Just to clarify the details regarding the cost and savings:
"Mint operations are funded through the Mint Public Enterprise Fund (PEF), 31 U.S.C. § 5136. The Mint generates revenue through the sale of circulating coins to the Federal Reserve Banks (FRB), numismatic products to the public, and bullion coins to authorized purchasers. All circulating and numismatic operating expenses, along with capital investments incurred for the Mint’s operations and programs, are paid out of the PEF. By law, all funds in the PEF are available without fiscal year limitation. Revenues determined to be in excess of the amount required by the PEF are transferred to the United States Treasury General Fund."
The mint makes money (both literally and figuratively). Any current losses from producing pennies are overshadowed by profits from paper dollars, commemorative coins, proof sets, etc.
The embedded image is of a penny on the planet Mars.
Get me Harriet Tubman $20s first please.
ReplyDeleteJust want to point out that France beat the US with putting an American Black (and a Polish) woman on their regular currency.
https://www.reddit.com/r/EuroCoins/comments/1bcbw8v/french_euro_coins_2024_10c_20c_50c_european/
A penny costs 3.7 cents to make; a nickel is 13.8 cents, a dime is 5.76 cents, and quarter is 14.678 cents (per latest USMint report).
ReplyDeleteAustralia stopped making 1c and 2c coins in 1990, and they were withdrawn from circulation in 1992. The 5c and 10c coins are likely to disappear in the next few years, according to the head of the Australian Mint. They aren't particularly useful any more. Only about 10% of transactions are still made with cash of any kind, so all coins and notes are probably on the way out.
ReplyDelete1. I don't care if the Mint is overall profitable; if a "product line" is as unprofitable as the penny is, there had better be a good reason for continuing it, and I have yet to hear one. In fact, it's not just the cost, it's also the waste and environmental damage related to mining. Pennies are literal trash, not worth picking off the ground. This change is long overdue, and the fact that Trump stumbled upon it is less proof that he has good ideas and more that Congress hasn't been doing its job for a long time, and Trump is just lawless enough to push through what many people have known is a good idea for a long time. (I find myself shocked to be on the same side as the president on anything. If only he'd use this lawless streak to do other things that an overwhelming majority of Americans support. Anyway...)
ReplyDelete2. I've known for a while that the nickel is also unprofitable, but if it's as bad as anon says, they should definitely go too. Why not knock a whole decimal place off of our transactions?
3. Why stop there? Coins have a longer life than bills; many nations have already gone to larger denomination coins, such as the 1 and 2 Euro coins. I say bring back the Sacagawea dollar.
Also, I would hope that the Mint would be profitable. They're literally printing money.
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