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The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

theatlantic.com

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Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#111

Post by sowbug »

stevekemp wrote: post #108
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of our supermarkets have at least one self service machine that accepts change. Once a week I pour any loose change in then settle the rest with a card.

I guess this might depend where you are. When I lived in Scotland there was a "loose change" machine at the local Tesco. You pour in your coins and it would give you a receipt you could take to a cashier to get cash back - but the downside was that it charged you something like 10% of the total as a fee. Which I wouldn't pay. Edit: I just searched and the Tesco documentation says "There is a 25p transaction fee and a…

Same here in the US.

Back in the day, I'd sift through my jar of change and keep the quarters, which were good for parking meters and laundry. The rest went into the Coinstar machine. The fee for counting dimes, nickles, and pennies seemed OK.

The machine always had some weird foreign coins or subway tokens left over by the previous customer in the reject bin, which was potentially interesting.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#112

Post by sowbug »

pengaru wrote: post #49
jldugger wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Folks can take them to a bank FWIW my bank refuses to accept unrolled coins, long before this month's retirement of the penny.

It's odd how banks have largely stopped operating change counting machines. In my childhood we'd hoard loose change then make a trip to the local po-dunk bank serving my neighborhood surrounded by corn fields, and even there they'd take our bucket of loose change and dump it into a counting machine for free. It was a game to try guess the amount we'd get in paper cash... Now you have to pay for this service at a groc…

Fun fact: modern dimes, quarters, and half-dollars all have the same value by weight -- about $20 per pound.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#113

Post by tomjakubowski »

fortran77 wrote: post #92
JuniperMesos wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spend like an hour researching the most efficient way to sell six thousand metric tons of zinc for its scrap value, then do so. I don't need a bunch of zinc for anything I want to do and money is a generally-useful thing to have.

Zinc is very useful! I wouldn't want to imagine a world without zinc.

Thank goodness we still live in a world of telephones, car batteries, handguns, and many things made of zinc.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#114

Post by tocs3 »

jldugger wrote: post #34
JCM9 wrote: post #24

This is all a bit hyperbolic. Stopping minting pennies made sense and has precedent. There used to be half penny coins. Also, pennies are still legal tender. Folks can take them to a bank or other venue and cash them in. They’re not “trash.”

> Folks can take them to a bank FWIW my bank refuses to accept unrolled coins, long before this month's retirement of the penny.

I have talked to my bank and was told not to roll them, they just throw them in a machine to count them and deposit the money in my count. It is not uncommon to see people bring in a box of coins and the bank takes care of them.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#115

Post by addaon »

sowbug wrote: post #112
pengaru wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's odd how banks have largely stopped operating change counting machines. In my childhood we'd hoard loose change then make a trip to the local po-dunk bank serving my neighborhood surrounded by corn fields, and even there they'd take our bucket of loose change and dump it into a counting machine for free. It was a game to try guess the amount we'd get in paper cash... Now you have to pay for this service at a groc…

Fun fact: modern dimes, quarters, and half-dollars all have the same value by weight -- about $20 per pound.

This is true by design (silver coins had a weight chosen by value of silver), not coincidence. Also while nickels and pennies don’t match.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#116

Post by stevekemp »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #109
stevekemp wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess this might depend where you are. When I lived in Scotland there was a "loose change" machine at the local Tesco. You pour in your coins and it would give you a receipt you could take to a cashier to get cash back - but the downside was that it charged you something like 10% of the total as a fee. Which I wouldn't pay. Edit: I just searched and the Tesco documentation says "There is a 25p transaction fee and a…

I meant self service machines where you pay for your shopping. There are usually one or two that accept change.

Ahh, somehow I misunderstood. Thanks for the clarification!

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#118

Post by c22 »

dimensional_dan wrote: post #17
joering2 wrote: post #6

Supposedly 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.

The other option would be to rebase the currency such that a single penny was a meaningful unit of money again. One potential such way would be to issue new paper notes which represent the old note with a decimal place move such that $10 becomes $100. This has been done before but might not be a great idea for the USA.

I guess a reason to discontinue the penny is that it supposedly costs 3+ cents to mint one. I guess a nickel costs like 13 cents, though. I thought it would've been a better move to discontinue printing the nickel then just make all pennies worth 5 cents.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#119

Post by brnt »

JCM9 wrote: post #24

This is all a bit hyperbolic. Stopping minting pennies made sense and has precedent. There used to be half penny coins. Also, pennies are still legal tender. Folks can take them to a bank or other venue and cash them in. They’re not “trash.”

> They’re not “trash.”

I live in the Eurozone. We had 1 and 2 cent coins for a while. Where I live these were quickly deprecated and I think in most other Eurozone countries too by now.

I have thrown any of these coins straight in the bin soon as somebody gave them. Too much hassle and requires too big a wallet to drag along, for literally pennies.

When I first realized dealing with coins was inversely proportional to their denomination I threw out less than a Euros worth.

I do not understand anyone who doesn't throw out their pennies.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#120

Post by citrin_ru »

jldugger wrote: post #34
JCM9 wrote: post #24

This is all a bit hyperbolic. Stopping minting pennies made sense and has precedent. There used to be half penny coins. Also, pennies are still legal tender. Folks can take them to a bank or other venue and cash them in. They’re not “trash.”

> Folks can take them to a bank FWIW my bank refuses to accept unrolled coins, long before this month's retirement of the penny.

Coin counting machines exist for decades (and I hope still produced), why not all banks have them?
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