Penny death march rolls on in Canada

[Brian Penning]

Hmmm...looks like I soon have to find something to replace the penny I've been using to ID my work.
The nice thing about using a coin was having the year on it. This way it ID'd when the piece was made.

[Dan Hintz]

Moving on to a nickel, then? Inflation...

[Matt Day]

What exactly is this thread aboot?. Maybe a link to an article or someting would help some of us?

[Jeff Monson]

Canada is phasing out the penny, the nickel will be the low man on the totem pole.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

INteresting. I hear that it costs more than 1 cent to manufacture a penny. Perhaps we should take that clue and get rid of ours too....

[Dan Hintz]

According to the US mint:
The cost of the coins was recently 1.62 cents to produce each penny and 5.79 cents to produce each nickel.

The cost continues to rise from year to year. that said, it's irrelevant because even if it cost 5 cents to produce a penny, unless it's being collected for its monetary value the penny is used as a bartering chip... you trade me that penny, even if it cost $10 to make, and I will remove one cent from your debt.

[Van Huskey]

According to the US mint:
The cost of the coins was recently 1.62 cents to produce each penny and 5.79 cents to produce each nickel.

.

Wonder what it would cost if it was still all copper...

[ray hampton]

1 dollar of one cent coins [2 rolls ] weigh about 1 lb.
what do 1 lb of pure copper scrap sell for ? 4.50$ ?

[Chris Nolin]

Nice one, Matt! Cheap, but subtle.

[Matt Day]

Nice one, Matt! Cheap, but subtle.

Thanks, I thought somebody would pick up on that

[David Cefai]

When Italy had its own coinage - the Lira, there was a permanent shortage of small change. Coins were being melted down for the metal which was much more valuable than the coin value.

Bear in mind that $1 (US) was about 1500 lire so that a 5 lira coin contained many times its value of copper.

Consequently when you bought something your change was likely to be given in stamps and sweets!

[Neil Brooks]

I don't think much is new, here.

If any of you are like me, I've LONG believed that the money I've earned is worth far less than the price I've paid for it

[Kent A Bathurst]

According to the US mint:
The cost of the coins was recently 1.62 cents to produce each penny and 5.79 cents to produce each nickel..

Worst I've seen - 7 years ago in Budapest. The Hungarian Forint was roughly 300 to the $US. And they have 1-forint coins. I got one in change. Could not believe it. About 1/4 the dia of a US dime.

[John M Bailey]

If I have a copper penny has 2.25 cents worth of copper in it, then that penny should be worth 2.25 cents. If I can buy 200 pennies with 2 dollars, and the 200 pennies are worth $4.50 in copper content, then the 2 dollars would be acually worth $4.50.
That is why our coins (in the past) had value. A silver dollar had 1 oz of silver and the half had half oz and the quarter had, you guessed it a quarter oz, dime had a tenth oz. The nickle was made of, get this, Nickle! The coins had the value of whatever they were made of had, that is why a penny was made of copper. The copper in the penny had a little bit of value. The same with gold coins. The paper money had value because you could exchange it for the face value of hard coins.
Except that our idiotic government has, in its boundless wisdom, decided that a penny that is worth more than one cent is a bad thing, and outlawed the scrappage of copper coins.
The US mint still makes silver dollars (silver eagles), but the dollar bill is not exchangable for face value in silver coins. If the bill was, then it would be worth whatever 1 oz of silver is worth, right now about $21.

OH my head, whenever I start thinking about all this, I get a headache. The great wisdom of our leaders.

[Dan Hintz]

Does a $20 bill have $20 worth of paper in it? No... it's worth what someone is willing to give for it. Since the government says a $20 bill can be used for reducing a debt by $20, that's what it is worth to anyone willing to accept.