Options
Penny coin is worthless... ?
ErolNomad
Posts: 7 ✭
Hello Collectors,
I read this (here http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36226813 )
"...I think we should get rid of them, says taxi driver Mr xxxx. I used to throw them out of the window. They're useless, aren't they?..."
Penny coin, or one cent coin or whatever coin it is, is worthless...?
...
Ps: This question was also asked somewhere else on a coin forum or two. However, not everybody may be members of every coin forum. So, lets hear their opinions of members of this coin collectors forum also. If your opinion depends on "who is asking", ok, a friend of mine from planet x of galaxy y is wondering why in the world the people are producing the penny and then throwing them away.
0
Comments
I think in 10 years most transactions will not involve the exchange of physical currency, so not reducing minting numbers and/or eliminating denominations altogether shows lack of foresight.
8 Reales Madness Collection
You mean the digital moneys such as bitcoin, credit cards, etc will eliminate physical currency? Possible, but, the future depends on the penny or the one cent coin, rather than the things in the future.
Anyway, it seems that people on this forum too see the penny or the one cent as worthless.
By the way, do you think that, whether they are elected or not, Presidents of the World have a one penny/cent coin in their pockets? I am sure they do not have. Because, like everybody, they too see the penny/cent coin as worthless.
A penny was worth something once.
When I was a kid you could get some chewing gum out of a machine with one.
Now, not only are they are not worth picking off the street but money is wasted making them.
And eventually that will be true with all Coinage
I haven't used cash for a transaction in months.
Sad to say?
Cash is good. It forces you to consider just how much you are actually spending. Credit cards make it easy to overspend ... until the bill comes and you see how much interest you are going to be charged unless you pay it off in full. The bankers want to eliminate cash so they can skim a percentage from every transaction.
I think some of what you say, particularly on overspending ( in my case, on coins ) is true.
But I use debit and credit cards and always pay off the card when due, and in fact use points to pay down the credit card. But the banks get you one way or the other. So that's why I also have shares in banks .
To each her own.
Totally believable, but that approach does not work for me. I usually tip in cash, and pay the furnace guy and such in cash whenever possible.
I tip as well but on my cards. The dividends from the bank pay for the excess fees I pay.
Maybe I'll get some cash for the furnace check as I live in Canada and winter is coming
If the U.S. Mint discontinued producing one cent coins, they would have to close 3/5ths of their production facilities and RIF one-half of their employees. It's simply not in the nature of government agencies to do that.
Tips are always in cash. Many of those kids work hard and live on a hand-to-mouth basis. Why make them wait for their money?
Tips are not in cash in Canada for the most part anymore.
Otherwise I would agree.
Nobody accepts one penny coin tip, even beggars kick you away if you give them one penny.
I've not heard anyone saying "no, the penny or the cent is not worthless, is not useless".
For example, here too https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=297132 they say the same.
However, they may delete this.
Canada has not produced pennies in years (2012?). Its a waste of time now.
Do you mean government are thinking those employees and that is why they are not closing production facilities!? Then, the US government don't know the math. 5,066,400,000 (in words, 5billion etc) cent was produced just in July. How much is this in $? It is about $50 million... How many employee will lose their job if they stop producing the cent? Lets say 1000 employee. Give each of them $50 tousands for a year without working, they'll accept it. No, job losing isn't the real reason. Real reason is just that they are not caring the cent, they are flooding it, wasting time, money and more importantly, wasting effort.
The United States Mint is a governmental organization that produces coinage. It is headed by political appointees designated by the President of the United States and the Secretary of the Treasury.
In American government and politics, normal considerations of business efficiency do not always apply. Politicians everywhere want votes and votes come from giving people jobs and from giving people what they want and from giving people what they are accustomed to using (in this case, small copper-colored coins).
Normal business considerations of waste are secondary. Nonetheless, the United States Mint earns enough money producing dime coins and quarter dollars coins to offset the losses on one cent coin production and the probable losses on five cent coin production.
As a whole, the United States Mint earns a profit on its activities and it provides a convenient mix and sufficient amount of coins to facilitate small commercial transactions and small tax payments in the American economy. Losses on one or two products are offset by profits on the Mint's entire product line, and the American people are reasonably well served.
That may be true.
It is still a waste of time and money.
Absolutely correct. And I would add: there are some PACs that want to protect their sweetheart deals as suppliers of the raw materials for the cents (not to mention the $1 bills).
Life member #369 of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association
Member of Canadian Association of Token Collectors
Collector of:
Canadian coins and pre-confederation tokens
Darkside proof/mint sets dated 1960
My Ebay
That's part of the "jobs" thing too. "Sweetheart" is a loaded term and not something that our foreign friend will easily comprehend/understand. I have tried to respond in my long post in words that a foreigner/ESL person will more easily understand.
Not only are the raw coinage materials produced by the corporate miners and processed by corporate refiners, but the cent blanks and all base metal coinage strip are made by private sector contractors too. The Mint does lots of outsourcing nowadays - lots of employment there and all in the private sector.
Politics isn't wrong and our system of governance still squeaks along. There are lots and lots of corporate and individual "stakeholders" in how the Federal government accomplishes its goals.
Of course, the Mint does not make the paper money.
These considerations as to whether to continue to produce pennies or not is not unique to the US. Each country will choose their own path. In Canada, if anything , the resource sector is more important to the overall economy than it is in the US, yet the abolition of the penny was the chosen path.
As for the explanations of the peculiar nature of US considerations , while it is appreciated and I hadn't thought of it that way, I do have an MA in American history and I think I have a decent understanding of it.
There is self-contradiction in this sentence. First, are people using the cent coin? Almost nobody is (has been) using it. All people (I've met on and off the net) from countries with the cent/penny such as the US, England and Germany are saying that they are not taking/giving the penny/cent or they are throwing away like taxi driver in OP said. If there are any using the cent in the US they are 0,000000001% of total population. So, there is no vote potential for politicians about the cent which is simply unused and unwanted by the big majority of the folks.
No, it is not this reason (mint employee, jobs of them, etc) that keeps the cent production over there. It is just because the cent issue has never been talked. However, if they have ever talked about it, their talk have never been serious and this is so because they just don't know what the money is and what to do with the cent. Not that other countries who have already phased out the cent (or, equivalents such as agora in Israel or kopek in Russia, etc) know what to do, either. What USA, Germany, etc are doing is like "over-engineering" while what other countries with no cent/agora/etc anymore are doing is "under-engineering. The both are incorrect. And, this shows all folks and all governments in the World simply do not know what the money is and what to do with the cent/penny/etc.
Ps: there was a talk here https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coin-without-any-number-figure.299880/page-27 about such things as well, but, all people there have found the cent non-cent/non-sense. People over there have not made any single comment other than this saying "cent is non-sense". At least, people here on this collectors.com are making some comments, which is good. Thanks.
Our host had a piece a while back, IIRC,proposing doing away with the 1c, 5c, and 25c coins and having just 10c, 50c, $1, $2, and $5 coins. There is logic to this and I don't think it would affect our hobby.