# Why not phase out Nickels & Pennies?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 22, 2025, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684 "2025-05-22T22:08:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/81 "2025-05-26T22:50:54Z")
Phase out the penny, debase the nickel. Switch to C99750T-M, a mix of copper, nickel, zinc and manganese. It will still cost more than 5 cents to mint the nickel, but it would at least save a little money.
Next step: move the decimal. We already have a word for 10 dollars: [it’s called the Eagle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_(United_States_coin)). Make the changeover in 2040.
New coins: skip the quarter. 1, 5, 10, **20** , 50. We’ll be rounding to the equivalent of the nearest dime, but I wouldn’t mind that.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/82 "2025-05-27T00:17:28Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#):
>
> I don’t think you can buy a pack of gum for under $1 any more
I mean it’s one pack of gum, Michael. What could it cost? Ten dollars?
Seems like a 5-pack of gum actually does cost less than a dollar but I’m not sure if you can find them for individual sale any more.
If you’re a jerk, you could grab a pile of cheap ramen packets and leave just enough behind at the checkout to minimize the change.
If you’re more of a jerk, you could buy something small and sold by weight, and leave enough behind to minimize the change. I pretty frequently buy 2 jalapenos at a time, which cost like 23 cents. You could even buy something with tiny granularity like granola and get to the nearest cent.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/83 "2025-05-27T00:36:43Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> People already leave their pennies, often in one of those take a penny/leave a penny trays.
I do, and also nickels and even dimes.
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#):
>
> New coins: skip the quarter. 1, 5, 10, **20** , 50.
No, the USA and Canada have a long history of a 25cent piece.
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### Author:  [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/84 "2025-05-27T00:54:16Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> No, the USA and Canada have a long history of a 25cent piece.
Just to be clear what I’m proposing. After redenomination (and further inflation):
1/100 of an Eagle = 1 dime today (which inflation would have eroded to 5 cents or less).
5/100 = 50 cents today
10/100 = 1 dollar today
20/100 = 2 dollars today.
We could adapt. We’d probably need a 2 unit coin. And I should move the date to 2050 or 2060 to further erode the currency.
Doing away with the 25 cent piece would mean that we wouldn’t have the 15 cent rounding problem if the nickel disappears. We could then redenominate by 3 or 4 decimals.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/85 "2025-05-27T01:00:42Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#):
>
> Doing away with the 25 cent piece would mean that we wouldn’t have the 15 cent rounding problem if the nickel disappears.
We dont have that now, no would we have it if the nickel goes away.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/86 "2025-05-27T02:50:58Z")
We have a long history of the penny, too. Britain had an even longer history of 240 pence to the pound before they went decimal. Things change.
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### Author:  [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/87 "2025-05-27T06:23:52Z")
We need to return to the days of the 3 cent coin. Via Investopedia, here’s a list of now discontinued coinage:
> [@](#):
>
> What U.S. Coins Are No Longer in Circulation?
>
> The U.S. Mint has stopped producing a number of coins over the years as they have lost value or usability. These include:
>
> ```
> Half-cent coins (minted from 1793 to 1857)
> Two-cent coins (1864 to 1873)
> Three-cent coins (1851 to 1889)
> Half-dimes (1792 to 1873) [later replaced by nickels]
> Twenty-cent coins (1875 to 1878)
>
> ```
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/88 "2025-05-27T13:26:46Z")
In case you were wondering:
> **[So what happens to America’s 114 billion pennies once the US stops making...](https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/25/business/penny-what-happens-to-them)**
>
> The American penny isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/89 "2025-05-27T15:24:38Z")
What’s the difference between a half dime and a nickel? Aren’t the both five-cent coins? It sounds like saying “the silver dollar was discontinued, replaced by the Dusan B. Anthony.”
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/90 "2025-05-27T21:02:55Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#):
>
> What’s the difference between a half dime and a nickel? Aren’t the both five-cent coins?
The half dime was made out of silver, in response to a demand to mint more silver coins- it was very small and not popular. The nickel was made from nickel and copper.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/91 "2025-05-27T21:16:38Z")
So, exactly what happened to actual dimes in 1965, but without the re-naming? Perhaps we should call post-1964 dimes “double nickels.”
