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The Metal in the Penny is worth 5 cents. Start hoarding those pennies

talkgold.com — Nickel and Zinc used to make each penny is worth 5 cents. Government worried about shortage in near future.

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  • royall64, on 10/12/2007, -3/+35"The richest people share one Zodiac sign more than any other. Click to find out what it is! "

    An ad smack dab in the middle of the post. And it's not even a working one!
    • bmartin, on 10/12/2007, -23/+9http://adblockplus.org/
    • Onychophora, on 10/12/2007, -4/+37Anyone else looking forward to no more $9999.99!!! ads?

      Here's to hoping marketing folks will decide that $9999.95 just doesn't have the same ring to it, and just saying $10,000.00, like normal people.

      /not likely
    • brokekneck, on 10/12/2007, -24/+29Well, still its a intresting read. Mainly cause the U.S. mint just made it illegal to melt penny cause they are worth more in metal form. This is cause our Dollar which is based on nothing is becoming worthless.
    • guyinthechair, on 10/12/2007, -1/+27Melting pennies, web 1.0 style:
      http://www.gizmology.net/stovetop.htm
    • bbobkins, on 10/12/2007, -3/+28In Australia we already have gotten rid of our 1c coin. And I can tell you *EVERYTHING* is $***.95 cents
    • masamunecyrus, on 10/12/2007, -9/+17@brokekneck:

      What are you talking about and why are people digging you up? The fact that Copper and Nickel are rising in price has nothing to do with US Dollars. It has to do with supply and demand. The penny as metal is worth more than its coinage because the metals it is made from are, combined, worth more than 1¢ -- that has nothing to do with the US Dollars.
    • zybch, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11bbobkins - You're totally full of *****! Everything is still $xxx.99 so the ***** can round up and steal 1c from you each time you buy an item/items.
      I just bought some chicken to have for lunch and its price was $4.04 to safeway can round it up and pocket that extra cent!
    • guyinthechair, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3@ masamunecyrus

      He is saying the dollar - and the coins that total a dollar - are becoming worthless, therefore not worth as much as the metal used to make them. If the dollar's value had not fallen recently, the pennies wouldn't be worth as much as 5 cents when you get their component metals. He's not saying that copper and nickel are rising because the U.S. dollar is falling.
    • nepawoods, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9@masamunecyrus
      "... the metals it is made from are, combined, worth more than 1ยข -- that has nothing to do with the US Dollars"

      So the metals in 100 pennies is worth more than 1 US dollar. So it has everything to do with the value of the dollar.
    • duality, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7@nepawoods

      Riiiiiight. Also, because my paycheck is small enough that I can't afford to buy a Ferrari, then my paycheck has everything to do with the market value of a Ferrari.
    • Borramakot, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9He means that because our $ isn't based on gold, and isn't backed by anything anymore, inflation could easily become rampant. The penny is now worth $.05 partly because metal is more expensive now, but partly because that nickel just doesn't buy what it used to.
    • brokekneck, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1@ masamunecyrus

      Ok, what is the US dollar based on?

      And the penny isn't solid copper. The penny is only plated copper. Cut one and half and find out. Now if our dollar was based off say.... Gold? A penny would not have any worth other than one cent in coined value. One US dollar is = to something like 39 cents. That's what it costs to produce a paper dollar. I strongly encourage you to research the subject more. You'll get pissed off like myself.
    • CraigJ, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Direct link to Reuters story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070122/us_nm/usa_pennies_shortage_dc_1
    • vikingcoder, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17The article is inaccurate.

      The current melt value of the US penny is $0.0095 - i.e. 95% of it's denomination

      http://www.coinflation.com/
    • cbergeron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2If anyone wants to see pictures of smelting pennies you can find them here:
      http://www.chrisbergeron.com/pennies/

      The pennies in those pictures were taken a few summers ago, when it was legal to do so. My favorite is:
      http://www.chrisbergeron.com/pennies/DSC02294.JPG

      The pennies that didn't melt were the copper ones, because the melting point is higher.

