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Personal
August 17, 2007
Penniless
Everyone knows that a penny is an one cent coin. But do you know its metal content and the cost of making a penny.
25 years ago, pennies were made of copper. Due to the soaring demand that caused a surge in the price of copper, the U.S. Mint decided to switch to zinc. Now, the price of zinc is soaring again. At 2006, making 1 penny costs 1.2 cent, and it rise to 1.7 cent per penny in 2007. It will quickly go over 2 cents. That will be a big burden to U.S. Treasure.
Pennies of Canada, UK and Europe are made from steel, which is roughly 5 times less expensive than zinc. We will expect to see new U.S. pennies made from steel, or some kind of metal compositions, like copper-plated steel, or copper-plated aluminum. Or another alternative is to go penniless - asking retailers to round off cash transactions to the nearest nickel. That is very common to lots of developing countries.
Each year, there are about 8 billion new pennies placed into circulation. The sole supplier of U.S. pennies is Jarden Zinc Products Corp.
25 years ago, pennies were made of copper. Due to the soaring demand that caused a surge in the price of copper, the U.S. Mint decided to switch to zinc. Now, the price of zinc is soaring again. At 2006, making 1 penny costs 1.2 cent, and it rise to 1.7 cent per penny in 2007. It will quickly go over 2 cents. That will be a big burden to U.S. Treasure.
Pennies of Canada, UK and Europe are made from steel, which is roughly 5 times less expensive than zinc. We will expect to see new U.S. pennies made from steel, or some kind of metal compositions, like copper-plated steel, or copper-plated aluminum. Or another alternative is to go penniless - asking retailers to round off cash transactions to the nearest nickel. That is very common to lots of developing countries.
Each year, there are about 8 billion new pennies placed into circulation. The sole supplier of U.S. pennies is Jarden Zinc Products Corp.
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Comments ( 2 )
Do you also know that in the US it is illegal to melt the coins for resale?
Or another alternative is to go penniless -
well that sounds like a brilliant idea.
Cheers,
to that alternative.