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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

#91

Post by rbritton »

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.

Coins seem largely used anymore for tax. How common would any coin smaller than a quarter be without a percentage-based sales tax? Virtually every price is close to either the $.50 or the $.00 mark -- it's the tax that creates the need for more combinations of change.

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

#92

Post by ggg9990 »

dharmab wrote: post #73
ggg9990 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeez, at least throw it on the street to make someone’s day. Why the trash?

You'd be fined for littering.

Are you from Singapore? You would not get fined in the US, unless you were poor and/or black.

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

#94

Post by TylerE »

rbritton wrote: post #91
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.

Coins seem largely used anymore for tax. How common would any coin smaller than a quarter be without a percentage-based sales tax? Virtually every price is close to either the $.50 or the $.00 mark -- it's the tax that creates the need for more combinations of change.

Vending machines would be problematic.

Most soda machines are charging $0.60 or $0.65 these days. Rounding to either $0.50 or $0.75 would be annoying.

That said, I think it'd be totally reasonable to eliminate all coins other than the nickel and quarter.

(If I really had my way, I'd also eliminate dollar bills (replacing with a dollar coin that doesn't suck, replace with some more valuable and small.... like dime-sized pure copper. Then eliminate all bills except the $5, $20, and $100).

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

#95

Post by jcampbell1 »

I throw all pennies and nickels away or leave them with the cashier. I don't pay with cash all that often so it adds up to a few dollars a year.

One wonders how much retailers spend paying people to fetch pennies and nickels as change, or waiting for people to dig out the right number from their pocket or purse. I am sure it is an order of magnitude larger than $69 million.

Obama's only objection to removing the penny was Abe Lincoln. Let's put him on the dime, and Roosevelt on the $20, and Jefferson on the $50, and Grant on the $2. Andrew Jackson's descendants may have tears, a trail of tears.

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

#96

Post by greenshackle2 »

nostromo wrote: post #15
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.

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-...

Canada has already phased out the penny. Electronic transactions are not rounded. Cash transactions are rounded to the nearest nickel. It hasn't been a problem.

As a customer you can 'abuse' this by paying with card when the price would be rounded-up, and cash when it is rounded down. But it's not really worth the effort.

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

#97

Post by cableshaft »

extralego wrote: post #77
tetromino_ wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only works if you're lucky enough to not regularly need a pocket full of coins to e.g. use the washers in the next-door laundromat.

I wonder where these people live where they don’t experience homeless people begging for their change daily. I have absolutely no question about what to do with my extra change. This might top the list of most arrogant and out-of-touch HN comment threads I’ve seen.

Pretty much anyone who doesn't live in a major city doesn't encounter homeless people on a daily basis. I maybe see one or two a month, and they're usually holding a sign up at a busy intersection. Our downtown areas don't really have them, usually.

The only time I've encountered someone begging for change this year was when I went to larger city for a convention a few weeks ago.

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

#98

Post by yesco »

extralego wrote: post #77
tetromino_ wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only works if you're lucky enough to not regularly need a pocket full of coins to e.g. use the washers in the next-door laundromat.

I wonder where these people live where they don’t experience homeless people begging for their change daily. I have absolutely no question about what to do with my extra change. This might top the list of most arrogant and out-of-touch HN comment threads I’ve seen.

>I wonder where these people live where they don’t experience homeless people begging for their change daily.

As someone who lives in New England, I personally never see any homeless people unless I'm visiting a major city like Boston. Even then, the amount of homeless there is shockingly low compared to the amount I saw in Madrid when I visited Spain and strongly suspect this is due to the climate and population (I presume this is the same reason for California's homeless problem, though housing costs might be a larger factor).

Frankly the fact that you seem to assume everyone passes homeless people daily is very "out of touch" in itself.

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

#99

Post by paulddraper »

> Between production costs and shipping, they cost $0.0182 each, which totaled to $69 million (pdf, p. 9) in losses compared to their total value

Say what you want to about a various coins, but this is just stupid.

Does QZ think a coin is used just once? Coins average three decades of use. Reporting minting as if it has some sort of net loss or profit is idiotic.

(By that logic, how much revenue did the US Mint have last year from $20 bills?)

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

#100

Post by lb1lf »

cbm-vic-20 wrote: post #24
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-...

Non-cash transactions would still be commonly made in $0.01 increments. $53.47, for example. The difference is, if you wanted to purchase a dozen things that total $53.47 at a store, if you use cash, you'd end up paying $53.45 or $53.50, depending on the store's policy. Many may end up rounding down, what a deal! Or they'll choose to be greedy and trade in that goodwill for three measly cents.

Surely there must be a law outlining how rounding of sums will be done, rather than leaving it to the store owner's discretion?

(Here in Norway, we've gotten rid of the 5, 10, 25 and 50 øre (cents, if you like) coins since I was a kid; the smallest denominations coin now in use is the 1 krone.

Stores round like any mathematically inclined would -.01-.49 sums are rounded down, .50-.99 sums rounded up.

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