      Enjoy.
    • broomett, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5brokeneck...basing currecny on gold does not stop inflation. Gold is not inherently valuable either.
    • brokekneck, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2@ broomett

      Yes, broomett you may have a point. Still doesn't subtract the fact that our money is based on nothing at this point.
    • EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"Anyone else looking forward to no more $9999.99!!! ads?"

      That is unlikely to change if they did away with the penny. Gas stations are free to charger $2.129/gallon despite the fact there is no $0.001 coin (I just confused the hell out of Verizon). Vendors would further be unlikely to change prices because under proposed legislation to eliminate the penny only cash transactions would be rounded.
    • vikingcoder, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0@royall64

      It wasn't actually an ad, merely another story link embedded in the original source.

      http://channels.isp.netscape.com/whatsnew/default.jsp?story=20070123-1342 =>
      http://channels.isp.netscape.com/whatsnew/package.jsp?name=fte/richzodiac/richzodiac&floc=wn-nx
      Oh, you lucky Virgos. The rest of us may be asking to borrow your money. It turns out the that richest people in the world--and we're talking billionaire rich like Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett and Oracle's Larry Ellison--are Virgos.
    • Genesee, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4"The fact that Copper and Nickel are rising in price has nothing to do with US Dollars."

      disagree -- the fact that commodities are rising in price means, by definition, that the value of the dollar is falling with respect to those commodities.

      if it were only with respect to a single commodity, then the fall could be attributed to a shortage of supply of that commodity, or a particular rise in demand, etc.

      but the price of nearly every commodity has gone up in dollar terms, some dramatically (e.g., nat. gas, platinum, gold), in the past 2-4 years -- that is a signal of inflation, or dollar value debasement.

      run a search for long-term commodity charts, see for yourself
    • draebor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7All your base metals are belong to us...
    • bbobkins, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0zybch - It makes ***** all difference at the supermarket since you buy more than one item and the bill gets rounded up or down at the end.
    • mrknowitall137, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0We will never get rid of the 1 cent coin like Australia. The more different denominations of money there is, the stronger the economy and country appear to be. If anything they will add more.
    • screensnot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6@draebor

      The "All your base..." thing is so played out and not funny anymore.

      Until just the right context comes around, and then it's funny as hell all over again.

      Thanks for the laugh.
    • brundlefly76, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1If this is true in the united states I wonder what the impact is on other countries with an absurd amount of coinage like Spain - jesus you buy anything in Spain and you get handed a FISTFUL of coins for change, its hell.
    • kellytubby, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0@brundlefly76

      Not in this century.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Euro
    • Blaze312, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@vikingcoder

      You are exactly right.

      The penny is no where near worth $0.05 like stated here.

      As of yesterday pennies minted after 1982 are worth $0.0095110
      As of yesterday pennies minted before 1982 are worth $0.0175681

      To make the value worth $0.05 the price of Copper and Zinc would have to more then quadruple.
  • diggamer, on 10/12/2007, -9/+13All of the smart investors are jumping into gold, with good reason. I bet gold will hit $800/oz easily this year.
    • cbergeron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Sounds like a pump & dump. I bought gold last year and the year before, and I've never seen it trading as high as it is ($650/oz). Gold went up last year because of uncertainties with world relations. It tapered off, and it's since been steady just over $600. I _highly_ doubt it will go up to $800 this year. Might hit $700, but G is definitely on a downward turn this year.

      I still hold gold (actual ingots, not stock), so trust me, I'd love to see it go north of $800, but the investor in me doesn't see it happening any time soon.
  • thenativeraver, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1

    The Websense category "Illegal or Questionable" is filtered.?
  • neonic, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14Yeah, but isnt It illegal to melt the penny down into a form where you could sell the metal? I thought I read an article on digg like that before.
    • sideshowRAHEEM, on 10/12/2007, -3/+52*in a prison cell*

      Cell mate 1: What are you in for.
      Cell mate 2: I melted down 20 pennies
      Cell mate 1: bend over.

