The Catch-22 for us cent guys/gals. JMO!

[wagsthadog]

Hi all,


This is just an observation, so FWIW-

It seems that a lot of us, myself included, abhor the thought of the mint altering/abolishing the cent. It would end centuries of storied USA commerce, and inevitably stick it to us all in the form of Swedish rounding (i.e, $1.27 becomes $1.30). The next generation will have no concept of the wonderful range of denominations the US dollar is (or used to be) composed of.

BUUUUTTT, this seems like juuustt the thing to catapult copper cent prices into the realm that all of us are hoping for. I can see collectors keeping their pieces, and maybe some of us keeping a few CTU's for reserve, but do you all seriously want to keep a garage full of stinky heavy copper for generation after generation, never selling and stepping over it every time you need to park the car? I'm in this to make fiat! (which I then turn into gold and silver)

So, I have been meditating on this lately and it seems like we're in a catch 22. We all want to make money on our copper piles, and rightfully so, but I just don't see sheeple getting on board with it until there's an Earth-shattering change like abolishing the penny- which most of us don't want to happen. We don't want the golden goose to die, cause once it's dead it's gone forever, but in the process it will make some of us wealthy...

Plus, if this happens, after the initial surge in orders by newcomers, will the Ryedale company go under?

Meh, I don't know- but I'll definitely step up my penny sorting-

wags

[Engineer]

Plus, if this happens, after the initial surge in orders by newcomers, will the Ryedale company go under?

Not if he keeps innovating. There will always be something that needs sorting.

[My2Cents]

You sound like you're emotionally attaced to the cent, which makes no sense to me at all. Let me try to ease your worries.

I'm working as a military contractor in Okinawa. Over here, the base doesn't use cents for change. We round up or down depending on the end price of the sale. If my purhase is $5.73, it gets rounded to $5.75. But conversly, if it's $5.72, it rounds down to $5.70.

The military does this so it doesn't have to spend a boatload of money to bring 1 cent coins over here to distribute as change. I've been here over a year, and I only have about 10 cents in my change jar... that I believe I received in change from the post office (they have to give back the exact change). So your rounding fears, IMO, are ungrounded. It works well for us here and I can see it working well in the US too.

Think of the cent leaving as just another change you'll have to embrace. The half-cent eventually faded into oblivion, just as the 2 cent piece and many others. It served its purpose and that's that. I think it's been long overdue to be dropped from circulation, but WTF do I know.

Just keep hoarding and putting those cents away. It'll be worth your time down the road. Just don't stub a toe on one of your buckets.

Nate

[creshka46]

One way or another, the golden goose will have to die. whether through abolishment of the penny or through running the circulating copper supply dry. The only thing we can do is sort as fast as possible and keep on looking for new opportunities. After copper pennies, I suppose there will be pre '60 nickels, and then all CuNi nickels, and maybe the day will even come when CuNi dimes, quarters, and halves will be worth more than their face value. They are over 90% purity (91.7%).

[creshka46]

Wow! as a side note, I just realized that the copper purity of dimes, quarters and halves is the standard 22kt purity that the US originally used for all gold coinage. Coincidence?!?!

[fb101]

As a side note, all it takes is for them to start makin steel pennies again or whatever. The they'll flood the streets with them and the copper percentages will decline until they are negligible. Then they'll kill the melt ban.
Just pointing out we don't have to wait for abolishment.

[ZenOps]

Why would anyone in 1932 want to keep a stack of $20 gold double eagle one ounce gold coins, when they could get a few percent interest at the bank on paper money?

Why would anyone in 1963 want to keep a stack of silver dimes and quarters?

To be honest, copper is the last of the "traditional" circulating metals left. If you look carefully, the US appears to have tried to make 8 grams of copper (the presidential dollars) the new dollar, even though technically its just about the same a 2 1/2 copper pennies.

If the US pulls the penny, debases the nickel (and probably pull the large half dollars too) then 8 grams of copper will magically become $1. Magic!

If the US pulls the penny, and debases the coins to steel including nickels, dimes, quarters, and halves (like Canada, we even have a $2 steel core coin) Then that $1 presidential coin automatically becomes the most valuable coin.

Thats my conspiracy theory.

[Cu Later]

not stacking for $ & im not trippin on my buckets.
doing it for future generations.