# A penny saved..is a penny earned?



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Most of you have heard that the feds haven't been minting pennies for a while (cost to mint per penny is 1.5c), and as of Feb 4, 2013, they stop distribution to banks. They are hopping that retailers can figure out the best method for fairness in pricing,
after the gov't gets their full tax on the sale of course.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...to-appease-retailers-concerns/article4450036/

Cost of scrapping the penny will save the gov't 11 million a year.....however, once the coins (from piggy banks, charity
boxes etc) are returned by the banks to the gov't to dispose of the pennies..it is estimated it will cost the fed gov't
and taxpayers..7.3 million a year (over 6 years) to dispose of them permanently.
So lets do the math here...11 million over 6 years to produce them = 66 million
7.3 million over 6 years to dispose of them = 43.8 million
a net saving of 3.7 million per year... and 22 million for the next 6 years.

I hope that they re-invest the savings into something meaningful.


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## Guigz (Oct 28, 2010)

I was just talking about this this morning with the wifey.

I think that they should have eliminated the half-dime (how do you call a 5 cents coin?) at the same time.

Eliminating the penny introduces a +/- 2 cents "rounding error". Eliminating the 5 cents coin would introduce a +/- 5 cents "rounding error". Not much difference between paying 2 cents extra or 5 cents extra.

Here is an idea:

Step 1 - Introduce a virtual coin pouch device that would let merchants deposit any change from a transaction easily but not take away from it (think sort of like a pay pass or swipe kind of thing). Anything over 5$ gets deposited in your bank account automatically.

Step 2 - Eliminate all the coins. 

Step 3 - Profit!!!


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

carverman said:


> ... I hope that they re-invest the savings into something meaningful.


 ... yeah, like a big fat year-end bonus for some government official(s) at the Mint who came up with this idea. Why can't they just stash the pennies in a gigantic piggy-bank after a few years of collecting and then melt /sell the copper or whatever re-useable metals? 

*Guigz:*


> Step 1 - ....


 ... can't get pass this first step ... business merchants (especially smaller) are already having a hard time keeping up with the expense of having POS terminals for credit cards.... last I heard for a POS machine to check out your bill at a restaurant already is a few grands ... for this convenience, the costs will surely be passed on to consumers.


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## Guigz (Oct 28, 2010)

I don't know about this. How much do you think the average business spends on:

1) Keeping change in the register ( having staff get the change, delivery fees or bank fees)

2) Training staff so that they can count change efficiently

and if not 2) then:

3) Loss of efficiency due to staff needing to count change


Maybe all of the above is not significant, but I think that the cost of those devices would still be meaningless compared to all the other business expenses. Except maybe for hot-dog stands or similar "cart sized" businesses.


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## jcgd (Oct 30, 2011)

If you are ever looking for cheap weights... Pennies are relatively cheap compared to any other metal you can readily buy. I'm talking on a hobbiest scale.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Beaver101 said:


> ... Why can't they just stash the pennies in a gigantic piggy-bank after a few years of collecting and then melt /sell the copper or whatever re-useable metals?


There hasn't been any significant copper in the penny for many years now. The core is some kind of zinc "white metal" with electroplated copper on the surface. While zinc is primarily used in corrosion protection, it really doesn't have that much value on the recycled metal market.


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