      But seriously your right it is illegal for anyone besides the the government( The Secret Service specifically) to destroy any US currency.
    • DoodlesMcPooh, on 10/12/2007, -5/+621. Collect pennies
      2. Take them across the border
      3. Melt them down
      4. ?????
      5 Profit
    • Philodox, on 10/12/2007, -2/+43I remember I got in trouble in grade 8 for drawing a mustache on the Queen on the Canadian $2 bill. Lousy jerks, I should be able to draw a mustache on whoever I want.
    • OUChevelleSS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Besides the defacing money law, yes they passed a new law making it illegal to smelt the coins.
    • digggggggggg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Even though destroying coin currency is illegal now, I still don't think that destroying bills is illegal since the paper value of a bill is far less than the printed face value. I don't see any logic in making destroying bills illegal, since it's essentially tearing up an IOU the Federal Reserve wrote out to us.

      Check out the first question on this site:

      http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2002/01/18money.html
    • Rikkochet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@philodox:

      Shoulda made a Spock $5 instead...

      http://www.flickr.com/photos/12037949663@N01/9944
  • Lokix, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7It is illegal to melt coins down to their base metals in order to sell them for more money.
    • EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Actually it's only been banned since December 14 of last year. The US Mint implemented new regulations at that time to prevent pennies and nickels from being melted down. Prior to that it was perfectly legal. http://www.usatoday.com/money/2006-12-14-melting-ban-usat_x.htm
    • EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Oops
    • Lokix, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3:P I only said it was illegal, not WHEN it became illegal.
    • EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yeah, I know, but it was a common misconception it was illegal before that. In fact it was only illegal to deface money for fraudulent purposes. As far as I know it's *still* legal to melt the quarter and dime down. I just thought I'd throw it out there.
  • Sell, on 10/12/2007, -1/+56I have a penny listed on eBay with a buy it now price of 4 cents if anyone is interested.
    • Akaji, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25Free shipping?
    • zweben, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Stick half a stamp on it and write the address in sharpie. See if it gets there.
    • floridiot2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+34You paid $0.35 to list that auction. :>
    • rypaintD, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14no silly, $20 shipping.
    • impulsiveboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Gotta spend money to make money.
    • hammydude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4he'll make it up in volume

      side note: why not just make it out of plastic? its cheap, easy, long lasting, look at casino chips, those last forever. You couldn't use it in vending machines as it is not metal, that was an argument like 20 years ago against getting rid of it, but come on, have you ever even HAD a vending machines accept a penny nowadays?

      side side note: won't gettting rid of the penny just make the nickel worthless, and the new penny?
    • EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"side side note: won't gettting rid of the penny just make the nickel worthless, and the new penny?"

      Would bringing back the half cent make a $100 only worth $50? Doing away with the penny might be a sign of inflation, but it certainly would be a cause.

      "look at casino chips, those last forever."

      No they don't, and they're actually quite expensive.
    • cbergeron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Good casino chips are made of Ceramic (or a Ceramic Plastic hybrid) if I'm not mistaken.

  • rugger, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6People always get excited about melting down thousands of pennies to profit, but no one ever mentions the cost of melting that penny into something that you could sell. I don't know how much it would cost but with the opportunity cost also factored in I'm sure you would hardly profit.
    • zombiedepot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Smelting metals is fairly efficient, but separating the metals would take a little more knowledge and effort.
    • merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14A 5 to 1 increase in value is pretty big, any way you slice it. If you can melt $200,000 worth of pennies into $1 million worth of metal for less than $800,000, you're turning a profit.

      If you're already in the business of coin collection and sorting (I'm looking at you, coinstar), then you've already got the hard part (collecting and sorting 20 million pennies) done.
    • kuribo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Just find a buyer willing to accept them in pre-smelted form.
    • shig, on 10/12/2007, -12/+1@Merreborn

      Haha, merreborn. That's breaking even. If you had $200,000 dollars worth of pennies, and melted them down for $800,000, that entire process just cost you $1,000,000.
    • MASTERPL, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1"Just find a buyer willing to accept them in pre-smelted form."

