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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

#121

Post by throwawayffffas »

brnt wrote: post #119
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 t…

I stored some 1 and 2 cent coins in 2005 betting they will become collectible in a few decades.

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

#122

Post by mint5 »

brnt wrote: post #119
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 t…

Throwing out cent coins doesn’t seem like an environmental waste to you, like throwing out aluminum cans?

Yes they’re impractical to carry and use but does anyone actually do that? Why not do the standard practice of accumulate them in a jar instead of throwing them in the trash like waste?

it’s easy to take them home and throw them in a jar until suddenly the jar is a Kg of metal that can be fed to whatever coinstar like machine is around.

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

#123

Post by spelk »

citrin_ru wrote: post #120
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.

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

In Canada, I've only ever seen these in grocery stores, operating for a fee (and they don't accept commissions) and a singular credit union branch (because they serve the underbanked at that particular location).

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

#125

Post by nancyminusone »

citrin_ru wrote: post #120
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.

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

My bank used to have one, but it merged with another bank and the machine got taken away "to serve a larger branch"

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

#126

Post by Symbiote »

brnt wrote: post #119
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 t…

At least leave them on the counter, drop them in a charity box, or leave them somewhere else where someone will pick them up.

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

#127

Post by Symbiote »

puppycodes wrote: post #28
dehrmann wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The newer pennies are not really worth the effort as they are mostly zinc. They're still worth $1 per lb., and you have to destroy them, anyway.

It's their mix with copper I beleive that makes them less valuable than their raw value in zinc if thats what your number is based on... because the cost of seperation from the copper is greater than simply sourcing other materials.

Someone producing brass (copper-zinc alloy) could presumably use them, as they only need to add extra copper.

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

#128

Post by arealaccount »

phainopepla2 wrote: post #9
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.

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

I have literally been throw them away for years, they’re annoying clutter

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

#129

Post by Symbiote »

FridayoLeary wrote: post #30

Several points: firstly i would assume every country has a process for disposing of bad and worn out notes and coins. If not i'm sure someone could work out how to profit from recycling dead pennies in true capitalist fashion. This leads on to my second point which is when the government has time they should get around to issuing a bill removing pennies (and maybe other smaller denominations) from legal tender. But t…

> endangered species

You have a probably-unintentional pun here. I'm explaining it since many people won't know the obscure word.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/specie (see 2).

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

#130

Post by ssl-3 »

wtcactus wrote: post #93
ssl-3 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me? I don't care at all. Last night, I paid $13.00 for a pizza that was priced at $12.99. This does not faze me at all. But there absolutely are people who complain about this kind of thing. I don't have to understand it in order to recognize it, and nor do you: Neither of us were born yesterday, and we've both been in line behind people with these proclivities at the checkout counter ourselves -- observing them argu…

But, that’s the thing. Hyperbole is the only way of doing this an issue. Like you said with your example, any minimally functional citizen won’t have any trouble with this.

It might be said that it is true that you can't reason a person out of a position that they didn't reason themselves into -- even with the use of hyperbole.

But I am not unreasonable. I arrived where I am rationally.

And hyperbole here simply injects misguided, disingenuous noise into our interactions where no noise is necessary at all.

Don't sell yourself short. If I can discuss it without going hyperbolic, then so can you.

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