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Obama wants cheaper pennies and nickels
Yahoo ^ | Wed, Feb 15, 2012 2:34 PM EST | Chris Isidore

Posted on 02/16/2012 5:29:40 PM PST by perfect stranger

The U.S. Mint is facing a problem -- especially during these penny-pinching times. It turns out it costs more to make pennies and nickels than the coins are worth.

And because of that, the Obama administration this week asked Congress for permission to change the mix of metal that goes to make pennies and nickels, an expensive recipe that has remained unchanged for more than 30 years.

....

Just the administrative cost of minting 4.3 billion pennies costs almost a half-cent per coin by itself, leaving precious little room to make a penny for less than a cent, no matter the raw material used.

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; Reference
KEYWORDS: coins; economy; money
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From an economic view it seems to make sense to abandon them both.

The dime will be the smallest denomination, and prices will be written with only one decimal place.

How would that work out?

1 posted on 02/16/2012 5:29:53 PM PST by perfect stranger
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To: perfect stranger

Agree. You can’t buy anything for less than a dime anyway.


2 posted on 02/16/2012 5:32:31 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder (The right thing is not always the popular thing)
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To: perfect stranger

Typical political bull$hit. Stepping over dollars to pick up pennies.


3 posted on 02/16/2012 5:33:18 PM PST by onona (Dicky Betts is one ramblin man !)
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To: perfect stranger

You can’t make this stuff up - administrative costs?


4 posted on 02/16/2012 5:36:07 PM PST by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: perfect stranger
Just abolish them, like Australia, New Zealand (and the Netherlands and Finland) did: round off to the nearest 5 cents on all cash transactions. Here is a link to a charming video making the case.
5 posted on 02/16/2012 5:39:36 PM PST by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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To: perfect stranger
It turns out it costs more to make pennies and nickels than the coins are worth.

The value of the currency has eroded to the point that we can't afford to mint coins even in the cheap metals we currently use. So now we have to find even cheaper metals with which to denominate the ever-cheaper currency they represent.

Or, we could stop devaluing the dollar.

6 posted on 02/16/2012 5:41:40 PM PST by marron
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To: perfect stranger
OBAMA COIN, OBAMA COIN THE BARRY
7 posted on 02/16/2012 5:49:14 PM PST by FrankR (You are only enslaved to the extent of the entitlements you receive.)
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To: perfect stranger

We also need to do away with the short lived 1 and 5 dollar bills (the bills life span of a few months make them expensive). The Canadians figured out how make do with 1 and 5 dollar coins. What is about our government that they can’t make simple cost effective changes to our coinage?


8 posted on 02/16/2012 5:50:51 PM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: Telepathic Intruder

How about making them of plastic? Or paper? Or getting rid of all coins save the dollar? Like Mexico’s coins made of Aluminum


9 posted on 02/16/2012 5:55:40 PM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll)
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To: perfect stranger
We'd still say "20 cents" and use two decimal places (which are preprogrammed into a lot of things.

Would anyone say 2 decs?

10 posted on 02/16/2012 5:59:16 PM PST by Tanniker Smith (I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
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To: perfect stranger
We'd still say "20 cents" and use two decimal places (which are preprogrammed into a lot of things.

Would anyone say 2 decs?

11 posted on 02/16/2012 5:59:18 PM PST by Tanniker Smith (I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
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To: perfect stranger
We'd still say "20 cents" and use two decimal places (which are preprogrammed into a lot of things.

Would anyone say 2 decs?

12 posted on 02/16/2012 5:59:18 PM PST by Tanniker Smith (I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade; All
Hey ... just thinkin' out'a the box here, but ... why not do away with currency altogether?

I mean .. a tattoo made with invisable ink or something that could be scanned at the store?

Or maybe a micro-chip implanted in/under the skin?

Just a (frightening) thought.

13 posted on 02/16/2012 6:01:35 PM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: perfect stranger
SAY....didn't this kind of thing once bring down the Roman Empire? just sayin' any historians out there?
14 posted on 02/16/2012 6:06:49 PM PST by flat
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To: perfect stranger

This is not a laughing matter. The Roman Empire did the same thing, debased the currency by over spending (they too paid farmers govt subsidies to not grow grapes in order to keep the price of wine high) till at the end what were once pure gold and silver coins contained about .4% of those precious metals.

It’s one more glaring sign of our impending collapse.

Too many groups and individuals slopping at the public trough.


15 posted on 02/16/2012 6:10:06 PM PST by To-Whose-Benefit? (It is Error alone which needs the support of Government. The Truth can stand by itself.)
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To: perfect stranger

Hech hem.. choke.. I happen to *ouch* that I agree *barf* with him. Nickels are worth more by weight than they are worth..


16 posted on 02/16/2012 6:14:27 PM PST by goseminoles
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To: Tanniker Smith

We would still say 20 cents, but the decimal point would move to the right.
If every transaction ended with a zero, that’s a good reason to drop the zero.


17 posted on 02/16/2012 6:17:29 PM PST by perfect stranger (Nobama)
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To: perfect stranger

Third world countries that debase their currency periodically drop a couple of decimal places and re-issue “new” pesos or “new” dollars.

When your coinage isn’t worth coining, when your dime stores are now dollar stores, when $33 dollar ounces of gold are now worth $2000, its time to hit reset.


18 posted on 02/16/2012 6:21:15 PM PST by marron
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

I’m a huge proponent of plastic. Someday everything will be made of it. I never ask for paper bags:) And it’s easy to produce out of stuff that is almost worthless. Counterfeiting it would be no less difficult as well. In short, I have no problem with plastic money (a slightly different take on what is currently known as credit cards).


19 posted on 02/16/2012 6:22:49 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder (The right thing is not always the popular thing)
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To: perfect stranger

As if one needs proof of the debasement of the currency; this is it. The underlying metal is worth more than the printed face value.


20 posted on 02/16/2012 6:27:29 PM PST by 6SJ7 (Meh.)
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