some guy we saw at Shoney’s a long time ago who said he collected coins said that it costs ten cents to make a penny. is this true? if it is, i’m sure the cost is made up for in the making of bills. also, how much is the material in a penny or any other coin worth? would one get any profit from recycling coins (even though i think it’s illegal)? (i got this idea from a search i just did on google which pulled up a result talking about recycling copper.)
According to the Master, in 1998 the cost to make a penny was 4/5¢. See: Does it make sense to keep minting pennies?
Singurage. The profit made from the coining of money.
Sometimes it turns up in crossword puzzles.
I don’t like to disagree with the master, but he claims that a 1950s penny is worth a current nickel and I claim it is more like a dime. In the 1950s you could get a candy bar, an ice cream cone, or a package of gum for a nickel. Can you get any of these for a quarter today. In 1957, I rented a 2 room apartment in the neighborhood of the University of Pennsylvania for $50. Ok, it was a small 2 room apt, but the kitchen was a separate room. Can you get anything like that for $250 today? Or even close? Trolley fare started the decade at a dime and ended it probably at a quarter. Is it between 50c and $1.25 today? I have to check but in NY it is now $2. (It was 15c in NY for most of the decade.) No matter where you look (except at food) prices have risen more like 10 times than 5.
Not only would I get rid of the penny (that’s a no-brainer) I would seriously consider getting rid of the nickel. And the quarter, but bring back the half dollar.
Wait, what’s this. The half-dollar is gone. WHY WASN’T I INFORMED!?!?!?!?
In Australia they don’t have pennies. You go to the grocery and you see things like, “2 for $.99,” or whatever. When you check out they round the total to the closest nickle.
I don’t know about that spelling. Merriam-Webster has it as seigniorage or seignorage.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 2002 coins cost:
pennies .81 cents
nickels 3.13 cents
dimes 1.88 cents
quarters 4.29 cents
halves 9.63 cents
dollars 10.03 cents
Expected life of a coin is around 30 years.
The Czech Republic just got rid of 10 and 20 heller coins as the cost more to make than they are worth. (US$1=27 Czech Crowns, 1Kc = 100 heller).
They were little aluminum coins and after a few weeks we’d end up wth an ashtray full of them… glad they are gone.
I use a bag of old Israeli 10 agorot coins (the fingernail sized ones from two or three devaluations back) for bean-counting tasks around the house. They’re fun to play with and worth nothing. So if one were to melt them down, assuming that’s legal), would the metal itself be worth something?
How does the cost of making coins compare to the cost of making bills? Which is more cost effective in the long run? I assume coins, since my goverment’s pushed two new ones on us in lieu of bills within my lifetime, but I dont’ know that actual figures that make coins better…
Federal Reserve Notes cost (2002) about 3.003 cents per note (with 3.045 cents per note anticipated). 2001 cost was 2.388 cents, 2000 was .2265 cents.
Average life expectency for notes are:
$1 - 1.5 Years
$5 - 1.25 Years
$10 - 1.5 Years
$20 - 2 Years
$50 - 5 Years
$100 - 8.5 Years
So bills are cheap to make but don’t last long in circulation so they have to be constantly replaced. 95% of all notes produced are to replace worn out notes. Due to the long life of coins they are the better bargain.
If this is correct, the price jumped by a factor of 10 from 2000 to 01.
Or more likely, did you mean 2.265 cents for 2001?
I posted in another thread -sorry dunno how to link yet-
British “Coppers” - one and two pence pieces - are now made of coated steel, you can pick them up with a magnet. I suppose if you collected enough of the old ones they’d be worth more than their face value as scrap?
If we lose our penny like the Aussies will we get a 99p coin for all the £xx.99 items?
Yea, 2.265 cents. It’s been one of those weeks where I’m kinda surprised I even hit the decimal key at all.
Swede,
When this thread first appeared a few days ago I tried searching the Bureau of Printing and Engraving site for info about coin and bill costs. I couldn’t find anything relevant. It appears you’ve succeeded.
Not that I doubt your numbers, but could you post a link or at least explain in english how / where you got the info? I’d like to chase down some other related details for my own questions.
Thanks.
The information is hidden (well-hidden!) in .pdf format annual reports. The report I got the currency info from is named Cfo2002.pdf and is about half way down the report - report page 17, pdf page 23. The coin costs are in here on page 18. I didn’t include the costs that they list for their overhead costs. The information I listed for coin costs is obviously 2 years out of date the current costs (2002) are:
pennies .85 cents
nickels 3.06 cents
dimes 1.87 cents
quarters 4.0 cents
halves 6.64 cents
dollars 6.07 cents