US Coin Composition Debate Returns

Basic US coinage has not changed for a century, yet inflation has changed the value of the coins. We need to devalue coins to make sense of what we use. Nothing costs a penny. If we devalued money by a factor of 10 it would make more sense. A penny would become a dime. A new penny/dime would buy a gumball and a foot of decent rope. A new dime/dollar would feed a parking meter. Its time to rethink our money.

I voted no because if I've learned anything about the history of money (in the US at least) is that every time we intervene in the normal process we cause some kind of change or devaluation.

A reconstruction of out base system will likely only reset this process. Take Mexico for an example. (no offense)

Good point Scooby.

I apologize for being a negative-nancy.

I voted yes, but only because I want to see the $1 coins composition changed to .50 silver and the pennies to be eliminated or done in plastic.

instead of doing that they need to figure out a way to make the penny and nickel have its buying power back.

I voted yes as well for the same reasons as ratio411. I am not going to hold my breath though. They will continue to debase our coins and currency until they move us off paper money and coins and into electronic digits alone. Those days are closer than we want to admit. Sincerely, John Leckrone

I'd love to see that happen but they'd have to recall gold again to do it. To compensate current gold owners today would be to correct the past and cough up the "missing" 92 cents of the current 8 cents of value in the dollar.

Sadly, when Nixon closed the gold window it was slammed shut for good.

I've been reading a good bit about US history including monetary history here of late along with the coinage acts. While I think most people realize we've drifted away from the Founding Fathers monetary principles I don't think most people realize how much we've been "winging it" and making all this up as we go along for the past 100 years.

It's astonishing to discover there is really no basis, forethought or precedent for the long-term success of our current system.

Then you start to see things like the 2008 "adjustment" (Wall Street bailout, "too big to fail") in the full light: It's like saving a listing ship by drilling more holes to let the water out. The taxpayers best get on the stick to man the buckets!

I voted yes although I realize that such polls mean nothing to the people that make the coins.
Coins should be radio active so you can find the ones that you drop in shows, stores, parks, etc. They would glow according to the material. I find it amazing how you can drop a coin and it rolls to where you can't see it in seconds.
Coins could be made so they contain microchips so they can be traced. Sort of like a GPS. Not all coins but ones that will become rare someday.
All coins could be made of pure Copper so all those substances for getting the green stuff of them would become as expensive as gasoline.
Or we could just keep them all the way they are now.