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 Replies: 67 / Views: 8,029 |
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Valued Member
Canada
495 Posts |
Lots of rumours about scrapping the USA penny, is this a pipedream or is it in the radar soon?
*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
At my age (73) I may never see it happen.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1566 Posts |
Probably never. Lobbyists from zinc producing states would raise Cain. Just good old fashioned American politics.
Edited by Celticsoul
02/15/2015 08:37 am
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New Member
United States
7 Posts |
Why doesn't the U.S. just downsize the penny to the size of say a U.S. silver 3 cent? Minimize the amount of metal used to produce the penny and if it's made of zinc it shouldn't cost a penny to make. IMO
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1566 Posts |
It's not the material cost of the zinc that makes cents more expensive than a cent to make. Production and distribution is what really costs.
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Valued Member
United States
415 Posts |
@2000nkb- that idea would be a complete disaster when it comes to sorting coins at banks an such. Coin counting machines would all become obselete as they are sorted based on size. You'd have to roll the coins separately based on size too which would be a hassle. That would be creating way more issues than it would solve.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
532 Posts |
In Canada It was costing us 1.6 cent's to produce one penny and since we had already went to plated steel Zinc wasn't an issue. Simply put you couldn't buy anything for one penny anymore. Penny candy is now 5 cents and we haven't had any problems due to it aside from me missing them. Interestingly enough on the rare occasion I get some at random stores that still insists on using pennies and they're always U.S.  Here's an article on it. http://www.canadianbusiness.com/eco...-too-costly/ |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Possibly never will happen. Of course if the USA would outsource the minting of all our coins to China, then the cost of making a Cent would be probably a fraction of what it is now. Imagine, no metal to be ordered. No trucks or drivers needed to haul the metal to make the coins and haul the finished ones away. No presses, no materials, no buildings, no employees making all sorts of government benefits. Not even a hunk of land needed for those buildings. No machinery, maintenance, office furniture, no pens, pencils, computers, phones, etc., etc., etc.
Just call China, place an order, have them just dump the coins at our banks.
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Moderator
 United States
188213 Posts |
Quote:
When will USA scrap the penny like Canada did? Not soon enough.  Quote:
Why doesn't the U.S. just downsize the penny to the size of say a U.S. silver 3 cent? Minimize the amount of metal used to produce the penny and if it's made of zinc it shouldn't cost a penny to make. IMO Because even if the material were free it would still cost more than a cent to produce and distribute. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11951 Posts |
This subject seems to pop up way to often. There are many people that have no problem with the one cent coin. Most people use it everyday with no complaint. They do not want to use the dollar or half dollar coins, but they use the Lincoln with no problem. For me there is much more government waste that should be of concern, then the overhead that the cent cost. The 17 trillion debt is much more then the making of the cent. We the people of the United States ... Have standards ... Part of that is the Lincoln Cent. Like a funny story I heard ...when we started going into space, NASA figured out that Ink pens would not work in space. And they needed to write in the log books. For Russia, they just said, no problem, we will just use a pencil. But for the United States we said no way, and spent like a million dollars to design a pen that would write in space .....because in the United States ...we have standards .... FYI ...above is just joking ....not intending to offend any of our Russia friends here on CCF |
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Valued Member
United States
110 Posts |
GR58 - Funny you mention the Russian vs American space programs. I worked at a rocket factory. I got to see an American engine and a Russian engine. Our Delta and Atlas rockets (former Boeing and Lockheed Martin) use them. Most people think our astronauts are just hitching rides with Russian spacecraft. But really we have relied on Russia to deliver all sorts of unmanned payloads, including spy satellites. Anyway, the Russian engine was not clean and precisely put together. The welds were like something you would see on any normal piece of equipment. The American engine was all tidy with neat, precise welds. You could tell the Americans were spent a lot more time worrying about unnecessary things. Both engines work great (100% launch success), but it seemed the Russian's only cared about functionality.
I'm sure the American engine cost more to produce that way. Just thought it was interesting...
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Moderator
United States
188213 Posts |
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For me there is much more government waste that should be of concern, then the overhead that the cent cost. The 17 trillion debt is much more then the making of the cent. The problem is that our 17 trillion dollar of debt is made up of thousands of wasteful "little" things like this. There are no "big chunks" we take out. We have to start somewhere and losing the cent is a good start. |
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Valued Member
United States
369 Posts |
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Like a funny story I heard ...when we started going into space, NASA figured out that Ink pens would not work in space. And they needed to write
in the log books. For Russia, they just said, no problem, we will just use
a pencil. But for the United States we said no way, and spent like a million
dollars to design a pen that would write in space .....because in the
United States ...we have standards .... Not true actually. Snopes has a good writeup of it here: http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.aspLong story short is that in space a pencil can be dangerous since the flammable and electrically conductive graphite breaks off and floats around. Instead, a man named Paul C. Fisher used his own money to develop a zero-G pen that he then sold to NASA for a normal price. |
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Valued Member
United States
110 Posts |
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The problem is that our 17 trillion dollar of debt is made up of thousands of wasteful "little" things like this. There are no "big chunks" we take out. We have to start somewhere and losing the cent is a good start. I agree that we shouldn't waste money, no matter the amount. It all does add up. This is true in personal finances as well as corporate or gov't expenses. In 2013 - Military spending accounts for 19% of the budget, social security 24% of the budget, Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP another 22%. I'd say those are some big chunks. |
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Moderator
United States
188213 Posts |
Those are big chunks, but no one would be happy if we completely eliminated those parts of the budget! To be analogous, we would have to eliminate the treasury department, not just the cent.  |
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New Member
United States
12 Posts |
I think the general public would probably not understand why it could be scrapped as it holds sentimental value
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Replies: 67 / Views: 8,029 |
Posted 02/15/2015 08:36 am
