Lincoln Cents

I'm not sure if they would do that, since they have to order the blanks from another company and I don't know if they would still do that or not, with such a small quantity.

Imagine going from billions of cent blanks made to just tens of millions or less. Yeah, they could charge a lot more, but I don't know if they will sell them as rolls though. If they were just offered in the BU and Proof sets, it would just be a few million blanks made. And I don't know if demand would increase enough on the sets, especially if their prices took a big jump up in price to include the cents.

Or I guess they could order a billion of them and have them for many years to come.

I say, if they are not going to mint the coins for circulation, then don't mint them for the sets. The whole point of the sets is to show what is being minted for use. Otherwise, why doesn't the Mint include the 2 cent, 3 cent, etc in our sets today then?

I bet that the NIFC half dollar is really driving up the price of the sets now. It is quite expensive to make the hubs, dies, etc for such a small mintage.

I hope they decide not to include them, if it is going to drive up the price even more for the sets. They are over priced as it is, for their quality. Too many bag marks on many coins of most sets, especially the BU ones.

Personally I would prefer that NIFC coins not be included in mint sets and proof versions of NIFC business strike coins not be included in proof sets, and I hope we'd eliminate the NIFC Kennedy half after its 50th anniversary here in a couple of years. It's somewhat ludicrous that the 2012 Mint Sets will include 28 coins with a face value of $15.82 (assuming my hasty math is correct) of which 8 coins with a face value of $2.82 are actually intended for circulation. 71% of the present-day mint sets are practically commemorative coins at this point. (Nonetheless, I'll still buy it because I want to keep sets currents and would like to complete the Presidential dollar series, because I'm a fool like that).

We're presently down to circulating coins of four denominations (1c, 5c, 10c, 25c) and if the cent is eliminated, down to three (5c, 10c, 25c), assuming those in charge don't come to their senses and eliminate the paper $1 so that a $1 coin actually circulates. After ATB ends in 2021, that would leave us with only six-coin mint sets and three-coin proof sets. While I would like the return to simpler times and smaller annual sets, I can't imagine the Mint would go back to making such small sets, given that the seniorage on all of the NIFC coins included in sets must be huge.

Well, the reason to stop minting them in the first place?, what's a penny worth anymore, about Three Cents in production costs?, then transporting, delivering, handing out, bring back to bank, sending for rolling, boxing and delivery back to the banks to start all over again. I think the 59-82 95% copper LMC will have a special place, but like 90% circulated silver, only command a general melt or spot price, which probably won't be much. Long term, definitely, as people hoard these things for the copper, hoping to cash in if the melt ban is ever lifted, maybe double your money in twenty years if your lucky, it's a gamble, but a safe one.

Like the one we followed when we quit printing our one dollar notes to stimulate use of the one dollar coin? Oops!

I agree.

Not sure if kids in other countries are as coin collecting as they are here in the USA. When my Son was going to college in Europe he noted so few anywhere where he went had any interest in coin collecting at all. Due to amount of coin collectors alone, getting rid of Pennies would make it difficult for little kids to start collecting coins. Now due to them being of so little value and have been for a long time now, almost any kid that wants to collect coins can do it easily with Pennies. For a kid of about 5 to 10 years old saving a Penny is easy. A Nickel to many is already a bit on the expensive side. Dimes are rather out of reach to a lot of kids.
For that reason alone Pennies are necessary. Kids need something of little value to hold on to. Possibly a vast majority of kids in the USA collect Pennies. Nickels next. To stop them now would mean:
1. Parents would have to find something equally cheap for them to collect. Try to find that.
2. Companies like Whitman, Dansco, Littleton, etc. would have to redo all their Albums.
3. Wouldn't be to many coins in wishing wells if there were no Pennies.
4. Have to rewrite all the sWows that use the word PENNY
5. All those machines in Zoos and Museums that make something out of Pennies would be useless.
6. Many empty spots on this forum where people complain about the cost of making Pennies.
7. Many empty spots on all coin forums where people complain about the word PENNY, instead of CENTS.

Excellent summary, wquinn.

Last time I checked, my beloved and "no longer minted" Eisenhower dollar is still around.