A Penny and a Half for Your Thoughts

It currently costs about 1.5 cents to produce a penny and 8.2 cents to produce a nickel. I know what you're thinking, but don't try it. They just passed a law this year to make it illegal to melt coins to sell the raw materials.

I'm not sure exactly how this is related but my 15-year-old son just turned down my offer of 10% of the proceeds to roll up the family penny collection and take them to the bank. He's holding out for 20% of the total. Says he's content to continue playing non-stop videogames in his bedroom if I don't meet his price.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with this question. If you're on your way into the supermarket and you see a penny on the pavement, do you stop to pick it up? I'm saying probably not. Nickel maybe. Dime almost for sure. Quarter definitely.

Getting close to the time when we say goodbye to the penny. I was thinking we bump Abe up to the quarter but, as my blog-pal Toby points out, he's already got the $5 bill. Those ought to be around awhile still...

Comments

[numismatically challenged]

Just a thought on the economics of pennies.............
How come if
"It's a penny for your thoughts" somebody is always
"Throwing their two cents in"?
How's that work out?
Somebody needs to explain to me why this is always happening.

[Bevan]

Here in NZ we just had the 1 year anniversary of phasing out the 5c coin (our 1c and 2c coins were phased out in 1990).

The coins were phased out for much the reasons you describe - they were so low in value that people didn't want to deal with them. (IIRC, one survey had 40% of people admitting to discarding the coins in the rubbish as it was't worth digging them out!)

One aspect that worked in our favour is that our GST (similar to sales tax, but flat rate over everything) has to be *included* in retail display prices, so we don't get odd totals when we total up at the register.

Also, given that NZ has just over 4 million people, comared with the US over 300 million, we have a much smaller number of coins in circulation.

More info, for the curious:

http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/currency/money/0094086.html

http://www.newcoins.govt.nz/

[Serge]

Or maybe, someone should see to sell the US penny copyrights to Sony and get them to change the front face of Abe to, I don't know, Michael Jackson or Celine Dion?

(Sorry, I'm still p.o.ed about the dark skies dvd cancellation announcement. On a more constructive note: any way we, the fans, can help pressure Sony to change their minds, and maybe get them to release the original music soundtracks as well? Lots of inconditionned fans here in Canada will be disappointed, I assure you. The waiting has been too long to be turned down once more).

[Toby OB]

I remember an episode of 'The West Wing' that touched on why the penny will never be phased out, having to do with the influence of the senators from Illinois, since Abe Lincoln was from there. Sure, that was a fictional version of the US government, but maybe the situation applies here in the real world.

Lincoln's already on the five dollar bill, so he's secure; no need to knock Washington off the quarter. For that matter, he's got the dollar bill. Maybe they both should give way on the coinage side to somebody else - how about Teddy Roosevelt?