Inflation: Another sign...

[azmrb]

House Passes Bill to Revive Steel Coins

By LAURIE KELLMAN,
AP
Posted: 2008-05-09 07:06:19
WASHINGTON (May 8) - The House voted for cheaper change Thursday, the kind that would make pennies and nickels worth more than they cost to make and save the country $100 million a year.

Coin: Penny (1 cent)
Composition: 97.5% zinc, 2.5% copper plating
Weight: 2.5 grams
Intrinsic value: 1.26 cents

Coin: Nickel (5 cents)
Composition: 75% copper, 25% nickel
Weight: 5 grams
Intrinsic value: 7.7 cents

Coin: Dime (10 cents)
Composition: 91.67% copper, 8.33% nickel
Weight: 2.268 grams
Intrinsic value: 4 cents

Coin: Quarter (25 cents)
Composition: 91.67% copper, 8.33% nickel
Weight: 5.670 grams
Intrinsic value: 10 cents

Coin: Presidential dollar ($1)
Composition: 88.5% copper, 6% zinc, 3.5% manganese, 2% nickel
Weight: 8.1 grams
Intrinsic value: 16 cents
Source: US Mint, AP, Coinflation.com


The unanimous vote advances the legislation to the Senate, but its prospects are muddled by objections from the Bush administration and some lawmakers.

The bill would require the U.S. Mint to switch from a zinc and copper penny, which costs 1.26 cents each to make, to a copper-plated steel penny, which would cost .7 cents to make, according to statistics from the Mint and Rep. Zack Space, D-Ohio, one of the measure's sponsors.

It also would require nickels, now made of copper and nickel and costing 7.7 cents to make, to be made primarily of steel, which would drop the cost to make the five-cent coin below its face value.

Advocates say that such actions would push back against surging metal prices and save taxpayers about $1 billion over a decade.

But even the Mint opposes the House-passed measure.

The legislation directs the Treasury secretary to "prescribe" - suggest - a new, more economical composition of the nickel and the penny. Unsaid is the Constitution's requirement that Congress have the final say.

The administration, like others before, chafes at the thought that Congress still clings to that authority.

Mint Director Edmund Moy said this week that the bill as "too prescriptive," in part because it does not explicitly delegate to the Treasury secretary the power to decide the new coin composition.

The bill also gives the public and the metal industry too little time to weigh in on the new coin composition, he said.

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., is expected to introduce another version of the legislation in the Senate.

In 2007, the Mint produced 7.4 billion pennies and 1.2 billion nickels, according to the House Financial Services Committee.

Other coins still cost less than their face value, according to the Mint. The dime costs a little over 4 cents to make, while the quarter costs almost 10 cents. The dollar coin, meanwhile, costs about 16 cents to make, according to the Mint.

The House bill is H.R. 5512.


What's next? Plastic coins?

[dalepres]

Originally Posted by azmrb

What's next? Plastic coins?

Or even worse, plastic guns?

[woodcdi]

We can't make them out of plastic! Isn't the cost of a barrel of oil high enough already?

Slice up some corn cobs from all the cobs left over from making alcohol and just take a magic marker and scribble a value on each slice.

Or, maybe we could go back on the gold standard and mint coins that are actually worth what they say they are.

Woody

[azmrb]

LOL, How about wood? We could make wooden nickels. No pun intended.

[Roadking Larry]

I'm all for just ditching the penny altogether. I wouldn't miss the nickel either.

[factorywolf]

OMG just when you think they dont love us anymore :bowdown : they show us we still care about you............




See Big business Men we still LOVE YOU.... signed the G O V

[davek]

A little more inflation and you can eliminate the penny, nickel and quarter and just price things in tenths of dollars (dimes) instead of hundredths (pennies). Then eliminate the paper dollars and fives doller bills and replace them with coins.

Bonus: It'd save a lot of ink too, dropping a digit off of every price.

Maybe that's the US Treasury's plan..... no wait, couldn't be, calls for too much foresight and it makes too much sense.

[dalepres]

And at the current rate of devaluation of the dollar, the dollar can become the new penny soon.

[BigJilm]

Great, the only currency that was actually backed up by a metal and worth it's actual value. And now they want to do away with it also!!

Good lord nothing surprises me anymore.

BigJilm!

[ninefan]

lol... the Gov't is going the SAVE $100 million!!! OMG WOW!

That ought to make a dent in the budget!