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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

#101

Post by paulddraper »

minikites wrote: post #81
eli wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The point of currency is to facilitate commerce and pennies don't do that. You can't use them in parking meters or vending machines (for example) so we're spending tax dollars to create objects with no function.

Those are valid points.

As the parent said, the manufacturing cost is orthogonal.

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

#102

Post by greenshackle2 »

mattnewton wrote: post #60
athenot wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, the Euro is coins from €0.01 to €2, then paper from €5 to €500. I find dollar bills even more annoying than pennies.

Dollar bills take up almost no space, and are easier to handle than coins. Aside from durability, why would you switch?

I find it easier to manage a jar of coins on my nightstand, than a wad of cash with a bunch of half-crumpled 1-dollar bills. It's not like I need to carry a bunch of small denomination currency anyway.

The 1 and 2 dollar coins are larger and are made of different materials so it's not hard to pick them out of the jar if I want to use to pay for coffee or something.

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

#103

Post by protomyth »

How about we forget the insane idea we need to divide the dollar into 100 parts and back it off to 10 making the dime the new penny and getting rid of the whole 1 and 5 cent steps.

So, it gets rid of of the penny, nickel, and quarter. We could save a lot of money just by converting the 1 and 5 bills to coins.

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

#104

Post by monocasa »

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.

Apparently when we got rid of the half penny, it was worth about what a dime is today.

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

#105

Post by rrauenza »

eli wrote: post #48
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.

I mostly thought the metalurgy was interesting -- and that specific conductivity is apparently important.

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

#108

Post by macintux »

djrogers wrote: post #85
curun1r wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then if we could pass a law mandating that prices be displayed inclusive of sales tax, that'd be great. One of my favorite parts about going to Europe is being able to add up prices in my head and have it match up exactly with the final total. The US system is nonsensical and shouldn't be used to justify other nonsensical policies like the continued use of the penny.

The problem with all prices being shown inclusive of tax is that the amount of the tax becomes forgotten over time. By having tax added and called out on the receipt at the register, everyone is reminded many times per day how much sales tax they're paying.

Additionally, sales tax is sometimes not required, either because the product or the reason for purchase is exempt.

Computers can deal with the latter, signage can't.

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

#109

Post by adventured »

mikestew wrote: post #53
nostromo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So do what most people do: don't pay with cash. Asking everyone to pay more so you're not inconvenienced with change, even though you're asking for it by using cash, is quite self-centered. If you don't like pennies, then just give them away as soon as they're handed to you.

So do what most people do: don't pay with cash. You mean tack on 2-3% processing fees on every transaction? is quite self-centered. * ahem * . All I'm asking is $0.04/transaction at most , regardless of transaction size. But because you don't want to use cash, you'd like much more than four cents tacked on?

> So do what most people do: don't pay with cash.

> You mean tack on 2-3% processing fees on every transaction?

No. The price you're paying at the store doesn't change for you just because you pay without cash. If you walk into Walmart or Target or a local convenience store, they're not changing all the prices at the POS if you pay in cash vs card. And your paying with cash isn't having a meaningful impact at reducing prices as a share of payment, cash is too far in the minority at this point and that's going to get worse.

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

#110

Post by someone7x »

minikites wrote: post #84
Finnucane wrote: post #2

The point of the mint is making money, not making money.

Pennies are not effective as currency. You can't use them in places you typically use coins (parking meters, vending machines, automated road toll collection) so we're using tax dollars to fund the creation of useless zinc circles.

Exactly this. Pennies not being accepted in so many use cases requiring exact change is just ridiculous.
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