In Iceland's Fall, We Sin All | 36 comments (36 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

"Copper Standard"

Pennies from Heaven! At the rate things are going both pennies and nickles are likely to be much more valuable for their metal content than for their nominal value. The mint loses money as it is on minting those coins.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon Apr 27th, 2009 at 02:07:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Yes, we should drop both for ... (none / 1)

... $1 and $5 coins.

When we first started using pennies as the smallest unit of money, they could actually BUY something. Now vending machines don't even take them, and people leave them in little penny holders in the servo to avoid carrying them around.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Mon Apr 27th, 2009 at 02:11:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Yes, we should drop both for ... (none / 0)

We'll probably have to in another year or so.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon Apr 27th, 2009 at 02:15:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Yes, we should drop both for ... (none / 0)

A penny's worth of copper to give a yellowish hue to a dollar coin spreads the copper around much more thinly ... and making the coin slightly bigger than and slightly thicker than a quarter makes a much more sensible coin than the big platters of four times as much make believe silver as a quarter, and one that would make the vending companies much happier as well.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Mon Apr 27th, 2009 at 03:38:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

US pennies (none / 1)

look like copper, but also contain a white metal which I believe is zinc. It melts out and separates when heated.

All the same, they are worth more as metal than as currency.

The Fates are kind.

by Gaianne on Wed Apr 29th, 2009 at 02:48:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: US pennies (none / 0)

isn't that why it's illegal to collect them and melt them down?
or is that myth?

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Wed Apr 29th, 2009 at 03:14:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: US pennies (4.00 / 2)

In most countries it's illegal to destroy the physical tokens used to represent money, because the central bank needs to know how many such tokens are around in order to make monetary policy, in order to conduct token switch-overs (when you get a new edition of bills - say with improved security features.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Apr 29th, 2009 at 03:28:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

In Iceland's Fall, We Sin All | 36 comments (36 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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