      Try Hugo Chavez or Kim Jong :-)
    • cbergeron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@merreborn

      Actually, the hard part isn't the collecting, it's the transporting. Smelting is easy (and fun!). But moving tons of pennies around will cost a pretty penny (no pun intended).

    • catalysis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@shig

      There is no way it costs $1M to melt down a couple truckloads of pennies.
  • CBTF, on 10/12/2007, -36/+3I've seen this on the front page at least 10 times.
    • WeeklyGeek, on 10/12/2007, -2/+46That means that you win at the Internet. Congratulations! You may leave now.
    • CBTF, on 10/12/2007, -24/+2Congrats to you as well. I never expected a generic sarcastic response. That one blew me away.

      I'm not one to point out dupes regularly, but this one has really made the rounds.
    • Salmar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Me too, but this one is the most ad filled POS yet. And I've got adblock plus going strong. Ads within the posts, on the top, on the side, on the bottom, and everywhere between... pathetic site
    • TheChihuahua, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14Why is it people always seem to be bitching about dupes, and yet I can honestly say I've never seen two stories the same. Perhaps because I don't spend my every waking hour on Digg?
      Just deal with it.
    • CBTF, on 10/12/2007, -16/+5Perhaps you have the memory span of a caterpillar? Just a thought.
    • pixelmixer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7wait... how long is the memory span of a caterpillar?
    • broomett, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Chihuahua...But Digg is not just for you. If you don't come here all the time, you shouldn't expect to see every story.

      The bottom line is, it hurts this site to have the same crappy stories on the front page every time. It is why NO ONE is offering KEvin Rose a dime for this site. And never will.
    • 98acura, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Perhaps you like being buried like a true troll?
  • Sethwm2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1There is just one issue I don't see the Government doing this any time soon. On the other hand I think that it might give the Government a boots and maybe the economy? This is a great thought though. I have a lot of pennys and wold be very pleased if they were turned into Nickles overnight. LOL
  • gute321, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4we should just get rid of pennies and nickels - pennies cost more than 1 cent to make and nickels cost more than 5 cents to make - and then we can just use one decimal place instead of 2.

    Think about it this way: why aren't we using 3 decimal places? Every time you buy something you're getting screwed out of 0-.009 dollars! I'ts inevitable that we eliminate the second decimal place because inflation will keep going up.
    • Ocelot13, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5what about a quarter. it has 2 decimal places
    • EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Get rid of the quarter too, and we'll just use 50 cent pieces and dimes. I'd even go so far as to do away with the one and five dollar bills and replace them with coins, saving even more money. That would leave us with four coins so it wouldn't freak out cash registers and such.
  • grabraham, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Inaccurate.
    From the article that the blog posting is from: [the * are mine]
    A *potential* shortage of coins in the United States *could* mean all those pennies in your piggy bank *could* be worth five times their *current* value soon, says an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

    last I checked .. earlier this month the current value was between 1.3 and 1.5 cents
    • 98acura, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i have a 5 gallon water cooler bottle, full... how much is that worth, any ideas?
  • Langford, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Maybe it's time to consider making coins out of plastic.
    • EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I think it's highly unlikely that a plastic penny would save enough money to offset decreased longevity. Doing away with the penny is a much better option. Even if pennies were free to make they're still annoying.
    • BigKitty, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Plastic coins are no good in vending machines designed to use metallic coins. You could adjust these machines or redesign them slightly to accept metallic coins with different sizes or compositions. But plastics don't ring when they strike a hard surface, don't bounce the same way as metals, don't conduct electricity, and don't have enough weight and density to overcome air and friction resistance as readily, which would make them likely to jam the mechanism. Plastic coins would be prone to scratches and gouges, and could melt or ignite if they get caught next to a hot surface.
  • Razster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Just try not to Melt down ones that are actually worth more than $100, please!
    1909-S can be worth any where from $500 to $1,000.00 DO NOT MELT!
    • geonet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You mean a 1909-S VDB. A plain 1909-S isn't worth that much.

