4 ms·

It's impractical to eliminate the nickel and penny, while keeping the quarter and dime. The most practical way forward is to keep only the dime, but people wil

by axiolite 11mo ago

It's impractical to eliminate the nickel and penny, while keeping the quarter and dime. The most practical way forward is to keep only the dime, but people will be quite upset about the loss of the quarter.

toast0 11mo ago
It might be a little bit cumbersome, but I don't think it's impractical. With only quarters and dimes it's difficult to pay $0.05 or $0.15, but it's possible. If I owe you $0.05, I must give you a quarter and you give me two dimes. Or I give you a $20, you give me $19 in paper money, three quarters and two dimes. If I owe you $0.15, I must give you a quarter and you give me one dime. If I owe you $0.95, I can't give you $1 and get change, I'd need to give you $1.25 and get three dimes back. Or give you $2, get three quarters and three dimes. Owing $19.95 or $19.85 would be most inconvenient, since many people seem to live life with only $20 bills in their wallet and there would be a lot of extra change required. But, if we stopped minting pennies because they cost too much (3.7 cents), it's hard to imagine we're going to keep producing nickels when they cost 13.8 cents to mint. Dimes are much cheaper than nickels (5.8 cents), and quarters aren't too bad relative to face value (14.7 cents). Article with values [1], which I rounded to millidollars. I'd bet people would rather keep dimes than quarters, but rounding everything to quarters is a big step. I certainly would prefer quarters --- it's been a long time since arcade machines took dimes, and I only have quarter mechs (most of my games are on free play, and I can reuse the quarters I need forever, or add a credit button, but still). [1] https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/heres-how-much-the-us-spends-on-minting-its-coins-and-cash/4193546/ https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/...
- mulmen 11mo ago
  > But, if we stopped minting pennies because they cost too much (3.7 cents), it's hard to imagine we're going to keep producing nickels when they cost 13.8 cents to mint. Dimes are much cheaper than nickels (5.8 cents), and quarters aren't too bad relative to face value (14.7 cents). Coins aren’t disposable. Why does it matter if the production cost is higher than the face value?
  - axiolite 11mo ago
    > Why does it matter if the production cost is higher than the face value? You can buy pennies or nickels in bulk, melt them down, and turn a tidy profit. That's literally a "money printing glitch" Every penny or nickel that gets lost in the gutter, stored in a coin collection, used as a washer or shim, turned into jewelery, or sets around in jars unused, represents a financial loss to the Treasury. It's called seigniorage and melt value. Also see Gresham's law (hoarding).
    - mulmen 11mo ago
      No, you can't. According to [1] the scrap value of a penny is $0.0084771. The cost of production is $0.037. The relevant question is if a penny creates more than $0.037 of economic value before it is lost or destroyed. [1]: http://coinapps.com/base-metal/coin/calculator/ http://coinapps.com/base-metal/coin/calculator/
      - axiolite 11mo ago
        Okay, metal prices are low at the moment, but post-1982 pennies did have a melt value of approx 2c not long ago. And it shows nickels are still currently worth more than 5c.
        mulmen 11mo ago
        Sure, if the coins are worth more as scrap that’s a problem. So why isn’t that the justification?
  - toast0 11mo ago
    Look, the Mint has one job, to make money. If it's losing money, it doesn't make cents. :P But, while coins are durable, the Mint has been making billions of pennies every year since the 1950s, and yet retailers have trouble sourcing enough pennies to make change. They do tend not to be recirculated, even if they're not disposable.
    - 11mo ago
Dylan16807 11mo ago
The last time we got rid of a coin, money was worth something like 40x less. I don't want to exchange 8 dimes. Keep the quarters and just the quarters.
DerekL 11mo ago
Stop minting the nickel and start minting the half dime again (this time in base metal instead of silver).

toast0 11mo ago

It might be a little bit cumbersome, but I don't think it's impractical. With only quarters and dimes it's difficult to pay $0.05 or $0.15, but it's possible. If I owe you $0.05, I must give you a quarter and you give me two dimes. Or I give you a $20, you give me $19 in paper money, three quarters and two dimes. If I owe you $0.15, I must give you a quarter and you give me one dime. If I owe you $0.95, I can't give you $1 and get change, I'd need to give you $1.25 and get three dimes back. Or give you $2, get three quarters and three dimes. Owing $19.95 or $19.85 would be most inconvenient, since many people seem to live life with only $20 bills in their wallet and there would be a lot of extra change required. But, if we stopped minting pennies because they cost too much (3.7 cents), it's hard to imagine we're going to keep producing nickels when they cost 13.8 cents to mint. Dimes are much cheaper than nickels (5.8 cents), and quarters aren't too bad relative to face value (14.7 cents). Article with values [1], which I rounded to millidollars. I'd bet people would rather keep dimes than quarters, but rounding everything to quarters is a big step. I certainly would prefer quarters --- it's been a long time since arcade machines took dimes, and I only have quarter mechs (most of my games are on free play, and I can reuse the quarters I need forever, or add a credit button, but still). [1] https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/heres-how-much-the-us-spends-on-minting-its-coins-and-cash/4193546/ https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/...

mulmen 11mo ago
> But, if we stopped minting pennies because they cost too much (3.7 cents), it's hard to imagine we're going to keep producing nickels when they cost 13.8 cents to mint. Dimes are much cheaper than nickels (5.8 cents), and quarters aren't too bad relative to face value (14.7 cents). Coins aren’t disposable. Why does it matter if the production cost is higher than the face value?
- axiolite 11mo ago
  > Why does it matter if the production cost is higher than the face value? You can buy pennies or nickels in bulk, melt them down, and turn a tidy profit. That's literally a "money printing glitch" Every penny or nickel that gets lost in the gutter, stored in a coin collection, used as a washer or shim, turned into jewelery, or sets around in jars unused, represents a financial loss to the Treasury. It's called seigniorage and melt value. Also see Gresham's law (hoarding).
  - mulmen 11mo ago
    No, you can't. According to [1] the scrap value of a penny is $0.0084771. The cost of production is $0.037. The relevant question is if a penny creates more than $0.037 of economic value before it is lost or destroyed. [1]: http://coinapps.com/base-metal/coin/calculator/ http://coinapps.com/base-metal/coin/calculator/
    - axiolite 11mo ago
      Okay, metal prices are low at the moment, but post-1982 pennies did have a melt value of approx 2c not long ago. And it shows nickels are still currently worth more than 5c.
      - mulmen 11mo ago
        Sure, if the coins are worth more as scrap that’s a problem. So why isn’t that the justification?
- toast0 11mo ago
  Look, the Mint has one job, to make money. If it's losing money, it doesn't make cents. :P But, while coins are durable, the Mint has been making billions of pennies every year since the 1950s, and yet retailers have trouble sourcing enough pennies to make change. They do tend not to be recirculated, even if they're not disposable.
  - 11mo ago

Dylan16807 11mo ago

The last time we got rid of a coin, money was worth something like 40x less. I don't want to exchange 8 dimes. Keep the quarters and just the quarters.

DerekL 11mo ago

Stop minting the nickel and start minting the half dime again (this time in base metal instead of silver).