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 Replies: 13 / Views: 1,322 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4867 Posts |
As a cashier, I handle a LOT of change. That said I have seen so many nasty pennies...green corrosion, scuffed up, and gouged. Is there any effort in place where banks send back nasty coins like that? Has the US Mint ever considered doing something similar to the alloy recovery program Canada uses? I feel our coinage should represent our country. Is green corrosion a good representation? I would certainly say not. I don't wanna necessarily remove oldish coins but at the same time I think a certain level culling should take place to rid of the aforementioned problem coins.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6987 Posts |
There's so many things our "Government" can't do right and you want them to pull dirty coins....in a perfect world maybe
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
From what I understand, (I stand to be corrected), the U.S. Government has never pulled any silver or base metal coin from circulation. They leave the commercial Public to do that either illegally, or legally under license.
Other governments around the World have had some form of metal recovery program for issued coinages at various times.
As far as Zincolns are concerned, it would not be commercially viable for any individual or business organization to remove damaged or corroded coins, due to recovery and refining costs.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19108 Posts |
Next time you're at a bank (a bank which has a large number of commercial clients), ask a manager what the bank's policy is on dealing with severely damaged coins that they come across. And, check this: https://www.usmint.gov/news/consume...coin-program |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
So, your own bank doesn't have a policy covering this?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3323 Posts |
In all honesty, I have always thought that the Zincolns were designed to self-destruct after a few years. Thinning the herd and maintaining demand for zinc as lobbyists have intended.
"Nummi rari mira sunt, si sumptus ferre potes." - Christophorus filius Scotiae
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Moderator
 United States
187446 Posts |
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Next time you're at a bank (a bank which has a large number of commercial clients), ask a manager what the bank's policy is on dealing with severely damaged coins that they come across. A great suggestion.  Quote:
In all honesty, I have always thought that the Zincolns were designed to self-destruct after a few years. Thinning the herd and maintaining demand for zinc as lobbyists have intended. A logical conclusion given the evidence.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1667 Posts |
https://www.usmint.gov/news/consume...coin-programthey do have a program for the armored carriers and well anyone else really, but mostly for the armored carriers that now do the distribution and handling of coin for coins that get rejected. they are sorted and sent back for a deposit. for you or me it has to be a pund or more of a single denomination, relatively clean, and identifiable as a u.s. coin. for them it's the same idea, just on a bigger scale, when they get deposits of coins returned iots supposed to get sorted and rerolled, and boxed for redistribution, during this, "culls or rejects" get kicked out and sorted for return to the mint, where they verify it and make a deposit for the face value that is damaged and returned to them. then they take it out of circulation for good. the armored carriers and distribution hubs, aren't designed to reject anything less than perfect coins, some have to get pretty bad before it rejects them, but they do get the worst of them out of circulation. You can't stop people from soaking coins in their car cupholders for months, then spending them though. So there's always going to be nasty coins out there turning up and when nasty enough there is a mechanism in place for them to get removed from circulation... when it gets that far. I don't recommend sending in a pound of coins as an individual though, it's not worth the time and cost and all that to bother, let the armored carriers that do the distribution for the Fed handle that. Now if you had 10K and it was in a house fire, heck yeah I'd say send that in to the BEP for review, identification and replacement, but for cents, let it run it's course and let the big guys handle the culling.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4867 Posts |
Honestly it doesn't make sense to make cents. It cost more than face value to make them, they are cumbersome, most don't even pick them up off the ground, most customers just drop them in the take a penny tray.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19108 Posts |
Humorous to think that zinc core cents were designed--deliberately--to self destruct. The story kinda has a folksy charm. Sadly, I have piles and piles of MS zinc cents collected over the years which haven't deteriorated--and haven't been specially stored. I even find bright AU++ and MS examples in circulation very frequently, all the way back to the zincolns of '82, and every year in between. Of course, if the plating is ruptured, and the coin is exposed to challenging environmental conditions, then yes, they do go bad sooner than later.
Edited by ijn1944
02/09/2022 11:44 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19930 Posts |
Banks are supposed to collect damaged coins/currency and return to the Fed.
Lincoln Cent Lover!VERDI-CARE™ INVENTOR https://verdi.care/
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Moderator
United States
187446 Posts |
Quote:
Honestly it doesn't make sense to make cents. It cost more than face value to make them, they are cumbersome, most don't even pick them up off the ground, most customers just drop them in the take a penny tray.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
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From what I understand, (I stand to be corrected), the U.S. Government has never pulled any silver or base metal coin from circulation. Yep you need "correction". From 1965 to 1969, while it was illegal for citizens to melt down silver coins, the Federal Reserve had at least two possibly three machines that received all dimes, quarters, and halves returned to the Fed by the Banks. These machines separated the silver coins from the clad coins. The silver coins were retained for the government, and the clad coins were returned to inventory to be shipped back out to banks requesting coinage. They stopped using the machine in 1969 because the amount of silver being recovered did not justify their continued use. During the 19th century gold coins that were worn below a certain amout or gold coins that were damaged would be sent by banks to the Treasury for recoinage. And the worn coins would be returned as soon as they reached that minimum weight because if they were allowed to continue to circulate and dropped much more they would only be received by the treasury by weight and not by their face value. As far as base metal coins there is only the redemption methods that the others here have mentioned. |
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Valued Member
United States
218 Posts |
You can hand the moldy or corroded coins over my way haha. I've been taking the ones I come across out of circulation since I was a kid. It's like a form of "coin euthanasia".
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Replies: 13 / Views: 1,322 |
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Posted 02/09/2022 01:21 am
