OK! Who's ready for steel coinage????

tahoe98 · February 9, 2015 11:05PM

...Tryin' again for changing the metal.

CoinZip · February 9, 2015 11:16PM

My guess is, it will get shot down.....

tahoe98 · February 9, 2015 11:39PM

<< My guess is, it will get shot down..... >>

...Wonder if any lobbyist influence is at play here...

silverpop · February 9, 2015 11:55PM

yeah lobbyist influence all political issues no matter how minor

ricko · February 10, 2015 12:01AM

It will likely die in committee.....steel is not a good alternative and eliminating the cent and nickel would make more sense. Cheers, RickO

LindeDad · February 10, 2015 12:02AM

They will still be loosing money on the cents must be thinking about averaging costs.

cmerlo1 · February 10, 2015 12:05AM

Meh. It would just be more poorly made mintjunk.

tahoe98 · February 10, 2015 12:06AM

would make more sense.

...yeah but we're talkin' gubmint here...

SteveCaruso · February 10, 2015 12:24AM

If I have said it once, I've said it dozens of times: We do not need to reduce the cost of minting worthless coins, we need to increase the *value* of those coins so that they are actually worth something and circulate again.

Nix the penny, nix the nickel. Reduce the size of the dollar coin to a dime, and replace all bills under $10 with coins. Besides saving a heck of a lot of money in production costs, at that point our coins would be about on parity with what they were worth 60 some-odd years ago.

And unless we do something drastic, this problem will only get worse.

kiyote · February 10, 2015 4:32AM

This will KILL the Roll A Penny industry. Those machines at zoos and parks can't handle steel cents. I know, I tried..

winky · February 10, 2015 4:36AM

Won't make it.

Justlooking · February 10, 2015 5:41AM

Steel cents corrode. What a mess.

topstuf · February 10, 2015 5:44AM

Good idea. I can wear a belt magnet instead of carrying a wallet.

ms70 · February 10, 2015 5:52AM

The speediness that this bill is being put forth with seems reckless.

Now for the science people here.... STEEL COINAGE. Your kid was playing with 6 steel quarters you had laying on your desk and left them stuck to a magnet over night. Naturally they become magnetized
themselves. You pluck them off and throw them into your pocket as you leave for work. In that same pocket is your USB drive with critical information for work and your cell phone as well.

Ok smart people- Is the USB drive erased & ruined? How about the phone- Is the screen or the internals messed up?

Unknown · February 10, 2015 5:58AM

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kiyote · February 10, 2015 5:59AM

Everyone's white shirts are going to have quarter sized stains. Good times!

291fifth · February 10, 2015 6:15AM

It will be decided by campaign contributions, not logic.

Bayard1908 · February 10, 2015 7:44AM

<< Everyone's white shirts are going to have quarter sized stains. Good times! >>

Italy made gorgeous coins out of stainless steel for decades. I never saw a rusty one.

mrcommem · February 10, 2015 8:16AM

If our money was redeemable in gold it wouldn't matter what our coinage was made of. Seems to me it worked like this for a long time until the government wanted to print money without backing. It always helps if you can print up worthless money to pay for bureaucratic wars and promised entitlements. If the government had to go to the people for money a lot of big government would disappear.

koynekwest · February 10, 2015 8:54AM

I think it would make a lot of sense to re-size all our coinage and eliminate cents and nickels and also introduce a $2 1/2, $5, and $10 coin with the higher denomination coins made in a bi-metal format as many other countries do. The sizes we use today are based on the long obsolete amount of silver each coin contained. I know it would play hell with the vending machine companies but I still like the idea.

ebaybuyer · February 10, 2015 9:14AM

what would make sense is to make fewer coins, as they just pile up in cans anyway, less coinage= less expenditure. simply do not make as many. if the mint stopped making "pennies" today, there would still never be a shortage, there are literally billions of them in jars and cans, or buy them back from the public at 2c each (who wouldn't sell them) and it would still cost less than making new ones each year. the US gov is intent on wasting money, no matter what anyone proposes or does, there has to be millions of dollars wasted annually

planetsteve · February 10, 2015 10:10AM

<< 

<< Everyone's white shirts are going to have quarter sized stains. Good times! >>

Italy made gorgeous coins out of stainless steel for decades. I never saw a rusty one. >>

Interesting. I did a quick google and read about the alloys used, collectors discussing the use of magnets to identify coins, etc.

