The cost of making money

[artbyjody]

I found this while looking at news...I simply was not aware that it costs more than the stated monetary value of of our coins:

1.26 cents each to make a penny

7.7 cents to make a nickel

New legislation is trying to make switches in the metal percentages to reduce the cost of coining coinage...

But, it explains even further that it takes a recession to get to actual cost saving measures even when it is in direct proportion to the costs of making the money that makes out world go round. Perhaps one day we will find that coins in general no longer use metals and instead use composites instead. After all - if we can issue paper money why not change how we handle coins as well...

House Passes Bill to Revive Steel Coins - AOL Money & Finance

[knothead]

Originally Posted by artbyjody

I found this while looking at news...I simply was not aware that it costs more than the stated monetary value of of our coins:

1.26 cents each to make a penny

7.7 cents to make a nickel

New legislation is trying to make switches in the metal percentages to reduce the cost of coining coinage...

But, it explains even further that it takes a recession to get to actual cost saving measures even when it is in direct proportion to the costs of making the money that makes out world go round. Perhaps one day we will find that coins in general no longer use metals and instead use composites instead. After all - if we can issue paper money why not change how we handle coins as well...

House Passes Bill to Revive Steel Coins - AOL Money & Finance

This qualifies for the "Stupid News Of The Day" thread.

[artbyjody]

Originally Posted by knothead

This qualifies for the "Stupid News Of The Day" thread.

I am likened to agree with that!

[CalebD]

Yeah! Let's go back to Wampum instead. I can get plenty of clam shells where I am and the purple parts sure are pretty.
I am sure that will help the fed out with their lowering of the interest rate 1/4 point recently. I can't wait till the interest rate gets below 0% so I can make money by borrowing it.

[NickL]

Originally Posted by CalebD

Yeah! Let's go back to Wampum instead. I can get plenty of clam shells where I am and the purple parts sure are pretty.
I am sure that will help the fed out with their lowering of the interest rate 1/4 point recently. I can't wait till the interest rate gets below 0% so I can make money by borrowing it.

Yeah but the money you make off it will be worth less than Iraqi denari with Sadam's face on it.

[Idiens]

Metal coins have a very long life, they generally get lost before they wear out. Whereas the one dollar bill is cheap to make, it lasts on average less than two weeks, so the banks have to keep on recycling them. This increases their equivalent production cost to be more than a 2 dollar coin would be, were there one.

In some countries, they take note of this and as inflation eats the value of money, they mint larger denomination coins and remove the lower value notes. The UK is now using 2 pound coins and has no one pound notes - although one pound is worth more than the dollar. The 2 euro is the largest coin (about US$3) and the 5 euro the smallest note, which one rarely sees, as they wear out too quickly, so one mostly sees 10s, 20s, and 50s.

I guess such a step is too radical for congress, replacing the one dollar note with a coin would be maybe just too unpopular. Steel coins are not unusual, the old German Pfennigs were steel with bronze faces, IIRC.

[Sometimesbrilliant]

As much as I like the idea of eliminating pennies and such I have to wonder just who would benifit from a rounding system to the nearest 5 cents. Somehow I don't think it would be us the consumer.

Dan