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Is the Lincoln Cent, now approaching a HALF TRILLION the Most Manufactured item in Human History?
ambro51
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Is it? The only runner up I can think of is toilet paper rolls ....
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"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
Probably bread or paper would be #1, but Lincolns must be right up there on the list!
(These days I think the leader must surely be political ads. Fortunately that will be behind us soon!
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
My icon IS my coin. It is a gem 1949 FBL Franklin.
If you squash them, you can kind of imagine them as little chocolate coins with an "M" mintmark.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
<< <i>Sure it's not the i-phone? Seems like it. >>
Every person in the world would need to have owned ~70 Iphones.
Of course, sheets of paper probably has that beat.
The most manufactured item today is a transistor. The average microprocessor contains approximately 300,000,000 transistors. Each year about 6,000,000,000 microprocessors are manufactured. So by my math, that equates to 1,800,000,000,000,000,000 transistors produced every year. That's 1 QUINTILLION, 800 QUADRILLION transistors EVERY YEAR.
Paper? Cigarattes? Cents? M&Ms?
Like I said... not even close.
Whit
"Jesus died for you and for me, Thank you,Jesus"!!!
--- If it should happen I die and leave this world and you want to remember me. Please only remember my opening Sig Line.<< <i>I have often thought that due to the Lincoln cent, Lincoln is the most portrayed figure ... over all media ... in human history. Could Washington beat him due to the one dollar bill and the Washington quarter? Or is there a foreign figure as portrayed as Lincoln?
Whit >>
QE2
My icon IS my coin. It is a gem 1949 FBL Franklin.
<< <i>Lincoln is/was "the man". Think of it,he was the only president in office during America's toughest era,the civil war. >>
. Actually not true. James Buchanan had the unenviable task of "lame duck" leadership and ineffective policies as tensions ramped up, and Andrew Johnson wrapped up the loose ends and "managed" reconstruction. And...we must not forget Jefferson Davis!
Chopsticks?
Tampons?
Diapers?
Lots of things get mass manufactured.
104 years and counting.
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
On the TP we counting rolls or sheets?
I have at least 20,000 cents in my house but i have more than 20k rounds of ammo.
NGC registry V-Nickel proof #6!!!!
working on proof shield nickels # 8 with a bullet!!!!
RIP "BEAR"
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
<< <i>The Lincoln cent (obverse) might also be the longest continuously produced circulating coin design without skipping any years.
104 years and counting. >>
Add a zero to the end of that and some ancients approach those numbers. So I will disagree.
Paper clips?
Screws?
Hard to argue with transistors though...
JH
Proof Buffalo Registry Set
Capped Bust Quarters Registry Set
Proof Walking Liberty Halves Registry Set
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
<< <i>
<< <i>The Lincoln cent (obverse) might also be the longest continuously produced circulating coin design without skipping any years.
104 years and counting. >>
Add a zero to the end of that and some ancients approach those numbers. So I will disagree. >>
I'd have to see some proof before I believe any specific ancient coin design comes even close to the Lincoln cent in number. The population of any country in the ancient world was relatively small compared to today.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Think of it, One half trillion cents would have to be duplicated 3200 times to payoff the current National Debt.
Think of the physical space needed to hold a half trillion cents.
If a standard roll of 50 cents is 3 inches tall and 3/4" inch wide then one cubic foot of storage space would hold 1024 rolls of cents (4 rolls high X 16 rolls deep X 16 rolls wide) or 51,200 cents.
One cubic yard of storage space holds 27 cubic feet (3 feet high X 3 feet deep X 3 feet wide) and would hold 27,648 rolls of cents or 1,382,400 cents.
One thousand cubic yards of space (10 yards high X 10 yards deep X 10 yards wide; or 30 feet X 30 feet x 30 feet) would hold 27,648,000 rolls of cents or 1,382,400,000 cents (one billion, three hundred eightytwo million, four hundred thousand).
You could build a metal container shaped like a cube that is one thousand cubic yards in size and put 1,382,400,000 neatly stacked cents into it.
500,000,000,000 cents divided by 1,382,400,000 cents equals 361.68981.
500,000,000,000 cents (one half trillion cents) would take up 361.68981 separate spaces of 1000 cubic yards (again a cube 10 yards high X 10 yards deep X 10 yards wide; or 30 feet X 30 feet X 30 feet).
An NFL football field (excluding the end zones) is 300 feet long and 160 feet wide (or 100 yards long and 50.333 yards wide [just round it off to 50 yards]).
You could place 150 of the 1000 cubic yard metal containers containing 1,382,400 cents each onto a football field and completely cover it (five rows of containers each of them having ten containers.
The second 150 containers would cover a second football field.
The remaining 61.68981 containers would cover almost 62% of a third football field (just round it off to 60%).
Each of the football fields would be covered with neatly stacked cents that are 30' high.
If you wanted to envision how much space would be required to store enough cents to cover the national debt of $16 trillion dollars, simply multiply by 3,200 the approximate 2.6 football fields needed to hold 500,000,000,000 cents at height of 30'. You would need 8,320 football fields and each of them would be covered with neatly stacked cents 30 feet high.
$16 Trillion dollars would be 1,600,000,000,000,000 cents (one quadrillion, six hundred trillion). If each cent weighed the 2.5 grams the current Zlincoln cents weigh the combined weight of these cents would be 4,000,000,000,000,000 grams (four quadrillion grams). Dividing this number by 1,000 results in these cents weighing 4,000,000,000,000 kilograms (four trillion kilograms). Each kilogram weighs approximately 2.2 pounds. So the 1,600,000,000,000,000 cents required to cover the national debt would weigh 8,800,000,000,000 pounds (eight trillion eight hundred thousand pounds). Dividing the 4,000,000,000,000 kilograms of cents by 1,000 would result in 4,000,000,000 kilotons. So the 1,600,000,000,000,000 cents to cover the national debt would weigh 4 billion kilotons.
If any mining whiz is present on the boards, has there been enough zinc, copper and/or bronze mined to produce the raw materials needed to mint the 1,600,000,000,000,000 cents needed to cover the national debt?
Which is why I think a more sensible solution would be to use nickels instead.
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
When was that? I have been on the outside looking in for 20 years now. Dues are too expensive for me.