The U.S. Mint spent 2.06 cents to make and distribute each Lincoln cent in 2018 0

[GW]

https://www.coinnews.net/2019/05/24/penny-costs-2-06-cents-to-make-in-2018/

The U.S. Mint spent 2.06 cents to make and distribute each Lincoln cent in 2018 

 

[Revenant]

I suspect at some point we will lose the penny / cease production, in part because I think most people don't use them or bother with them anymore. I don't think most vending machines even accept them so they don't even have that in their favor. I'm honestly a little surprised they've made it this long. I can only assume the people that make the blanks have a good lobbyist.

[cladking]

The cost of making these toxic slugs is insignificant compared to the costs of using them.  Every new penny might cost only 3c each after they assign most of the cost to other denominations but there's a steep cost of counting, handling, and transporting them and this cost is primarily borne by the poor and disenfranchised.  Few rich people stand in line waiting for the little old lady in front of them to count out pennies.  Rich people don't get involved in penny drives.  Few would bother with hauling them to the bank even if they do use cash, which they generally don't.  

Every time a penny is used it is counted and then returned to the bank to be counted and rolled again.  Thank God most pennies are just tossed in the trash or the total cost would be onerous but each year at least 50 billion pennies change hands leaving dirty hands and the country another 500 million dollars poorer.  The penny is also displacing coins that might actually be useful like dollars costing untold billions in lost sales from vending machines.  

The penny is a fine symbol for what's wrong with our government and society.  Waste is perfectly acceptable if it's in small increments and other people have to pay for it.  

[Mohawk]

5 hours ago, gtw-123 said:

https://www.coinnews.net/2019/05/24/penny-costs-2-06-cents-to-make-in-2018/

The U.S. Mint spent 2.06 cents to make and distribute each Lincoln cent in 2018 

 

I'm not surprised.  I think it's time for the cent to go, right along with the $1 bill.  They're both extremely wasteful, in terms of production and use.  Other nations have done away with their versions of these inefficient instruments of commerce, and it's time that the US follows suit.  But, as a society, it seems like change is harder in the US than in some other nations.  I'm not sure why.  I have no problem if cents continue to be minted in limited numbers for inclusion in collector's sets.  That seems fine to me.  Kind of like how the Kennedy Half Dollar is handled.  Yeah, it's no longer used in commerce but limited production that is sold to collectors at a premium seems pretty harmless to me.  The Lincoln Cent could easily be handled the same way.  As for the dollar bill, the BEP could do the same thing I guess, but I doubt there'd be much demand for specially produced $1 bills for collectors.....I don't know any people who collect $1 bills as a series, though I'm sure there's someone out there who does.  I collect some paper myself, so please don't think I'm bashing on paper money.  I'm not.  I just don't see much collector demand for $1 FRN's.  Silver Certificates, yes, but not FRN's.   But, to my mind, producing $1 bills for collectors with such limited demand would continue to be wasteful....they'd likely never sell enough of them to actually be profitable.  But NCLT Cents......that could be a profitable venture.  If they only produced cents for collectors, they could go right back to making them in the old-school bronze alloy instead of this horrible, unstable conglomeration of a thin copper plating over zinc.  It could be a good idea......but because it is a good idea, it likely won't happen.  Very few good ideas are coming out of the US Mint or the BEP these days.  They've even managed to screw up a freebie W mint cent with their horrible packaging for it.  You'd think that such a thing couldn't really be screwed up too bad, but the good ol' US Mint sure found a way. 

Edited May 25, 2019 by Mohawk

[Revenant]

1 hour ago, cladking said:

  The penny is a fine symbol for what's wrong with our government and society.  Waste is perfectly acceptable if it's in small increments and other people have to pay for it.  

They don't seem to have a problem with it when it comes in big increments either.

10 minutes ago, Mohawk said:

I'm not surprised.  I think it's time for the cent to go, right along with the $1 bill.  They're both extremely wasteful, in terms of production and use.  Other nations have done away with their versions of these inefficient instruments of commerce, and it's time that the US follows suit. 

A few years back I got (through a friend) a few Euro coins, one of which is a copper-looking "1 EuroCent" coin. The date on the coin is shockingly small and my eyes aren't what they used to be but I think the date is 2015. Has the EU abandoned the 1 "EuroCent" coin yet?

[Conder101]

The EU as a whole has not, but several EU countries have and have stopped producing them.  They will still accept them, but they won't take the loss(?) of making them.

[Mokiechan]

12 hours ago, Mohawk said:

I'm not surprised.  I think it's time for the cent to go, right along with the $1 bill. 

I read an article recently that made a good argument to maintain the paper dollar.  The article based was based on a government report (possibly the congressional budget office?) that stated the assumptions of how long a dollar bill stays in circulation nowadays is quite different than years ago, before the advent of debit cards and e-commerce  ate into the everyday cash transactions at a brick/mortar store.  To summarize, and I wish I could find the article, Dollar bills actually last far longer than the couple of years normally attributed to them, and the initial cost of making more coins to cover the loss of the dollar bill vice the cost of replacing dollars every 6 years is pretty much a wash, even though the coins would last far longer. 

[Revenant]

1 hour ago, Mokiechan said:

I read an article recently that made a good argument to maintain the paper dollar.  The article based was based on a government report (possibly the congressional budget office?) that stated the assumptions of how long a dollar bill stays in circulation nowadays is quite different than years ago, before the advent of debit cards and e-commerce  ate into the everyday cash transactions at a brick/mortar store.  To summarize, and I wish I could find the article, Dollar bills actually last far longer than the couple of years normally attributed to them, and the initial cost of making more coins to cover the loss of the dollar bill vice the cost of replacing dollars every 6 years is pretty much a wash, even though the coins would last far longer. 

 Yeah. I think the original report that said coins would save more money was a GAO study and after about 10 years they reviewed it and changed their assumptions and conclusions.

[Mohawk]

5 hours ago, Revenant said:

 Yeah. I think the original report that said coins would save more money was a GAO study and after about 10 years they reviewed it and changed their assumptions and conclusions.

That's interesting to hear....but I still think dollar coins would be better.  They'd hold up better and they'd be more hygienic.  I'd also like to see polymer banknotes as well.....but those are just my thoughts on the issue.