      Also, hoard the pre 1982 pennies as they are mostly copper.
  • pruppert, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0@ gute321

    Just take 'em both away. Dollar increments. That makes more sense.
    • toby34a, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I, for one, would not like to pay $1.00 for a gumball at the mall. Just my two cents (which will be worth $0.10 soon...)
  • ftblguy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26Old. And untrue.

    According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cent_(United_States_coin) ...
    Mass of a penny = 2.5 grams
    Composition of a penny = 97.6% zinc; 2.4% copper.

    So how much metal is in a penny?
    Zinc = 2.5g * 0.976 = 2.44 grams of zinc.
    Copper = 2.5g * 0.024 = 0.06 grams of copper.

    According to http://www.metalprices.com/ ...
    Price of zinc = $3.808 per kilogram, or $0.003808 per gram.
    Price of copper = $5.672 per kilogram, or $0.005672 per gram.

    Worth of a penny = ($0.003808 * 2.44) + ($0.005672 * 0.06) = $0.00963184, less than one cent.

    Now if you want to talk about older pennies (1962-1982), they were composed of 95% copper and 5% zinc and weighed 3.04 grams...
    So that's 2.888 grams of copper and 0.152 grams of zinc. Which is worth...

    Worth of an old penny = ($0.003808 * 0.152) + ($0.005672 * 2.888) = $0.016959552, not quite two cents, definitely nowhere close to 5 cents like the title of this story claims.
    • JJsays, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Then a penny should be worth 2 cents
    • RichesToRags, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Sounds like a job for the Mythbusters............
    • konig12, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You also have to consider the fact that the older pennies have an increased value because they are rare. Even if they are worth more than one cent, you could fetch more at auction then you could melting them down.
    • sphinx13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2look here for all us coin values: http://www.coinflation.com/
    • Blaze312, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@konig12

      Most older pennies aren't that rare.

      Generally pennies for 1909 - 1958(Wheat Pennies) sell for around 3 cents per penny. Many coin stores allow you to buy 100 of them for $3

      However there are some dates that are particularly rare. Such as 1909-S VDB, 1914-D, and the 1955 Double Die.
      Each fetching over $500 depending on condition.
  • dognose, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The value of the metal thing is untrue. However, if they "rebase" the penny and make it worth $0.05 cash, that'd really get people hording them before the switch over. It's probably a better idea to just phase them out and melt them down.
  • steve693, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Regardless of their value, I'll continue to hurl to the parking lot ground any pennies I receive as change in protest of their uselessness.
    • akinder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The homeless in your area commend you, 2 pennies will buy a whole pack of ramen!
  • GleepGlop2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Reminds me of that granny who paid for a car entirely in pennies... She could have had 5 cars! I bet those car dealers were laughing their asses off!
  • Moosington, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Eh, we'll be using the Euro in no time anyway, might as well get your take from those pennies while you can.
  • RichesToRags, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Good God, that forum has more ads than Vegas has lights, just as gawdy too.

