Soooo we need to get rid of the penny and Nickel is what I’m seeing here
Yep, this makes cents to me…
damn, I knew the nickel also cost more to make than face value, just like the penny, but I had no idea it was *that* much more(I thought it was like 6-8¢ per).
The face value is not necessarily a good comparison when determining if a coin is worth making, because a quarter’s value to society is not 25 cents. A coin is simply a tool for facilitating exchange.
I have no idea how to get the total value to society of a coin, but you could approximate the value to the government by taking
– average lifespan of a coin in years
– average number of times a coin is used a year
– average tax collected per use
Just guessing that coins last 30 years, are used every month, and generate 5% of their value each time, a coin generates 72x its face value in revenue during its lifetime.
Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t better options, such as a phone that you’re going to have anyways, but if people want to use cash then the government is still “up” by letting them do it.
Canada ditched the penny years ago. Legitimately, why is it necessary? We also passed a law, so all cash purchases are rounded to the nearest nickle. So much better.
Fun fact, in 1857 we stopped minting the US half-cent coin, as its buying power was low enough to be deemed not necessary. It had the buying power of what would currently be about 18 cents.
Let’s just get rid of all coins. Round to the nearest dollar and call it a day.
They still make a half Dollar?
Don’t worry guys, the government definitely isn’t wasting your tax dollars.
Maybe worth it. You don’t want your entire life saving digitized. One keystroke and you are homeless.
Jobs, there are jobs here, this isn’t tax corruption. It’s technically a part of being civilized.
Interesting comparison but the underlying implication is not necessarily a relevant argument. Cost of production/distribution against face value are relatively meaningless when taking into account for why we create physical currency. It’s purpose exists as a service to enable the smooth flow of cash transactions throughout the United States.
If we were to start printing thousand dollar bills again, would that be a better use of the mint since it would be a better ROI? No, because the mint would be failing in its goal of smooth and efficient currency transactions as no one would use thousand dollar bills. We’d probably save even more money if we digitized the whole system and did away with physical currency altogether but that’s not the point. The mint is a service not a business.
I knew about the penny – but not the Nickel! Holy cow!
![The cost of making coins [OC]](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/nosvrw25fyge1-1920x1024.png)
13 comments
Soooo we need to get rid of the penny and Nickel is what I’m seeing here
Yep, this makes cents to me…
damn, I knew the nickel also cost more to make than face value, just like the penny, but I had no idea it was *that* much more(I thought it was like 6-8¢ per).
The face value is not necessarily a good comparison when determining if a coin is worth making, because a quarter’s value to society is not 25 cents. A coin is simply a tool for facilitating exchange.
I have no idea how to get the total value to society of a coin, but you could approximate the value to the government by taking
– average lifespan of a coin in years
– average number of times a coin is used a year
– average tax collected per use
Just guessing that coins last 30 years, are used every month, and generate 5% of their value each time, a coin generates 72x its face value in revenue during its lifetime.
Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t better options, such as a phone that you’re going to have anyways, but if people want to use cash then the government is still “up” by letting them do it.
Canada ditched the penny years ago. Legitimately, why is it necessary? We also passed a law, so all cash purchases are rounded to the nearest nickle. So much better.
Fun fact, in 1857 we stopped minting the US half-cent coin, as its buying power was low enough to be deemed not necessary. It had the buying power of what would currently be about 18 cents.
Let’s just get rid of all coins. Round to the nearest dollar and call it a day.
They still make a half Dollar?
Don’t worry guys, the government definitely isn’t wasting your tax dollars.
Maybe worth it. You don’t want your entire life saving digitized. One keystroke and you are homeless.
Jobs, there are jobs here, this isn’t tax corruption. It’s technically a part of being civilized.
Interesting comparison but the underlying implication is not necessarily a relevant argument. Cost of production/distribution against face value are relatively meaningless when taking into account for why we create physical currency. It’s purpose exists as a service to enable the smooth flow of cash transactions throughout the United States.
If we were to start printing thousand dollar bills again, would that be a better use of the mint since it would be a better ROI? No, because the mint would be failing in its goal of smooth and efficient currency transactions as no one would use thousand dollar bills. We’d probably save even more money if we digitized the whole system and did away with physical currency altogether but that’s not the point. The mint is a service not a business.
I knew about the penny – but not the Nickel! Holy cow!
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