Re: cost of minting, coins last a long time. Here’s what I had in my pocket:
1999 penny
1992 quarter
1972 nickel
1984 dime
1969 dime
In contrast, the longevity of bills. From my wallet:
$1: 2003
$1: 2006
$1: 2006
$5: 2003
$20: 2004
$20: 1996
$20: 2004
Keep in mind, however, that the dates on American paper money do not change from year to year as they do on coins and only change when the bill is redesigned or the signature of the Secretary of the Treasury changes. (If the signature of the Treasurer of the United States changes, the date has a letter added: for example, 2004A.) A bill reading “Series 2006” could have been printed in 2006, 2007, or 2008- the only way to know would be to check a list of serial numbers. However, you are correct in that coins stay in circulation longer than bills- I rarely see any of the old-style bills anymore (the first of which was Series 1996).
What I meant to say was Series 1996 were the first new-style bills (the old style dates back to 1928). The first color bills are Series 2004.
People have been talking about dumping the penny ever since I can remember. Now that we have all these debit cards we can avoid pennies and the attitude…well, still the same. The “take a penny/leave a penny tray” has helped but it can only do so much.
Doesn’t anybody mind the bulk of many dollar bills in your wallet? You end up with a wad of 8 or 10 bills, mostly ones, and can hardly close your wallet.
But there were $20 gold pieces for most of American history, and, at the time, they were worth about $400 of our present wimpy dollars.
If you call 80 years “most of our history”. (OK, it was slightly more than 80 years.)
mobo85, I fess up that I’m not 100% clear on the definition of bronze. And thank you, WF Tomba, for coming to my rescue. 
No way am I getting near the whole hard-money debate, but a $20 coin has…um…0.96 ozT gold, so getting near $900, not $400. That’s gonna be remade too, in 1.00ozT, in different versions. (Wanna collect these? Be very rich first.) The most elitist version will be 27mm, with super high relief, and others that are not as elite, but still gawdawful expensive.
Back to the penny: governments blowing money on pointless crap is hardly new. For now, making ~10b pennies a year keeps many in the zinc mining and minting process employed (that’s just IMO, not any kind of official report). Since the amount lost is so little compared to the whole budget, I can see it coasting for a while yet.
Whoops! I had forgotten that the double eagle was younger than the eagle, half-eagle, and quarter-eagle, which go back to Washington’s administration.
You can take pennies from there? I always thought that was more like a tip jar (that the bourgeoise use as their trash cans for pennies).
That’s right. Screw this “money” bullshit. We have technology now. How about we each carry one of those cool precision scales like all the drug dealers use and weigh out gold nuggets using market prices read off an iphone. If that won’t make you feel like a renaissance jew, I don’t know what will.
Or why even use metals? Let’s just weigh out drugs themselves. It’ll be as nifty as when they traded salt. Imagine the agony of deciding if you should have some of that precious white powder now or use it to buy things you’ll need later.
Clearly, hard money is the direction America needs now.
Actually, they don’t even change the series year when they redesign the bills. I have a couple of the new $5 bills, which were released this year, and they are series 2006, same as some of the older ones.
That’s true- in this case, the design change was designated by changing the first letter in the serial number from H to I. (All new-style bills have an extra letter at the front of their serial which goes up one letter with each signature or design change- A, B, etc.)
That is because old bills are taken out of circulation, while coins are not.
My favorite part about the article is about the two main supporters for keeping the penny in circulation. One is the Coinstar company, which makes money on people getting rid of pennies. The other is a lobbying group (Americans for the Common Cent) on behalf of the company that supplies the U.S. mint with the zinc it needs to make the pennies.
We need a nine-cent coin for all those things that sell for prices ending in 9 cents.
Or a 99 cent coin!
Though if you eliminate the penny, then things won’t end in 9 cents anymore.
Sure, it’s open season. Most of the ones I’ve seen have, in raised letters “Take a penny—Leave a penny.” If you’re the type who hates pennies, you leave them. If you need a couple so you don’t get pennies back, you take them. I’ve seen clerks reach around and take one or two for the customer.
@Lakai, sure, bills are taken out of circulation. They can’t take the punishment a coin can and wear out after a few years of handling. I’m just pointing out that while a penny might cost 1.21 cents to mint, it’s likely to last for decades.
It ain’t necessarily so. The smallest coin available in Norway, for instance, is 50 øre, or half a krone (crown): written 0,50 kr. You’ll still see things prices at 9,90 kr, 14,90 kr, and so on. The total purchase price is rounded off to the nearest half.
(In many European countries a comma is used where Americans would use a period/decimal point. Just think of the above as 0.50 kr, 9.90 kr, and 14.90 kr if it’s too startling.)