.
Is there anyway we could encourage folks to do that?
Maybe you should start by encouraging yourself to do what you think others should do.
There's still 40 years worth of post-copper pennies.
I have a jar or two full of copper pennies.
"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." PBShelley
@Estil said:
I was asking if we really need to make as many as they do every year/mint when surely there's several decades worth of backlog to go around?
As far as i know, the "backlog" is not sitting in bank vaults or at the mint/treasury - it is in jars, under car seats, etc. If people freed up those hoards then there would be less demand for new coins.
Is there anyway we could encourage folks to do that?
Maybe you should start by encouraging yourself to do what you think others should do.
There's still 40 years worth of post-copper pennies.
I guess I'll have to spell it out for you since you whiffed on my point, you suggest that people should be encouraged to return their hordes of cents while at the same time you are hording cents. And while there may be 40 years worth of post copper cents (just where did you get that statistic, real or just pulled out of a crevice) but zinc cents do not age well or last long once the copper plating is compromised. So as another member posted the banks are still requesting new cents from the mint each year because of attrition and people, like you, that are hording what is in circulation. The solution to your question is stop being part of the problem instead of just complaining.
And since I'm on this subject just how much do you know about cost accounting for a manufacturing facility? Here is some knowledge for you, part of the cost of the production of cents is the overhead, even if the mints made no cents for a full year that overhead doesn't just magically disappear. That overhead cost now has to be allocated to the coins that are made which will make those coins more costly to make and then you'll just be back complaining that those coins are too expensive just as you are with the cent.
And cutting the production of cents will almost certainly lead to a smaller labor force, so your solution is to put more people on welfare which only shifts the taxpayer burden from the cost of making the cent to paying for welfare. It doesn't seem to me that you have thought this out very well.
I don’t think the cent as a denomination should be eliminated. What I would do is create a modern large cent program where you’d have pure copper 27.5 mm 10.89 gram large cents (same as 1839-1857 specs). I’d have a Lincoln design annually for political purposes, but allow the mint broad authority to mint any other additional large cent design they like. Kind of like with the dollar coins where you have a Sacagawea Native American dollar as well as the Innovation dollars annually or how you have the AGB and American Liberty 24k gold every other year. We already have broad authority for 24k gold coins and platinum coins so there’s precedent. These would not be intended for circulation, but as numismatic products. Since large cent elimination in 1857 is what really kicked off coin collecting, I think it’s a nice way to keep the tradition of a one cent piece while realizing it doesn’t have a place in commerce anymore.
Regarding the zinc cents, since Lincoln would be on the new copper large cents, I’d scrap the current zinc cents for collector products in favor of the large cents. Either way, you wouldn’t need congressional authority to cease use of small cents in circulation, they could just simply stop making them for circulation like they’ve done with half dollars until recently and dollar coins.
Comments
In the spirit of independence, most of what this government does is unnecessary
Pollution of the environment is true for Zincolns.
If they fall out of your pocket and get absorbed by the ground, they rot away, pollute and discolor and drive metal detectorists crazy.
Pete
Without the cent, our government will nickel and dime us , to death.
I have a jar or two full of copper pennies.
I guess I'll have to spell it out for you since you whiffed on my point, you suggest that people should be encouraged to return their hordes of cents while at the same time you are hording cents. And while there may be 40 years worth of post copper cents (just where did you get that statistic, real or just pulled out of a crevice) but zinc cents do not age well or last long once the copper plating is compromised. So as another member posted the banks are still requesting new cents from the mint each year because of attrition and people, like you, that are hording what is in circulation. The solution to your question is stop being part of the problem instead of just complaining.
And since I'm on this subject just how much do you know about cost accounting for a manufacturing facility? Here is some knowledge for you, part of the cost of the production of cents is the overhead, even if the mints made no cents for a full year that overhead doesn't just magically disappear. That overhead cost now has to be allocated to the coins that are made which will make those coins more costly to make and then you'll just be back complaining that those coins are too expensive just as you are with the cent.
And cutting the production of cents will almost certainly lead to a smaller labor force, so your solution is to put more people on welfare which only shifts the taxpayer burden from the cost of making the cent to paying for welfare. It doesn't seem to me that you have thought this out very well.
My Collection of Old Holders
Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
I got a ball jar that I fill up, turn it for a deposit somewhere.
I don’t think the cent as a denomination should be eliminated. What I would do is create a modern large cent program where you’d have pure copper 27.5 mm 10.89 gram large cents (same as 1839-1857 specs). I’d have a Lincoln design annually for political purposes, but allow the mint broad authority to mint any other additional large cent design they like. Kind of like with the dollar coins where you have a Sacagawea Native American dollar as well as the Innovation dollars annually or how you have the AGB and American Liberty 24k gold every other year. We already have broad authority for 24k gold coins and platinum coins so there’s precedent. These would not be intended for circulation, but as numismatic products. Since large cent elimination in 1857 is what really kicked off coin collecting, I think it’s a nice way to keep the tradition of a one cent piece while realizing it doesn’t have a place in commerce anymore.
Regarding the zinc cents, since Lincoln would be on the new copper large cents, I’d scrap the current zinc cents for collector products in favor of the large cents. Either way, you wouldn’t need congressional authority to cease use of small cents in circulation, they could just simply stop making them for circulation like they’ve done with half dollars until recently and dollar coins.