Goodbye Abe?

[Bob P]

Rumor has it that the Senate and the House is once again going to argue the case of whether or not the United States should continue minting the one cent coin.
For those of you who remember, this has come to debate many times before.
I am rather curious, and would like to hear some of your pro's and cons to doing away with the cent. Of course, I would expect a little partiality in this group, but try to give me your opinions from a commerce standpoint, not that of a collector. Has the penny outlived it's usefulness? Is it economically feasible to keep minting them. If the penny goes, will the nickel be next?
Let's hear what you have to say...OKAY??

Bob P

[coppercoins]

Yes it has outlived its usefulness, and yes it would be better for them to do away with it. As for me personally, I wouldn't care - all they are minting these days is junk anyway. The cent barely looks like it was originally intended back in 1909 when Brenner designed it...It's comical and ugly now, and there aren't any die varieties on them anyway. Migh as well axe them, we have plenty to collect.

[Bob P]

Gee Chuck, What'll Mrs Lincoln say?

Bob P

[coppercoins]

Dunno, but I'd just as soon they quit wasting their time minting junk.

[Gabe]

I was once in an American Airlines flight and they put some news and reports, and they put something on pros and cons of eliminating the Lincoln cent.

They said that charities receive most of their donations in form of Lincoln cents, from grocery stores were people just drop their change. These charities receive millions of dollars in Lincoln cents, and eliminating it would reduce the money these charities receive.

They also said that if people just rounded to the nearest 5 or 10 cents when making transactions, the citizens of the US would be paying extra millions of dollars to state and federal taxes.

I really dont know what they should do with the cent. If someone can prove it can save us money, then eliminate it. They have made in about a century billions of them have been make, I think there are enough out there to last thousands of years, unless the value of copper goes up and most are melted.

[Stujoe]

I was stationed in Korea when AAFES (Army and Air Force Exchange Sevice) stopped giving cents out in change at the BX, etc because they said it was too costly to keep shipping them in.

It really didn't affect my life at all negatively. I have to say that I liked not getting them in change. I really think it has gone the way of the half cent and has long outlived its usefulness.

[coppercoins]

I see nothing wrong with loving the Lincoln cent and at the same time being realistic as to its usefulness in the current economy. It can just as easily be collected as a "past" series as it can be collected as a "current" series, and in fact better so, because at least the series will be done, finished, and there will be a much better finality to the completion to that chapter in the history of US numismatics.

And then for the reason that with the numbers they produce now combined with the quality of what they produce now, there's really no added value to the overall collection having 2004 cents as opposed to not having them. It won't change my life at all not having them, and in fact, might add to my life in that people will be much more willing to sell off their old jars full of cents they have in the closet if the government says they will no longer be produced and consequently no longer used in commerce.

[Robert]

I wonder what the public/ Congress thought about eliminating the half cent. Was there pressure either way? Did Congress think the move would be considered evidence of inflation/ financial instability?

[coppercoins]

As I understand it from limited knowledge and reading, the public never really accepted the large and half cent very well. They didn't circulate well, so the small cent was introduced. So, to answer your question, I imagine the public was rather happy to see the half cent go...like the SBA.

[Art]

I think the idea that anyone will save money by eliminating the cent is absurd. The taxpayer will realized a net savings of -(whatever the Congress thinks they can get away with).

I personally like the cent. I use them and save them (only save what I need). I think that the current cent is junk and will eventually become a non-collectable because of the metal content and the various chemical interactions that will cause them to self-destruct.

I would like to see a real copper cent again. Forget the hype about copper costing too much, etc. That's purely fiction. We have huge copper deposits sitting idle because there's no use for the end product. Think about the impact of all those unemployed people.

[GarryN]

I hope they keep it until 2009 anyway. I agree that most merchants will be rounding up when it ccomes to rounding to 5 or 10 cents and then oit will be rounding off to the dollar.

The cent like all coins has been cladded (is that a word?) and otherwise abused, and technology has taken away all the varieties, The concept of a variety now is to change the reverse design occasionally. What will coins look like in 20 yrs, I wonder.

[coppercoins]

Ummm....who says we will even have coins in 20 years?

[cladking]

I personally like cents, even the new ones. Perhaps, especially the new ones since they account for most of what's in circulation. The staggering attrition rate for these coins will assure that once they are no longer minted they will rapidly disappear. Due to their toxicity, they really should be recalled rather than just cease minting them.

The cent does not belong in circulation. Its costs far outweigh any benefit they might have. If charities get a lot of money from cents then after its elimination then they'll get most of their income from nickels. It could actually increase the total contributions, but may well hurt some specific charities. They will simply have to adapt.

The July 22, 03 Numis News viewpoint on page 7 has much more on the reasons this coin should be retired.

--------Sam Petry, Cladking

[coppercoins]

What I see as a really cool idea, and it has been basically ignored by everyone, is that we have special, high relief, nicely done dies for the mint sets (so the mint set coins would be different and look nice) and proof sets so we collectors could still have a nice example of each coin each year, and circulate the flattened comical crap. This could keep the cent around a lot longer, but it would be a mint set only issue.

[rnealw]