02-07-2004, 09:45 PM
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#12 (permalink)
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Guest
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Hmmm- I was going to post about hearing something of them changing the material of the penny, but check this out:
http://coins.about.com/library/weekly/aa073001a.htm
Quote:
According to the U.S. Mint, the cost to produce a copper-plated zinc penny is about 0.81 cent. The Mint produced a total of 14,277,420,000 pennies last year.
Legislation that would end production of the penny for general circulation has been recently introduced in Congress. The bill, known as the Legal Tender Modernization Act, was introduced July 17 by Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Arizona. In introducing the proposed legislation, Kolbe commented as follows:
"The U.S. lags far behind other countries when it comes to the structure of our coinage. My bill will bring about a rounding system on any cash sales transaction which will be applied to the total cost of all goods purchased including tax. It favors neither the consumer nor the retailer because the probability of rounding up or down is 50 percent either way - it would all come out even in the end. Pennies have virtually no value. Most people stash away or toss aside pennies instead of reusing them thereby forcing the federal government to produce billions more every year at little, if any, profit. If we reduce the use of the penny, we will save businesses money and decrease the time we spend at the store."
As suggested above, proponents of the bill argue that the elimination of pennies from cash transactions would save consumers and retailers time and money. In this regard, the National Association of Convenience Stores estimates that between 2 and 2.5 seconds are spent handling pennies during each cash transaction. In addition, many stores are charged up to 10¢ per roll over face value when purchasing pennies from banks. All of these costs must be passed on to consumers.
While the bill would eliminate any further production of pennies for general circulation, it would permit the cent denomination to be struck by the U.S. Mint for inclusion in Uncirculated Mint and Proof collector sets.
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