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/92 "2025-05-27T21:18:14Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#):
>
> So, exactly what happened to actual dimes in 1965, but without the re-naming?
They- along with every other coin- went to base metals. What is your question here? Do you think that a "dime’ must be made from silver??
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### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/93 "2025-05-27T21:31:17Z")
No. I don’t understand why the source states that the “half-dime” was discontinued (from **Measure for Measure** ’s list). It seems to me that the name changed, not that the coin was discontinued.
It looks like the silver coin labelled “half dime,” worth five cents, was replaced by a cupro-nickel coin, worth five cents, which wasn’t called the “half dime.” Wikipedia is a little fuzzy on the dates for the end of the half-dime, but the introduction of the nickel seems to be at more or less the same time that the half-dime stopped being minted in any quantity. That change involves name and composition, but not value.
The change from silver dimes to cupro-nickel dimes in 1965 involves a change in composition, but not name or value.
One is stated to have been “discontinued,” when it seems continuous to me. The other is not. So I’m querying whether stating that the half-dime was “discontinued” is a factual claim.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/94 "2025-05-27T21:50:24Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#):
>
> No. I don’t understand why the source states that the “half-dime” was discontinued (from **Measure for Measure** ’s list). It seems to me that the name changed, not that the coin was discontinued.
>
> It looks like the silver coin labelled “half dime,” worth five cents, was replaced by a cupro-nickel coin, worth five cents, which wasn’t called the “half dime.”
Yes, because the half dime was silver and the nickel (common name for it the us mint just calls it a five cent coin)- the half dime was the size and weight of …wait for it…half a dime. And the coin was never that popular. The three cent coin was more popular- again base metal. So the half dime was called that- as it was half a dime in size and weight. The nickel was not called a nickel it was called a five cent piece- which the half dime was also called by the mint )- nickel is just a slang term that became very popular.
So, the tiny half dime was discontinued. Some of that was limited popularity (they didnt even mint any from 1805- 1839), but the Civil war ate a lot of US small change silver coins- they were hoarded and also exported and used by other nations. They were replaced by base metal 2 and 3 cent coins in 1865 or so- the 3 cent coin was so popular that the Mint decided on a base metal five cent coin. (there was also, briefly, a silver 3 cent piece- very small coin);
So the popular name of the half dime is easy, and so is the popular name of the nickel.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/95 "2025-05-28T13:37:32Z")
Mathematically, a half-dime = 1/2 × 1/10 = 1/20 of a dollar, and five cents = 5 × 1/100 = 1/20 of a dollar, so they are clearly the same thing, and which words you stamp on the coin seems to be a stylistic choice.
What was “discontinued” seems to be a 15.5 mm silver coin, which was replaced by a 21mm copper alloy coin of the same value.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2025, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/96 "2025-05-28T20:10:34Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> Mathematically, a half-dime = 1/2 × 1/10 = 1/20 of a dollar, and five cents = 5 × 1/100 = 1/20 of a dollar, so they are clearly the same thing, and which words you stamp on the coin seems to be a stylistic choice.
Mathematically, sure, but one is small and made from silver and the other is larger and made from nickel. Oddly the US mint call them both five cent pieces. 😇
And no, nickels are not stamped “nickel”, It says “five cents”. True half dimes were stamped (sometimes?)\_ “half dime”.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2025, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/97 "2025-05-28T21:10:21Z")
IIRC “half disme” at least in the early days.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2025, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/98 "2025-05-29T02:56:25Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> And no, nickels are not stamped “nickel”
Obviously not— a “nickel” is not a fraction or multiplier. They could have been stamped “shilling”, this was discussed already 🙂
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### Author:  [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2025, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/99 "2025-05-29T18:26:20Z")
I like coins of all denomintions, and carry them and spend them. If the mint stops making pennies and nickels, I don’t really mind much as there are plenty of both out there.
By now, you’d think people would have learned how to spell “nickel”, but it seems for many to be a lost cause.
If there’s one practice I’d like to see go away, it’s the pricing of things ending in “.99” or “.95”. I know retail does it for practical reasons, but then every private seller on eBay does it too, Hey, lookit this, it only costs $3,999.99, I can afford that!
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