The penny costs 1.5 cents to make

17 Comments on The penny costs 1.5 cents to make

1. WTF.

2. Reminds me of the old slogan: “Chasing nickels with dollars”

3. But that’s not the worst – the nickel costs a dime to make. A dime costs four cents and a quarter costs eight cents. Ever wonder why there are so many commemorative quarters? Tour the Denver mint and find these fun facts for yourself – by the way, the Mint takes no tax dollars. It buys the raw materials and sells the coins at face value to the guv’mint – making a profit in the process.

4. A penny saved is worth one and a half cents. Do you think they would give us back the difference in change? Nah, who am I kidding!

5. “if the government were to take over the Sahara Desert, there would be a shortage of sand in five years.” – Milton Fiedman / Reagan with variations.

6. Continuing to make pennies makes about as much sense as the government running (ruining) health care.

7. I keep all pennies 1982 and before. They are actually worth 1.6 cents in copper value; current market.

   There have been times in the past few years where copper was expensive enough pushing the pre-’82 pennies to over 3 cents and the current nickle to 6 cents.

   I also collect the commemorative ATB quarters in sealed boxes from the mint; on average they are worth double value in collector terms; some of the first years are worth a lot more.

   But mainly I collect pre-30’s American gold and pay thousands for $20 face value high grade coins.

8. I pick pennies up that are thrown away. Especially the older ones. The new ‘plastic’ ones stick out like sore thumbs, so easy to ignore.

9. When I ask a liberal, ” a penny for your thoughts” am I over paying?

10. a penny is worth a whole lot more than one cent – it can be worth one cent a million different times, until somebody decides to hide it in a coffee can…….i really don’t understand why this concept is so hard to grasp for some people…..

    abolishing the penny just means you get less of your change back – or did you think they were going to give you a nickel instead??????

11. Canada phased out pennies for this reason.
    They round everything up or down to the closest nickel.
    Plus, their “bills” are made of plastic and virtually indestructible.
    They must be saving a fortune.
    Sheesh, if the Canucks can figure this out…

12. I use very little cash, $100 in twenties will last me weeks to over a month. When I do spend cash, I exit out of the worthless clad coinage almost as quickly as I gain it. I’m the kind of guy that will hand a cashier $13.57 for an $8.57 purchase. This always creates confusion, because nobody can count change anymore.

13. @eternal cracker p: Not all 1982 cents are copper. They changed to zinc in the middle of the year. The only way to be sure which is which is to weigh them (brass 1982 cents weigh 3.11 grams whereas the zinc cents come in at just 2.5 grams). And of course you know that the U.S. does not actually make/use “pennies”. The penny is a British coin.

    🙂

14. That’s it. I’m selling my house, liquefying all my assets, and investing in pennies.

15. The post 82 zinc pennies disintegrate in the ground. They get holes in them on the edges and the flat surfaces. I metal detect and throw most of them away that I find. Some can be salvaged on a buffing wheel. I wouldn’t mind seeing them go away.

16. When I give the government my two cents it costs ten one cent to hear it. No wonder they don’t listen.

17. http://i.imgur.com/WdPAwpV.jpg

    We might as well eliminate all current cash denominations,and replace them:

    $1 coin = new penny,
    $5 coin = new nickel,
    $10 coin = new dime,
    $25 coin = new quarter,
    $50 coin = new half-dollar coin,
    $100 coin = new dollar coin,
    and add new $500, $1000, $5000, and $10,000 paper notes.