Feds want to use cheaper metal in coins

Feds want to use cheaper metal in coins

www.newsday.com

No more penny for your thoughts. It's 1.7 cents. And start thinking more of the nickel, because it's worth a dime.

Those are the U.S. Treasury costs of minting the penny and nickel, thanks to metal prices shooting up by as much as 450 percent since 2003. With congressional lawmakers trying to right the lopsided ledger of making money, the pennies in your purse may soon be made of steel but treated to retain the copper color.

"Never before in our nation's history has the government spent more money to mint and issue a coin than the coin's legal tender value," Edmund Moy, director of the United States Mint, wrote in testimony submitted at Tuesday's hearing before the House Financial Services Committee's panel on monetary policy.




"With each new penny and nickel we issue, we also increase the national debt by almost as much as the coin is worth, and these losses are rapidly mounting."

Changing the metals or the percentage mix in coins could save the Treasury about $30 million a year for the penny and $70 million for the nickel under the proposed Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008, supporters said.

The bill would give the Treasury the flexibility to revamp the metal and weight makeup of all coins in response to metal prices. It would require the department to immediately stem losses over the one-cent coin by making pennies primarily of steel within 180 days of the law's passage.

(visit the link for the full news article)

So the value of the dollar is really taking a beating when the Feds want to start making pennies out of steel so they can take the copper from the pennies already in circulation. The economy is in rough shape and it is looking scary.

www.newsday.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I fail to see a conspiracy in this.

I do think it is a good idea to make the coins as cheap as possible. If you aren’t going to use real precious metals then what is the point of making them from anything but the cheapest useable materials?

As if the US hasn't economically devalued their currency enough, they need to do it physically as well, apparently.

I was wondering a while ago how much the materials in a penny is worth but I never bothered looking it up..... my guess that it was worth more than $0.01 was right.

Then again, our most valuable currency is just paper so it really doesn't matter.

[edit on 3/18/2008 by Yarcofin]

reply to post by JBA2848


GULP!









That is what i just thought. Then the next thing I thought was that we are going to have to start manufacturing again. It will be too expensive to import everything we currently do. They had to make a law about exporting the pennies about a year ago. The copper in the penny made the price reasonable to export and resmelter.

The absurdity keeps on coming!

Isn't this an oxymoron in and of itself?

I think we should ship our coin making operations overseas.

I bet the Chinese can make a cheaper penny than we can.

reply to post by ColdWater


Don't be surprised, they might actually try to pull something like that off.

[edit on 18-3-2008 by douglas2k4]

You just have to read the history of coins to see what is going on.
It happens over and over, through History.
You start out with a metal coin being used as a token.
They would use their power of government to expand the value of the actual metal, used to make the coins.
They use their fiat power to give the coin a specific value, so many multiples of the actual intrinsic value.
It never works for long because the government in their lust for spending what they do not have, end up with inflation until the value of the metal is greater than the value printed on it.
So coins always fail, eventualy.

My dad ,who grew up during the great depression, had a saying “Don’t take any wooden nickels”.

I know he meant it as a metaphor,

But we are getting very close ..I think the metaphor still applies.

reply to post by JBA2848




the use of the term 'Feds' is kind confusing here...

the Feds usually refers to the Federal Reserve , who has the authority
and responsibility to print the 'greenbacks' & get paid to issue the
newly created (inflationary) monies.

whereas the US Treasury has the duty/responsibility to 'Coin' money,
the pocket change type of money...

the 'Fed' has caused enough inflation, that the cost of silver & nickle & copper has soared past the point that the US Treasury can economically
strike coins with the past eras metal content any longer.

Originally posted by Zeptepi
My dad ,who grew up during the great depression, had a saying “Don’t take any wooden nickels”.

I know he meant it as a metaphor,

But we are getting very close ..I think the metaphor still applies.

I think wood is probably to expensive to use today.

Maybe plastic. Or cheaper yet why not air.

Isn't that what the Fed's doing. Creating money out of thin air?

Bend over , crap in your hand.
And you'll have more than a penny's worth.
Because a penny aint worth sh..... well you get my meaning.

[edit on 18-3-2008 by TimeTracker]

Great more Monopoly Money!

I guess money should not have any value right? Is that what they are saying? The currency itself should be valueless unless used within a society. So stupid.

Why don't we just melt down our own coins before the FED does it for use, and gives us plastic coins.

Jesus.. What is the world coming to. When the hell are these fake bubbles of commodities going to explode? Metals up 350 percent? What the hell. It's all bs people.

So in the end, basically our coins are only things left for them to rob? Then what?

This just in.. Houses should be made out of candy, so says the Fed. Seems like the ultimate fix for helping the homeless and hungry. Besides the wood used to make the house is too valuable, more so then the house.

Cue Twilight Zone music.

posted by cavscout
I fail to see a conspiracy in this.

reply to post by cavscout


This is probably the greatest conspiracy of all time. This country was put back under the control of European Banks in 1913. So, from 1776 it took them 137 years to put us back under their thumb. Taxation Without Representation Through Inflation.

Kennedy printed a couple billion worth of United States Notes backed by Silver in Fort Knox. Bad move. Follow the Money. Matter of fact Andrew Jackson was the first President to face Assassination and also the President that killed the first Federal Bank.

'The Federal Reserve' doesn't give a rip about america. They'll burn the Dollar down to save themselves. And they are.

Originally posted by cavscout
I fail to see a conspiracy in this.

I do think it is a good idea to make the coins as cheap as possible. If you aren’t going to use real precious metals then what is the point of making them from anything but the cheapest useable materials?

Advocates have been saying to use cheaper metal in all coins for decades. There is no point (besides durability, hardness, and a few others) in using the more expensive metals in fiat money.

This might be a good time for the FED to just drop the penny altogether.

I think wood is probably to expensive to use today.

Maybe plastic. Or cheaper yet why not air.

Isn't that what the Fed's doing. Creating money out of thin air?

An electronic system of "credits" would be much more preferrential to spending actual fiat paper or coin money. The government spends however many hundreds of millions or billions a year to create, in essence, worthless pretty-paper and coins. It is a severe waste of resources.

I think they should just go to paper after all that way our money will grow on trees. You want to get away from precious metals there to valuable for use in money specially coins.

Isn't that what the Fed's doing. Creating money out of thin air?

Yep, and how long will that thin air hold up our service economy?

Not much longer folks.

I think all the hundreds of candles my gal is making, will have some real bartering power very soon.

reply to post by ColdWater


Well... doesn't that just fit right in with moving toward a 'chip' or 'card/barcode' system? Simply, worthless transactions over thin air.