    Places like that are the inspiration for AdBlock.
  • Wonderkind, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Buried as Spam.
  • SpaceNinjaDino, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hoarders do not need to melt down the copper to resell them at a profit. In time they will sell for greater than face value much like the old 90% silver coins (they sell for roughly 10x their face value).
  • Brandoskey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0didn't any of you guys melt pennies in middle school science? we did, you used a bunsen burner and one of those metal pipes you blow in, forget what they're called, basically they just increase the temperature of the flame so the penny will melt, i believe a penny actually melts faster than an icecube, at least that's what mr. wizard taught me.
  • buftar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I'd rather just do what I normally do with my pennies. Stick them up my ass and spend them in the restaurants my enemies frequent. That's worth more than five cents, let me tell you!
  • dinkumator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21st page of this is filled with ads. please bury this as the spam it is.
  • Erfman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2***** the Penny! If someone makes ten dollars an hour and needs to take about a minute to deal with the pennies in a drawer then they were paid about 17 pennies to do it. Pennies are a threat to the American way! Nonetheless. I bet the Government will just out-source pennies to China and make them out of plastic.
  • RareSaturn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Australia got rid of the 1c & 2c coins years ago. 5c is the smallest denomination. Everything is either rounded up or down.
  • evilpettingzoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I melted one before, all you need is a butane torch and it goes down easy. Plus the nice copper coating will usually gather into a little ball and the zinc will turn to liquid. Its pretty funny.
  • SpazticChips, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've known this, and the Federal Bank has outlawed the melting of coinage. Marked as WTF THIS IS ILLEGAL.
    • MeltedUFO, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1By your logic shouldn't you have buried the HDDVD AACS bypass too? It had illegal things suggested in the article.
  • WraTH017, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's nice to think that you can make 5 cents out of every penny you melt, if it weren't ILLEGAL. Sure, if you want to pay a fine that starts up at ten thousand dollars, go ahead and see if you can horde enough pennies to make up for the difference. I'm sure you could walk into any bank and ask them to lend you two hundred thousand pennies without arousing any suspicion.

    If you're going to engage in illegal activities of this sort, might as well just jack up some telephone lines. Copper fetches a pretty penny... which is now worth 5 cents.
    • akinder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A guy that I graduated with died after climbing a pole and trying to strip live wires for the copper. He wasn't the smartest one in the bunch.
    • BigKitty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1These idiots steal copper wire and cable, and get a small fraction of what it's worth, so that they can buy drugs or whatever.

      Naturally, this causes a power or phone service outage, until the repair crews can manage to get it fixed. It costs a lot more than the cost of the copper to restore service, and that gets factored into what we all have to pay for utilities.
  • 6cyV7dpXUrZomP3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this is ***** spam... i've never seen more ads on a single page.
    • CalipsoII, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was hoping someone would notice that, that site made my head hurt.
  • 1337diggster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1the 1982+ year pennies are only woth 95% of 1cent because they are made of 97.5% zinc. So basically you aren't making any money. The pennies that are worth something are the pennies that have 95% of copper in them. Those pennies are worth 175% of their face value, or about 1.7 cents. Also you don't have to melt the pennies down to make money. You simply sell the pennies for slightly lower than their metal value such as 1.5 cents and have the person who melts them done take the other .2 cents profit.
  • wonderworm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2One day the government will wake up and realize that a penny is worthless and should be discontinued. Digital transactions could still keep a record of pennies if they wanted to, but all physical transfers of money should be rounded up to the nearest nickel.

    This one move would probably save the US billions in penny manufacturing, transport, management and counting costs plus the lost productivity and time for private industry to have to handle these worthless pieces of brown junk.

    How many kids did I just send to college with the savings from my idea?

  • TheLD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hasn't anyone realised that by the time you have bought all of the equipment, energy and 1c coins you will probably be making a loss
  • thenemo1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Y2DBack during the Arab oil embargo 1974-1975 pennies were actually mostly copper now they are mostly zinc.
    This was done to prevent the melting.
    Why do people believe anything they are told if they think they can get something for nothing .
    The Shaw of Iran had a solid gold toilet in his Boeing 707 want to buy it?
    Hell someone is probably selling it somewhere.
    Error in entering captcha (sorry)

  • vossman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sadly it probably never be eliminated...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efforts_to_eliminate_the_penny_in_the_United_States
  • buzneg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1THAT's what the penny's for poor drive in school was for!

    /part sarcasim
  • redrum781, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So is it realistically possible to capitalize on this?
  • BigKitty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The problem with pennies is not so much the cost of metals in them, but the cost of minting them, transporting them, counting them and putting them in rolls, keeping an inventory of them on hand for making change, and so forth. They accumulate in purses or pockets, even though a quantity of pennies sufficient to buy anything would be too heavy to bother carrying, and few places care to accept a big pile of pennies for payment.
  •  

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