Did I say penis? My bad, I meant pennies.
I was on the train today and with nothing better to do I was browsing the TIL sector of reddit and learnt a cool fact about th U.S. pennies
The U.S. government incurs a yearly loss of $110 million from them
Turns out that minting pennies costs a lot of money, with the US incurring a loss of over 100 millions to issue them. Each and every year. That's the total cost btw, after you account the metals, the labor, security measures, transferring, packaging etc etc.
That's a lot of pennies!
Especially for a coin many don't use or want:
According to a national survey conducted in January 2017 by the polling team of Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies on behalf of the Dollar Coin Alliance, there is broad support for eliminating the penny. The Hart/POS survey found that 77 percent of voters support suspending production of the penny. When told of the savings made by suspending the penny, support jumped to 84 percent source
To give you some more specific numbers, a penny in 2023 had a cost of 3.07 cents while a nickel had a cost of 11.54 cents! While in 2022, a penny had a cost 2.72 cents and a nickel $0.1041.
The same is was true for other countries and this is why they stopped minting them. New Zealand is such an example.
So why production of these coins keeps going on? Well there are many arguments but after doing some reading I think the only one that makes sense is the lack of political willingness, mostly due to pressure from the metal lobbies. And maybe some silly boomers that like their coins 😄
Funnily, even the melting value of some old pennies is worth more than 1 cent. Theoretically, you could make an "easy" buck collecting a bunch and destroying them for scrap but that is illegal. However, you are allowed to melt them for crafting stuff, make jewels or other artistic purposes.
Anyways, you can read more on the whole penny issue here
What about you? Do you like your penis pennies? I bet @pocketechange does! 😄
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I figured this out a while ago.
The main reason that we keep using pennies is the local sales tax formula. The formulas and charts calculate to the penny; therefore retail businesses must calculate their bills to the penny.
Municipalities enforce sales tax aggressively. Businesses get in trouble if they collect a different amount than they report on their tax records.
Retiring the penny would require co-ordination from sales tax agencies. Since these agencies are filled with small-minded bureaucrats, this is unlikely to happen.
!BEER
Not only will we "not" retire Pennies, but we'll be "adding" 99 Decimal Cents to our Electronic Coinage...
That makes sense actually!
They made it illegal when one copper penny became worth five cents, and then they started to limit the quantity you could take with you across borders where it wasn't illegal to melt them....
They really just need to ditch the penny, it really doesn't serve any purpose in the economy today...
Yep, I agree!
So I can't melt my money?
What about our rights?
😆
Old pennies in Australia are called "rare" and sold at over inflated prices. I really should just start buying from overseas and selling here
Haha, doubt you would make a profit with customs shipping etc
Yeah that's the problem with shipping international. I wanted to sell my business overseas but shipping is more than my product!
Not only are "We the People" gong to keep our Pennies, we're going to return back to the Old Copper Pennies, since Copper will be "under" Five Cents per pound... There was a very good reason to keep Minting Pennies and Nickels at a loss... This will all be made Public very soon...
I have lots of pennies, if you are right I am rich baby!
I didn't know it was illegal to destroy coins for scrap to sell for profit, but weird it's allowed to craft stuff out of them.
So would it be illegal to destroy coins to craft something and then sell it for profit too ?
No idea lol. Ask a lawyer:p
You love penis…. I mean Pennies ……🤣🤣🤣
!pimp
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Yes!
🤣🤣🤣
!pimp
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I don't think the cost of coining is a big deal, the penny is used in transactions very frequently for decades of use is where the value is whereas a banknote has a typical life expectancy of 4-6 months of circulation.
And, I do like physical coins.
Heh we have a pennies lover!
I remember hearing about the ban on scrapping coins for profit. I think its just a cost of doing business. We measure things down to the penny for prices.