New bipartisan bill would let the U.S. Mint alter the metal content of coins to save money

CNBC ^ | 4-20-23 | Christina Wilkie

[NautiNurse]

Remember Hillary’s much touted “golden dollar” coins? They are made from Manganese and brass, and tarnish in the blink of an eye.

[Vermont Lt]

It’s already junk. There isn’t anything precious about the metals used today. Aside from having them literally degrade in your pocket, I am not sure it really makes much difference.

[SaveFerris]

Since the "mark" in Revelation 13 is that for a tattoo (Greek language) I'm estimating it will be a (scan-able, duh) barcode / QR code - enabling digital transaction, tracking, identification, etc.





====

Revelation 14:9-12 King James Version (KJV)

9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,

10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

====

(now this part just talks about them (eventually reigning) during the Millennial Reign of Christ)

Revelation 20:4 King James Version (KJV)

4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

[Vermont Lt]

If they could make them look like 1/4 inch washers, that would be cool. I need those to make my Adirondack Chairs. At least the coins would have a real use.

[SaveFerris]

I had to write software that broke down the barcode and often an additional barcode - it was quite interesting

There’s a check digit that lets the scan gun know if it scanned properly - that’s why you’ll sometimes hear a reject beep because the scan failed (poor angle, bar separation, etc.)

I also worked on the codes for the Zebra printers laying down barcodes (in that particular case - for shipping labels)

[newzjunkey]

It would effect every self checkout that takes cash which is perfectly fine with me. Publix grocery stores near me doesn’t seem to take cash at self checkout. I’m sure that saves them money in the long run.

[dinodino]

They should just switch to cardboard.

[Openurmind]

“During the Revolutionary War two things almost led to the defeat of the struggle for American independence. One was the inadequate system of constitutional government and the other was unsound money.

Congress issued about $240 million in “Continentals” — referring to money of the Continental Congress. It was understood that this money would be redeemed in gold or silver by the states after the war.

The states thought this was a great way to manufacture money so they issued vast quantities of their own paper currency.

Even the enemy, the British, saw what was happening so they printed up bales of counterfeit “Continentals” and used them to buy supplies from Americans.

Before long confidence in the Continentals had sunk so low that by 1780 they were not even worth one cent. No further paper money was issued by the United States for over eighty years.

The American market had already accepted the Spanish dollar as its basic unit of value. It was minted in Mexico and called a “piece of eight,” or a peso. To make change, they would cut it into eight pieces or bits and small change began to be called two bits for a quarter, four bits for fifty cents, and six bits for seventy-five cents.

In 1785, two years before the Constitution was written, the Congress accepted the Spanish dollar as the official unit of value for the United States and determined that all foreign coin would be evaluated in terms of the Spanish dollar.

In 1786, the year before the Constitution was adopted, the Board of Treasury fixed the silver weight of the adopted dollar at 375 and 64/100s grains of fine silver. The value of gold coins or any other coins was to be calculated in terms of the silver dollar of this weight and fineness.

It will be noted that three things had been established before the Constitution was adopted:

That the official money of the United States would be precious metals-silver and gold. That the basic unit of value would be called a “dollar” and consist of 375 and 64/100s grains of fine silver.

All other coins, both foreign and domestic, would be evaluated in terms of this official silver dollar.

All of this was already part of the law of the land when the Constitution was adopted. Therefore the Founders wrote the following provisions in the Constitution concerning money based on the above statutes which had previously been adopted as the official monetary system. They wrote:

“Congress shall have the power ‘to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures.’” (Article I, section 8, clause 5.)”

https://nccs.net/blogs/articles/congress-shall-coin-money-and-regulate-the-value-thereof

[Varsity Flight]

Insect money.

[SomeCallMeTim]

Why do we even bother with pennies? It’s exceedingly stupid. Frankly, I don’t think we need nickels anymore more either.

Round everything to 10 cents, and let’s be DONE with them.

[Petrosius]

First, eliminate the penny. Round every purchase to the nearest nickel.

Get rid of the nickel, too, and eliminate the decimal place for cents. Because of inflation, i.e. debasement, a penny in 1913 would actually be worth 30¢ today.

[vetvetdoug]

The mantra from the politicians is “for the children”. Well, IMO when they began to copper clad pennies over zinc in 1983, they created a novel poisoning for children and animals. I experienced it first in a Boston Terrier that swallowed several of the copper clad/zinc pennies that was going into autoimmune hemolytic anemia with severe damage to its liver. It died from heavy metal poisoning. Many children since then have been sickened that swallowed the pennies and a few have died. Politicians make these decisions based upon their personal pocketbook and not for the health and betterment of their voters.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Back in 1969, even the Baht of Thailand had a thin silver strip through each bank note showing it had actual value.

[DUMBGRUNT]

—”Because anything the govt does now is a crap shoot”

Well stated!

[1Old Pro]

Inflation has made the penny and nickel unnecessary.

[Drew68]

I used to have a coffee can for all my change. Every few months, I'd fill it up and take it to the bank. They'd dump it into a sorting machine and deposit everything into my account. Usually around $100.

These days it takes years to fill up that coffee can because I rarely use cash. Few banks will bother with counting a coffee can full of change. All I can do is take it to one of those machines at the grocery store and it keeps 15% for the trouble.

My daughter is learning about coinage in her kindergarten class. I doubt she'll ever handle any metal coins.

[rlmorel]

How far we have fallen. Dammit.

[ops33]

In the mid 70’s that was done in all the military commissaries and exchanges in Europe. It was simply too expensive to transport all those pennies overseas. Didn’t make all that great of an impact. They should also get rid of the dollar coin, .50 coin, and the $2.00 bill.

[SgtHooper]

Tin with holes.

[mware]

I put my change in a big gallon pickle jar. Counted it over the weekend up to $245. I put pennies in a different jar. Found 15 wheat head pennies last time I checked them.