Death To The Penny

Hi,
I am not ready to end the Penny, only improve it!
I just recently sent the below message to the US Mint and again later to a US Senate committee member who chairs for coinage issues. There is a relatively new law,PUBLIC LAW 111--302--DEC. 14, 2010
COIN MODERNIZATION, OVERSIGHT, AND CONTINUITY ACT OF 2010, that takes into account coinage composition, ETC.


Dear Sirs,

I would bet that the durability of a copper coated zinc penny was never really given much thought. I have just recently gotten really into metal detecting. What I can tell you is that any zinc based penny that has spent any time underground is going to be in such horrible shape, you had better spend it fast

before somebody is going to have to fight the urge to throw the ugly blob of rotted metal into the trash. I cannot imagine that the copper coated zinc really is the best option for replacing the expensive all copper pennies. There has to be a more durable alloy of metal that can stand the test of time and being

buried. In Europe, metal detectorist are still digging up roman coins that with a competent and thorough cleaning, you can still see the facial features of the Roman Emperors that were in power 2,000 years ago. I would think that we could perhaps even scale down the size of the penny, kind of like some of

the smaller Roman coins and even make them in copper again. It is not like they can operate any vending machines! If not, I am sure we could get over the loss of the copper color of our pennies and use some of the silver colored light alloys that so many foreign countries use. This would look like some of the

steel pennies of WWII, they really looked just fine! I just do not think it is right that we mint coins that within a very short amount of time will completely disappear and be lost just by having contact with the Earth.


Respectfully, Steve Fortune of Boise, Idaho.

You are welcome! Thank you for re-posting here. I did not want the conversation split in two.

They should make the nickel out of cheaper materials like the penny and stop minting pennies (but leave them in circulation for about a decade) and replace them with 2cent pieces. This would save money and allow stores to easily adjust their prices. After this decade has passed discontinue the 2 cent piece and leave it in circulation for a decade as well. This would keep things moving smoothly and save money. As for the 1$ just stop making the bill and force the coin already.

I'm in the camp hat believes it will take a year or less. Take a look at Canada, their last shipment of 2012 cents to the banks was in early 2013 and I believe the cent is pretty much out of circulation in Canada today. Can any of our Canadian members confirm that?

This is where YOU are wrong. Is might should work like that but it doesn't/ I have plenty of receipts to prove it from plenty of things bought form grocery stores, to hardware stores, etc. Whoever is programming the newst model cash registers is simply just rounding up to make it quicker, and nobody is paying attention to it because they just trust the machine instead of doing the mat themselves.

$1.0642 you be rounded up to $1.07 not down to $1.06. Thus without the penny, not only would people be cheated out of the partial cent, but a whole nickel!

It is good you trust the economy so much, banks must love you, but the reality is, it isn't correct in all places, and there is nothing to check since the white collar crime units of the FBI were deferred to other things during the 2009 TARP funds incident. IRS doesn't check all business receipts to see what taxes were collected, just the amount paid form a business and the form to pay business taxes is quite simple, and anything in excess, unless audited to check all those receipts and transactions, the business gets to keep where it over-taxes people.

A private citizen is more likely to get audited than a business that is skimming taxes because they do NOT all round correctly.

SHOULD work that way and actually working that way are two different things.

Some interesting facts from New Zealand
On 11 November 2004, the Reserve Bank announced that it proposed to take the 5c coin out of circulation. The reason given was:

The 5c coin is now worth a third of what a cent was worth back in 1967, when New Zealand decimalised its currency.

The prices of copper and nickel used to mint the old coins were high and rising steeply, and the metal content of some coins exceeded their face value.
After a three-month public submission period that ended on 4 February 2005, the Reserve Bank announced on 31 March it would go ahead with the proposed changes. The changeover period started on 31 July 2006, with the old coins usable up until 31 October 2006.

Having this in mind in 2004 they still decided to mint 15,000,000 of the 5c of which only 48,000 were issued.

Are the banks actively removing them from circulation, are the businesses just not requesting them and rounding?

I would imagine that in Canada, like the US, the cent was pretty much a one way item, Mint to bank to business to consumer to change jar. While some change jars do eventually make their way back to the bank, for the most part if there isn't a constant influx of new cents form the mint a shortage rapidly develops. Businesses and banks start requesting exact change and even paying a premium for cents. Than as the businesses can't get enough cents they first try substitutes, and then finally switch to rounding so they don't need cents. Once they start rounding they stop requesting cents from the bank and the banks then start sending the cents back to the central bank as they do come in to keep them from piling up. It isn't an active or deliberate withdrawal of the cents but it does have the same net effect.

They're as useless as Japanese 1 yen coins. Get rid of them. At our present rate of currency debasement, we will be able to get rid of all coins less than $1 in about 20 years.
Then we can have small aluminum $1 coins, just Iike the Japanese 1 yen.