Grumpus's comments (member since Apr 15, 2008)

Grumpus's comments from the Retire The Penny? Keep The Penny? group.

I just saw this in the Kiplinger Letter recently (so it looks like the one-cent coin will stay).

With prices of copper, zinc and nickel going through the roof... Uncle Sam will begin making pennies and nickels from steel, as soon as Congress gives the OK later this year. Though also pricey,steel is still nowhere near as expensive as the other metals.

Clad in alloy, the new coins will look and feel the same as they do now.

The switch will save the government about $100 million a year. Copper and nickel have risen 300%...zinc, 450%...since 2003. At present,
it costs 1.26¢ to produce each penny and 7.7¢ to turn out a nickel. The dime, which costs 4¢ to make, and the quarter, 10¢, will stay as-is.

Steel pennies are not new, though. They were produced temporarily during World War II to free up the other metals for the war effort.

Excellent story on the possible fate of the 1-cent coin here. There is a link within the story that gives the history of the coin as well. Enjoy!

I don’t mean to come off sarcastic right off the bat but to be technically correct; the U.S. Mint does not make pennies. They make a one cent coin.

Anyway, I think the “penny” has outlived its usefulness. It makes no economic sense to make something that costs more to produce than its worth. No sound business would be able to survive doing that. Only a government can afford to run deficits.

For you environmentalists, think about all the zinc that will be saved not to mention the energy we’ll save by no longer having to mine the stuff in mass quantities.

Yeah, it’ll result in the loss of jobs to some folks but I have a recommendation that could make all parties happy. Why not make a 2¢ or 3¢ coin and eliminate the 1¢ coin? The U.S. used to have these coins in the 1860’s, why not bring them back? The zinc people are happy as they still get to keep their jobs, the “eliminate the penny” folks are happy the coin is gone, and the economists are satisfied too because it may cost only 1.6¢ to produce a slightly larger coin but still less than the actual face value. The tree-huggers, I’m sorry to say are still probably unhappy as the zinc mining industry will continue to wreak environmental damage (their opinion, not necessarily mine).

This “penny” to a 2¢ coin to the 3¢ coin transition will afford a gradual progression to their elimination. Unfortunately, it is something that must happen for economic reasons such as Australia has understood by discontinuing their 1¢ and 2¢ coins in 1991.

According to Wikipedia, there was a proposal for a U.S. 2¢ coin in the 1970’s but nothing came of it. I believe it is time to revisit this idea!