The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
theatlantic.com
The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
1–10 of 151 posts
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#2> Many Americans—and many people who, though not American, enjoy watching from a safe distance as predictable fiascoes unfold in this theoretical superpower from week to week—find themselves now pondering one question.
This is way too much spite for an article about coins. Lord.
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#3Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#4According to Marketplace.org, pennies are treasure for some businesses now because the regional Feds aren't distributing them.
https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/11/13/businesses-face...
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#5Ask {some number of} engineers: You have just been made a free gift of six thousand metric tons of zinc. What do you do with it?
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#6Supposedly it cost gov 4 cents to mint 1. Does it have to be done with zinc tho? Why not plastic or some cheap material? Although you may be able to 3D print a penny at home (just like it being made from zinc can actually stop someone), but just like with a real one, its not like you will show up at your local bank with $1 million dollar worth to deposit.
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#7[flagged]
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#8> Many Americans—and many people who, though not American, enjoy watching from a safe distance as predictable fiascoes unfold in this theoretical superpower from week to week—find themselves now pondering one question. This is way too much spite for an article about coins. Lord.
[flagged]
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#9Supposedly it cost gov 4 cents to mint 1. Does it have to be done with zinc tho? Why not plastic or some cheap material? Although you may be able to 3D print a penny at home (just like it being made from zinc can actually stop someone), but just like with a real one, its not like you will show up at your local bank with $1 million dollar worth to deposit.
Even if they were free to mint they're still effectively worthless trash to most of us. I've been waiting for the penny to die for decades, and it would be nice if we had a functioning government that could handle these nonpartisan issues smoothly, but we haven't had anything like that in a long time, so the rip the bandaid off I say
Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies
#10The reason the government isn't warning people or slowing the withdrawal is because nobody cares. Any amount of money they can get for recycling is better than the loss now. (though the current admin is known to "chicken out" which probably explains them preparing to spin production back up if they need to)