Realcent.org

Ballpark figure of how many Pennies, from all years, still exist: 340 billion
American population: 300 million

That works out to a little over 1,100 Pennies per person -- less than half a box, $11.

When people are thoroughly disgusted by the paper/digital monetary system, they'll view it as sensible to keep at least some of the hard stuff on hand. That preference will cause Pennies and Nickels to change hands with purchasing power more in line with what a cent used to buy before debasement became the norm.

Melting will have exacerbated this situation.

Works for me. I already have my 1100

And yet, I think that scenario only plays out in a long, slow, shadowy sort of fiat debasement - you could rightly say that's where were at right now. If everyone were to see the light all at once resulting in, for example, a 50% drop in currency confidence over the course of a few months, the government would be forced to invent a new & improved replacement fiat (forget going back to the gold standard...the Powers That Be wouldn't stand for it). And sheeple being sheeple, most Americans would meekly embrace it.

Difficult though it may be to imagine, the majority still believe the Government knows what's best.

I was wondering about the very numbers that you provided. Thanks for doing the math for me!

I assume your numbers are for all pennies in circulation, and not just CU ones.

Your thinking about the little red coins is very much in line with my own. There's going to come a time when merchants are going to be very reluctant to accept fiat money in exchange for goods. When the supply of PMs start to get tight and fiat money can no longer be exchanged for PMs, copper is going to see a huge increase in demand as a trading medium.

Morsecode wrote:Works for me. I already have my 1100

And yet, I think that scenario only plays out in a long, slow, shadowy sort of fiat debasement - you could rightly say that's where were at right now. If everyone were to see the light all at once resulting in, for example, a 50% drop in currency confidence over the course of a few months, the government would be forced to invent a new & improved replacement fiat (forget going back to the gold standard...the Powers That Be wouldn't stand for it). And sheeple being sheeple, most Americans would meekly embrace it.

Difficult though it may be to imagine, the majority still believe the Government knows what's best.

Whatever currency ends up as a replacement for the dollar, it will need to be backed by something tangible. Switching from one fiat to another will not restore confidence in the currency. A pure gold standard is unlikely, but I think a 'basket' of several commodities could work. Gold, oil, silver, platinum, copper could all end up being included in the basket.

This discussion has been going on for a long time and some time ago Market Harmony did a spread sheet that takes all the guessing out of it for you so you can see the real figure on the number of copper pennies in circulation etc.

I just found it online at: http://marketharmony.net/uploads/pennie ... lation.pdf