Penny Shortage of 1974?

[Recyclersteve]

Check out the following video posted on another thread called "What A Waste!" by Contradiction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K00tU8O7_PU

Curiously, at around the 3:27 mark the person narrating the video says that in the 1970's our government used to pay $125 for $100 of pennies! I have heard about the so-called Penny Shortage of 1974.

Does anyone know if this was true? Can anyone find anything definitive on the internet to document this? I tried some searches using Bing and Google with no luck. But I was struggling with what to type to find good results on this one. Maybe somebody else will have better luck.

I'm thinking that for anybody who wants to be able to sell pennies at a profit (especially copper ones), this would be valuable information to have. Also, if that really did happen, I could see the mint suspending production of the cent for a year as an experiment to save money and gauge if people wouldn't mind either selling pennies at a profit or having them removed altogether (a la Canada back in 2012)- there were other coins that had years with zero production, especially nickels, dimes, quarters, halves and dollars in the 1930's during the Great Depression.

If somebody took a vote, I imagine the majority of people would prefer the penny be gone. The "give a penny- take a penny" cups at cash registers are testament to this.

Perhaps, for someone who has his books, Q. David Bowers published something about this. Maybe there is a good quote in one of them. He sure has written a ton of stuff about seemingly everything numismatic.

[dakota1955]

Yes I do remember that not sure if it was 1974 but about that time the local banks were paying over face if you would bring in pennies to the bank.

[cwgii]

i was a teen , working at a gas station . we were told to round down as there were no pennies available for change

[Country]

As I remember the situation in 1974, pennies became scarce and the mint couldn't keep up with the demand. Some "banks" were offering to pay a premium for pennies (10-25%) because they did not have them for customers, especially business customers who needed them. The SILVER coin hoarding phenomenon of the '60s, when circulating coins were worth more than face value, caused the general public to hoard coins. This had occurred only a few years earlier than 1974 and it was fresh in the public's mind. The same thing started to occur with pennies that were worth more than face value intrinsically. The public began to hoard again. Also, the government toyed with the idea of making the penny using aluminum instead of more expensive copper. Along with many banks paying a premium for pennies, the US Mint made a patriotic pitch so that pennies would be cashed in for Savings Bonds. By 1975, increased production of pennies by the US Mint and the pennies redeemed by the public finally ended the shortage. The price of copper, and the situation of 1974, was the genesis for the US Mint to modify the cent in 1982.

[Recyclersteve]

I have to admit that is amazing that it took 8 years to finally reduce the amount of copper in the cent.

[TXSTARFIRE]

Probably took that long to get the laws changed to allow them to use and alternate material.

[Thogey]

I remember the penny shortage. Penny drives at school and paper checks in lieu of change at the corner grocery store "Boy's Market". I did not know about the 1.25X offer from the gubermint. Makes sense now.

[Recyclersteve]

Here is an article with some more info:

https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/top ... _ID=243937

Scroll down to the news article from the Observer- Reporter of Washington, PA. In the article it says "Banks in scattered areas of the country, faced with shortages of the copper coins, are paying bounties for pennies.

The third largest bank in Maine-- Northeast Bankshare Association- and BancOhio of Akron, Ohio, offer a nickel bonus for every 50-cent roll of pennies. Citizens Bank of Farmington, N.M. paid $1.25 for every 100 pennies turned in between June 2 and June 6 and wound up with over a million pennies- over $10,000 worth." The article went on to say that the small New Mexico bank paid out a premium of $2,630 to buy the pennies. Also, it said that the mintage from the U.S. Mint was up 20% that year, yet demand for the coins was up 75%, ergo the shortage.

Note that the article is dated, Wednesday, June 25, 1980. Maybe there was more than one shortage.

I will now bookmark this thread so I can remember the details later.

[silverflake]

Somewhere a long time ago, I think I posted about my experience with 1974 pennies. So I will try to keep this short....I hope.

Back when I was actively searching pennies from bank rolls, one time I asked for rolls. Teller pulls out some rolls that "an old gentleman just dropped these off". Of course I grabbed them. Can't remember how many but quite a number of rolls, most of which were B.U. 1974 cents. Beauties. Then.....

A couple of months later I "inherited" my Dad/Grand Dads eclectic penny collection. Among the mass of copper were numerous rolls of......B.U. 1974 pennies.

Go figure.

[silverflake]

Went to bank today and in my transaction I was due 20 cents back. I asked for the change in pennies, and lo and behold, theres a bright orange B.U. 1974 penny!

Keep stacking!

[everything]

Pennies are still not circulating the best, just look at the mintage figures. They say 62 million in pennies are lost in circulation every year. We have jars of pennies sitting around at the office, desk drawers, boxes, I see them all around when garage sales. In car consoles. I know of several people who have been keeping their pennies for years, lots of years. Want to see a zinc penny mostly disappear, put it in some vinegar. Pennies circulate pretty well where I live. I don't see them start to show up in boxes until late in the year of mintage. If we had a penny shortage now I'm sure it would not be as big a thing, can't be worth what it was in 74, retailers could learn to round up or down.

[mtalbot_ca]

As I remember the situation in 1974, pennies became scarce and the mint couldn't keep up with the demand. Some "banks" were offering to pay a premium for pennies (10-25%) because they did not have them for customers, especially business customers who needed them. The SILVER coin hoarding phenomenon of the '60s, when circulating coins were worth more than face value, caused the general public to hoard coins. This had occurred only a few years earlier than 1974 and it was fresh in the public's mind. The same thing started to occur with pennies that were worth more than face value intrinsically. The public began to hoard again. Also, the government toyed with the idea of making the penny using aluminum instead of more expensive copper. Along with many banks paying a premium for pennies, the US Mint made a patriotic pitch so that pennies would be cashed in for Savings Bonds. By 1975, increased production of pennies by the US Mint and the pennies redeemed by the public finally ended the shortage. The price of copper, and the situation of 1974, was the genesis for the US Mint to modify the cent in 1982.

Here is another link: https://amusementparkives.com/2018/08/0 ... ortage-hp/

Nice read.

[Recyclersteve]

Nice article. I wonder if the people at the mint thought to themselves, "But those are ugly fountain coins. Nobody wants those."