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The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

qz.com

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Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#41

Post by 83457 »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #5
mikestew wrote: post #3

So get rid of them. At one point in my life, a long time ago, things could be purchased for a penny. That time has long passed. Now pennies are used just to make the math work out. Round everything up a nickel ($0.05) and call it a day. Or look at it another way: inflation has made the nickel from my youth into today's penny.

What can you buy at a shop with just a nickel? I don't think I've purchased any item at a shop for less than ten cents in my thirty years; and it's rare to see anything that costs less than a quarter.

I used to buy Bazooka bubble gum for 5 cents from the store as a kid in the early 90's. Since then I can't think of anything else for that amount of money

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#42

Post by jstarfish »

wolco wrote: post #33
eikenberry wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet in general it would save money. Many things price ends in .99 to trick people into thinking it is cheaper. All those things would switch to .95 in order to preserve the trick.

You are forgetting sale tax which changes the final price (if there exists tax is your region)

That isn't the point; he's talking about the psychological difference we ascribe to seeing gas pegged at $4.00 a gallon versus a mere $3.99, since the first digit is the most significant.

Tax is always going to be the same no matter which station in town you use, so it's not a useful metric for comparison shopping.

(And actually gas stations take it a step further. The $3.99 you see on the sign isn't the actual price, it's $3.99 + 99/100 cents. If you look closely, you'll sometimes see the extra fraction of a cent in superscript.)

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#43

Post by nostromo »

will_brown wrote: post #25
nostromo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Most purchases are not made with cash and fewer people are using cash every year. You're basically saying that all consumers should pay more with every purchase so that the mint can make https://www.frbsf.org/cash/files/figure-3-2015dcpc-share-of-...

It’s actually the people who use credit/debit cards to make purchases who raise the prices on all goods/services for people who pay cash. The average merchant pays 2.3-3.5% per swipe, as a result prices are increased across the board and passed on to consumers, no matter if they pay with card or cash.

Fair enough. But it doesn't follow that we should increase prices further by rounding up (as per the comment I responded to) because credit cards charge a fee.

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#44

Post by user5994461 »

will_brown wrote: post #25
nostromo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Most purchases are not made with cash and fewer people are using cash every year. You're basically saying that all consumers should pay more with every purchase so that the mint can make https://www.frbsf.org/cash/files/figure-3-2015dcpc-share-of-...

It’s actually the people who use credit/debit cards to make purchases who raise the prices on all goods/services for people who pay cash. The average merchant pays 2.3-3.5% per swipe, as a result prices are increased across the board and passed on to consumers, no matter if they pay with card or cash.

It's actually Americans who raised price to serve Americans. In sane countries, the merchant fees are half of that.

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#45

Post by gcbw2 »

iamcasen wrote: post #34

Am I the only one who views pennies like an extreme annoyance? I would rather throw pennies in the trash than have them. They are literally THAT worthless. They take up far more space and weight than they offer in value. It seems like such a massive waste to continue using valuable metals to create something so worthless. Honestly, I think quarters should be the only coin we have.

Yes and no. No in the sense that you not the only one to see pennies as an extreme annoyance, they really are. But you are alone thinking the annoyance is easy to get rid of.

They are a very good reminder of the currency history/direction, and cheap if you think about the consequences of letting this go unchecked.

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#46

Post by zip1234 »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #5
mikestew wrote: post #3

So get rid of them. At one point in my life, a long time ago, things could be purchased for a penny. That time has long passed. Now pennies are used just to make the math work out. Round everything up a nickel ($0.05) and call it a day. Or look at it another way: inflation has made the nickel from my youth into today's penny.

What can you buy at a shop with just a nickel? I don't think I've purchased any item at a shop for less than ten cents in my thirty years; and it's rare to see anything that costs less than a quarter.

The camp store at a place we go every year still has candy that is 5 or 10c. They also have mini tootsie rolls that can be purchased for 2-3 cents (used to be 1)

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#47

Post by AceyMan »

I've joked to my pals that if the POTUS (a) eliminated the penny and (b) moved gov't to A-series(ISO 216) paper sizes (biz would then follow) at least then I could feel this presidency is a net (aggregate) neutral from a utility PoV.

A nickel is fine-grained enough for current goods pricing.

While we're at it, let's get rid of the dime, too. They are too small to fish for in pockets and purses. In fact, one famous US retailer has a policy of not stocking dimes in their cash room because the founder believed "dimes lose money."

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#48

Post by eli »

rrauenza wrote: post #40

Related: US nickels cost seven cents to make. Scientists may have a solution https://qz.com/1316940/us-nickels-cost-seven-cents-to-make-s...

Quartz is really owning this genre of badly misunderstanding what the mint does. The cost of manufacturing coins is an expense that has no bearing on the denominated value of the coin.

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#49

Post by gcbw2 »

Ensorceled wrote: post #4

Canada got rid of the penny 5 years ago and the paper $1 in the 80s. We also switched to metric in the 70s. We’re not that dissimilar from the US but they seem to have an inability to make these kinds of systemic changes.

don't put inflation in the same bag as metric system, please.

Zimbabwe could have invented the metric system, but they still have billion zimbabuwe dollar notes. One thing has no relation to the other.

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#50

Post by anoncoward111 »

chuckkir wrote: post #31
murukesh_s wrote: post #16

Wondering if someone is collecting them and extracting the metals out and selling for a profit?

There are people storing up closets full of the old full-copper pennies waiting for the day that the penny is discontinued and they can get scrap value that is higher than the face value. For now they aren't allowed to deface money so they're just storing them. I don't even know if it's worth the time spent sorting, but everyone needs a hobby.

Additionally, they're a real pain to melt down profitably, even if it were legal. It only makes sense at very large scale, which means only the companies that invest in big foundries will be making real money if it ever becomes legal to use copper pennies for copper.

A good analogy would be like collecting aluminum cans XD

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