Doge Takes Aim At The Penny

Forgive me but I'm a little grumpy about putting in a defective $3000 State water heater and, unsurprisingly, no one cares. Among its many defects and problems is that it has a zinc anode rod that is supposed to stop the water from having an odor and despite the fact the last one didn't this one stinks badly. Calls to the company take a very long time and then the "help" is less than required or is wholly irrelevant. I doubt the zinc of the anode rod is defective in any way but I'm reminded that almost every product that comes into my house is defective but instead of companies suffering for their poor quality only the workers and less well paid individuals do much suffering. I hope this isn't off topic but the fact is pennies are emblematic, symptomatic, and symbolic of all the problems that plague the commonweal and commonwealth. They are also to some limited extent the cause.

Perhaps the penny should be retained to show people in the future how bad things are until some changes begin. The penny might be around a very long time yet.

No, there is plenty.

But the largest Zinc supplier expends way too much time and money convincing the government that the Mint needs to keep buying their zinc blanks, when it could save those resources and focus their attention on more scalable and profitable endeavours.

Yes, happy to hear there're sufficient zinc resources to meet a variety of needs.

That won't be possible unless the Smithsonian keeps a few rolls of zinc core cents in a hypoxic chamber for the next 500 years and then maybe they won't disintegrate from zinc rot.

Only time will tell ..but Kudos to BadThad who back in 2007 was already preparing
for the inevitable Zinc-Agedon involving most if not all zinc core-cents being erased/dissolved
from the human record.

Good luck getting that profit. "One day..."

Few people have any concept of how rare these coins can be in nice condition. Virtually every zincoln in circulation is spotted, corroded and or otherwise impaired. Poorly stored BU rolls are often disintegrated and even well stored rolls tend to be very spotty.

Some of these were almost impossible to find nice in the year of issue. Yes, there are some very common issues even in Gem and a few dates exist in large numbers of rolls containing many Gems. But nice choice coins can be elusive for other dates.

Zincolns should never have been made at all because even in 1982 they had negative value. But now that they exist assembling sets of these can be a fun challenge and more people will notice this if the government ever does the right thing and recalls them for proper disposal.

Sure billions will survive a recall because most people will find it easier to throw them in the trash or sit in jugs than take them to the bank. Hundreds of millions exist in mint sets and BU rolls. They aren't going to be scarce in the lifetime of of even young collectors. But any demand for these would quickly show there are numerous scarce dates. Circulated coins are generally uncollectable due to corrosion and uncirculated specimens tend to be very poorly made.

These same things apply to the older memorial cents but none of them are especially rare because copper is more stable. Some dates like the '68 tend to be spotted but there are still enough pristine examples that it isn't "rare'.

The continued production of these "coins" is illogical so I won't be surprised if it continues.