With the right stainless steel alloy containing nickel, we should be able to mint non-magnetic coins. I can imagine that magnetic coinage could create some problems, as I understand the 1943 cents did in vending machines.

MsMorrisine · February 10, 2015 11:56AM

As written, the bill won't go because
1) it says no change if requires non-trivial machine changes
2) if you believe the latest mint report the steel coins would have different signatures
3) if you believe the machine industry, one denomination but two signature coinage will cost them billions

The bill defeats itself as written.

coinguy1989 · February 10, 2015 1:14PM

<< It will likely die in committee.....steel is not a good alternative and eliminating the cent and nickel would make more sense. Cheers, RickO >>

Stainless steel coinage exists for other nations and it proves more durable (with a long life span) than our current coinage.

lordmarcovan · February 10, 2015 2:16PM

<< Italy made gorgeous coins out of stainless steel for decades. I never saw a rusty one. >>

Indeed. They are attractive coins, seem to wear well, and very rarely rust. Most of them look nice fifty or sixty years after being struck.

Of course, if the US Mint's track record runs true, they'll try to reinvent the wheel without learning from other countries, and come up with some new alloy that turns black or corrodes after only a few months. Look at the Canadian "Loonie" dollars compared to the Sacagawea and Prez bucks, for example.

FullStrike · February 10, 2015 5:37PM

They need to abandon the cent and half dollar. Stainless steel for everything else would be good.

19Lyds · February 11, 2015 2:54AM

<< This will KILL the Roll A Penny industry. Those machines at zoos and parks can't handle steel cents. I know, I tried.. >>

How so?

And what do Europeans use?

PerryHall · February 11, 2015 3:20AM

<< They need to abandon the cent and half dollar. Stainless steel for everything else would be good. >>

Continue to make the cent in copper and the half dollar in CN clad or stainless steel for coin collectors and sell them for a small premium over the mint's costs by the roll for business strikes and also in mint sets and proof sets.

TwoSides2aCoin · February 11, 2015 3:30AM

Bring back the silver dollar, just make it a $25 denomination. …. if they go up, that's inflation. If they go down, that's deflation.

Then bring back the gold dollar. Make it in tenth ( $175) , quarter ($500 , half ( $$750), and full ($1500) Eagle Ounces.
If they go up in value, that's inflation. If they go down in value, that's deflation. It' will spend the same way as it always did, except where men forgot what money was.

SteveCaruso · February 11, 2015 6:40AM

<< If they go up in value, that's inflation. If they go down in value, that's deflation. It' will spend the same way as it always did, except where men forgot what money was. >>

You have those backwards. :-)

ChangeInHistory · February 11, 2015 7:48AM

<< yeah lobbyist influence all political issues no matter how minor >>

Years ago my wife informed me how powerful the paper lobby was. At the time I didn't realize there WAS a paper lobby!

crazyhounddog · February 11, 2015 8:17AM

It couldn't be any worse than what we have now.

TwoSides2aCoin · February 11, 2015 8:36AM

<< 

<< If they go up in value, that's inflation. If they go down in value, that's deflation. It' will spend the same way as it always did, except where men forgot what money was. >>

You have those backwards. :-) >>

Well, I didn't raise the debt ceiling or implement QE. to assist those who can't manage the country's debt while profiting on the side.

lasvegasteddy · February 11, 2015 8:45AM

magnetizing a couple would be fun and watching a cashier's tray come to life

Kudbegud · February 11, 2015 8:52AM

How about Galvanized steel cents? There would be some really nice patterns, every cent unique.

Icollecteverything · February 11, 2015 8:55AM

I think stainless steel would at least be better than plastic coins.

Anyone know the percentage of transactions using cash (Coins and bills) compared to the various electronic methods?

Edit: Found a number that claims 27% of consumer transactions are with cash. But if you add the dollar amounts of big businesses and bank to bank transactions I bet the % of cash is much lower.

Kudbegud · February 11, 2015 10:50AM

The Galvanized Cent

oreville · February 11, 2015 12:54PM

<< It will be decided by campaign contributions, not logic. >>

Truer words have never been spoken.

TwoSides2aCoin · February 11, 2015 1:11PM

Then we can go metal detecting with a magnet.

OK! Who's ready for steel coinage????

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