POLL - When will the penny be taken out of circulation?

[inflationhawk]

Let's take a poll...

[Diggin4copper]

I think it will be altered first.... (Plastic or steel)

[uthminsta]

I think it will be a year or two into the next presidency. No real evidence, just a hunch.

[Pennysaved]

Maybe they will get their act together quicker than we think.

Did you see the article about only minting the Presidential dollar coins for collectors and it saving the government $500 million dollars?

One of the few smart things they have done haha

[slickeast]

It will not be as quick as you think.

[uthminsta]

It will not be as quick as you think.

What makes you say that?

[hobo finds]

They may stop minting new ones, but people will still spend them. I think if they switch to a different material other than metal like plastic then yes, they will stop circulating even the zincs

[inflationhawk]

I'm surprised that this many people think it will take until 2016 or after. When they decommission the penny, transactions can still be paid for to the .01 increment if paying with payment cards. It's only cash transactions that would round to the nearest .05. I do think, like uthminsta says, it will be after the presidential election, but I can't see it lasting that much longer.

[Copper_Baron]

Looks like they are taking out at least the dollar for now.

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2 ... tial-coins?

[Mauserman]

I said never, it's too sentimental. If they can no longer afford zinc, they might change to steel or plastic.

Then again, who ever thought they'd stop coining constitutional money?

[ed_vantage17]

Did you see the article about only minting the Presidential dollar coins for collectors and it saving the government $500 million dollars?

One of the few smart things they have done haha

If they stop printing $1 FRN's and replaced them with the coins they've already minted/stored I'd guess the savings would be even more.

[Cu Later]

2020s? maybe 30s? only out but not yet banned..

[amalekidad]

Don't use guys know that the world is going to end in Dec 2012

[MUTiger]

If they stop printing $1 FRN's and replaced them with the coins they've already minted/stored I'd guess the savings would be even more.

That won't happen because the Senators Kerry and Brown are being lobbied by Crane & Co. the bill paper producers.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/house-republicans-want-to-replace-1-bill-with-gold-plated-coins.php

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/184155-house-senate-prep-for-next-money-battle-dollar-bill-vs-dollar-coin

http://dollarcoinalliance.org/category/media/

MUTiger

[Rodebaugh]

Get rid of the penny? I know how they run things.....they are more likely to bring back the half cent instead.

[rickygee]

J. W. Rawles over on Survivalblog had this timely link today: http://mises.org/daily/5831/Will-Nickel ... -Disappear

[adagirl]

J. W. Rawles over on Survivalblog had this timely link today: http://mises.org/daily/5831/Will-Nickel ... -Disappear

Thanks for sharing this link.

[agmoose]

Excellent link.

I voted 2016+..........I just think we're 5 or more years away from it. I think it'll be discussed seriously within 3-4 years, but will take a couple of years to hash out.

[inflationhawk]

My personal view is that the time is now (well, 2013, after the election)....when push comes to shove and there has to be cuts in spending, this seems like a very small battle compared to others and there is significant cost savings in eliminating the penny. Maybe not significant compared to the overall debt, but significant when you consider how little can be agreed upon by both parties when it comes to cost cuts.

[TXBullion]

Have no idea, but when it comes, it will have come too fast

[hammerrob]

I went 2020 or after. I think long after... if ever. No penny means that every state that has a sales tax (are there any that don't?) would have to re-visit their sales tax scheme. Every business that accepts cash for payments would have to be ready to apply the new scheme. They'll make plastic pennies before they go down that path.

Rob

[ed_vantage17]

If they stop printing $1 FRN's and replaced them with the coins they've already minted/stored I'd guess the savings would be even more.

That won't happen because the Senators Kerry and Brown are being lobbied by Crane & Co. the bill paper producers.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/house-republicans-want-to-replace-1-bill-with-gold-plated-coins.php

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/184155-house-senate-prep-for-next-money-battle-dollar-bill-vs-dollar-coin

http://dollarcoinalliance.org/category/media/

MUTiger

Not only that, taking the dollar out of the wallet an putting in the pocket with the rest of your change would be an alarm bell to most americans that their money isn't worth what it used to be. Can't shake the sheeples confidence in the mighty dollar when nothing is there to back it up except the "full faith and credit of the US government".

[TwoAndAHalfCents]

What if we have ahead of us a very signicant deflationary collapse of the economy for the rest of the decade? That could put a damper on any push to eliminate the penny. For example,

- Price of copper plummets and that drops the cost of producing a penny.
- Price of just about everything drops which makes a penny more meaningful in everyday transactions.
- With the economy that bad off there would be little demand for new money so far fewer pennies would need to be minted anyway.

Isn't this how things were looking around the early to mid 1930's?

[ZenOps]

Never. When the Euro was born in 1999, they minted not only 1 cent pieces, but 2 cent pieces as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_cent_euro_coins

And if a brand new currency was established ten years ago, at approximately the same value as a US dollar and they deemed it was a good idea to not only make 1 cent pieces, but also 2 cent pieces. Then the penny is here to stay.

It will probably be made of Iron (steel). Copper being about 80x rarer than iron, Nickel being about 920x rarer than iron.

Which I might add: Nickel is actually a lot rarer than people might otherwise first assume. There is not a single nickel mine worthy of mention in the US.

Iron is pretty much the same as cotton in my view - fiat.

[everything]

Why mention the Euro, many are running from it right now. I'll have to agree, that as poor as people are getting, that penny is not going anywhere soon. I always have idea. One being, stop making the penny, round up and use that money to pay off the deficits.
Still, I contacted my congresswoman and told her to tell the people in charge to just stop making the cotton dollar, so instead they stop with the coin dollar instead. My idea of using the two dollar bill to ease the pain of going to the 1 dollar coin will never happen.