US Mint Opposes Steel Cent Bill

Steel is high if its made in the USA. I hope they tag that bill like the gold&silver coin it must be metal's that are mined and made the USA. I wont get but one small steel mill up and running but at least we will put some Americans back too work. I about 60-70% of our steel mills are shut down due cheap Japanese & Chinese steel made 1/2 price as US made steel. but we can not ship our steel to there country that wrong from the word go and you know that someone is getting a payoff by them!

It doesn't matter to me one way or another where the metals are mined. Gotta do what is cost effective. I don't want the government to spend more than they have to.

I was thinking that too that cents should be minted just for mint sets. There are already billions if not trillions if cents in circulation so why keep minting them in the masses? Just use what we have now. I believe the supply is ample.

I think they should switch to pennies made of carbon fiber - it's reasonably durable and could also help reduce CO2 emissions if it is made of carbon captured from power plant emissions.

This way the U.S. could also brag (even if incorrectly) to have the first "green" coinage . Saves oil (as opposed to plastic), saves metal, saves energy - our pennies will save the earth !

Feel free to put your Two Cents in on this one

Add me to that list. I think the cent should have gone NIFC years ago.

How true, people are not using them and that is another good reason to stop making them. People will whine about it, but eventually get over it. Same goes for killing the paper dollar. Just do it already and move on.

THe penny has become worthless...even a piece of bubble gum costs a dime now. I think the only reason it wasn't eliminated years go is because of the sales tax--8.25% in New York State, 6% in PA, etc. That can only be paid with use of the a one-cent coin in cash transactions. Without the cent, either the customer or the business would be forced to over/under pay their fair share of the tax. Wouldn't be right to either party..

Nearest being closest, up or down.

In a previous thread, people complained that we would all be ripped off since everything would be rounded up to the nearest nickel (or dime, if the nickel is eliminated as per your example). Sales Tax often does not come out even (to the cent), so we already have rounding (up and down, to the nearest cent).

The rounding rules would not change, just the denomination we round to. I suspect that transactions will still be calculated to the cent; where electronic ones are tendered for the exact amount and the cash ones are rounded manually. It is possible that the POS systems will be reprogrammed to give two totals, one for electronic payment and the other for cash. Not a difficult task, IMHO; proabably less hassle than moving the start and stop dates for Daylight Saving Time!

I say we just stop minting cents now. Stores will round on their own and might even ask people to bring exact change next time. Maybe people will start tapping their change jars and banks will clear their vaults of unused boxes. The hoards will filter back into circulation or we will get used to not having cents in change. We might even be able to linger on a few years or decades until we actually "run out" of them. Maybe people will opt to increasingly use electronic methods of payment to keep from losing a few cents to rounding (even though they will gain as much as they lose over the course of time).