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 Replies: 18 / Views: 2,738 |
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
17964 Posts |
I was in a shop in the Netherlands just a few weeks ago (admittedly very near the German border) and was given two 1c coins (both German)in change.
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Moderator
 United States
189053 Posts |
Well done. We Americans should learn from this.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
807 Posts |
Considering the enormous numbers of cents the US Mint has produced every year for decades, we ought to just suspend production. Let people empty out their jars, if the coins are needed so badly!
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Moderator
United States
14463 Posts |
Quote:
publius
Considering the enormous numbers of cents the US Mint has produced every year for decades, we ought to just suspend production. Let people empty out their jars, if the coins are needed so badly!  just in my bulk rolls, I have 84 rolls of LMC. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
Well done. We Americans should learn from this. And we will.......in about 20 years. Quote:
Considering the enormous numbers of cents the US Mint has produced every year for decades, we ought to just suspend production. Let people empty out their jars, if the coins are needed so badly! Believe it or not if we did just stop production the cent would probably be gone as a circulating coin within a years time. It would rapidly become so difficult for businesses to get enough to use as change that they would voluntarily start rounding. And once enough businesses started doing that requests for cents at the banks would dry up. Without requests banks would just start shipping whatever did come in back to the Fed where they would sit because the banks would no longer be requesting them either. And with a stockpile in the Fed there would never be a reason to resume production. Believe me, we don't make umpteen billion cents every year because the economy has grown so much it NEEDS umpteen billion more cents in circulation. They need those umpteen billion cents to replace the umpteen billion cents that went into change jars last year and aren't coming back out into circulation. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
807 Posts |
Any suspension of the cent coinage should be accompanied by a publicity campaign encouraging people to dig out the ones in their sock drawers & put them back into circulation. And if they don't start reappearing immediately, but they're really needed for change, either the banks or the merchants will start paying a premium for them. Would "receive $1.01 in credit for every 100 cents" bring them out?
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
But if anyone (you) catches wind of the upcoming suspension:
Day before suspension: Withdraw entire bank account in pennies
Suspension in effect: Weeks/months of fun searching all the rolls
Sometime later:
- Sell huge volume of copper: 1.5x your money.
- Cash in zinc: 1.01x (or whatever) your money.
- Countless wheats, IHCs, piles of Canadian, plenty 2 euro-cents, dimes, etc. (maybe even a Flying Eagle): keep and enjoy.
But there would probably be a huge penny crunch as everyone raced to withdraw as many as they could...
...but since people would be motivated to cash in their whole change jars, pennies included, look out for a wave of nicer condition and silver coins in your rolls!
Our penny was taken out back and put down in the middle of the night, promotions be damned. Some people don't even think they're legal tender anymore, and give them away free...
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Moderator
United States
189053 Posts |
Quote:
Believe me, we don't make umpteen billion cents every year because the economy has grown so much it NEEDS umpteen billion more cents in circulation. They need those umpteen billion cents to replace the umpteen billion cents that went into change jars last year and aren't coming back out into circulation. Copy, paste, quote. Saved me a lot of typing. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
Any suspension of the cent coinage should be accompanied by a publicity campaign encouraging people to dig out the ones in their sock drawers & put them back into circulation. And if they don't start reappearing immediately, but they're really needed for change, either the banks or the merchants will start paying a premium for them. Would "receive $1.01 in credit for every 100 cents" bring them out? Ever lived through a coin/cent shortage? I have, a couple if them. I've seen public appeals for people to turn back in their cents, didn't work. I've seen banks and businesses offering as much as $1.10 per dollar for cents, didn't work. Some places were already starting to round. And mind you this was while the mint was still striking cents. The only thing that ended the shortage was greatly increased production at the mint. Frankly the premium offer was probably counterproductive. If they are paying a 10% premium now do you turn in what you have, or do you try and hoard up whatever you can get hoping for a higher premium later? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
807 Posts |
What do they do with them?
I'm asking this as a serious question, because I find it very hard to wrap my head around. The Mint turns out something like fifty cent coins per head of population every year. Why would people salt them away, rather than putting them to the use of current money?
I've always been one to separate out the cents from the rest of the coins I receive in change, or pick them up off the ground, & as soon as I get up to 50, I roll them & take the roll into the bank, or else just use it when paying for something (since businesses are usually glad to get them). Now, not everybody likes to count coins, but they can take them into the banks, or those CoinStar machines at the grocery stores! What possible motive is there for letting them pile up?
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
17964 Posts |
I've never lived through a coin shortage in the UK, but I visited Italy frequently in the 1970s and 1980s and there always seemed to be a shortage of small change. Although coins of 5, 10 and 20 lire existed, the smallest coin found in regular use was the 50L, and sometimes the 100L. If you were buying a single low value item like a can of soda, a bag of crisps or a picture postcard, it really put the price up - although the shop assistant would sometimes give you a few sweets, a book of matches or a postage stamp in change!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
807 Posts |
I've heard from other people who visited Italy in that time period that the smallest-value coins frequently weren't accepted in the shops, & as a result you had to use them to buy cigarettes, or something, from vending machines, & trade those for larger denominations. Apparently this is why Italy has been the seat of agitation for 1 & 2 Euro notes : the people don't believe coins to be worth anything, so even small articles are priced at E5, because that's the smallest note.
I don't understand people, & that's for sure.
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Pillar of the Community
 United Kingdom
2887 Posts |
I encountered a similar thing in Spain about 25 years ago. There just was no small change and shopkeepers just looked at you and shrugged when you were expecting a few pesetas change. - though a peseta was less than a 1/2 pence at the time.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
837 Posts |
I like how the article keeps pointing the finger at jam jar hoarders  I hope this doesn't happen here !  Edited by DaytR
07/25/2013 6:27 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
I love jam jar hoarders, especially if they're my relatives :D
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Replies: 18 / Views: 2,738 |
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Posted 07/23/2013 1:41 pm
