Mint Bans Melting Currency

[Qwertz]

The US Mint has gone out of their way to ban the melting-down of coins for their metals, because apparently, a penny is worth more as zinc and copper than it is as a representational unit of currency. In other words, the government is forceably depreciating the value of copper, zinc and nickel. How am I supposed to encourage the Mint to become more efficient (perhaps by not redesigning our coins every two months?) if I can't tell them I value their product melted down more than I value it un-melted?

-Q

[Scott_Connery]

It is pretty crazy, especially because that must mean the mint has to pay well over one cent to produce each penny. The materials cost alone is more. I wonder how much more inflation we will have to suffer before it becomes profitable to commercially melt pennies down. I would guess soon, judging by the fact that the Mint is trying to ban it. That would effectively mean that the US Mint is stealing taxpayer money and giving it to the destroyers of the Mint's product. Pretty crazy stuff.

I know that pre-1964 silver coins are worth something like 8 times their face value because of the silver in them. You will almost never find one being used as currency for that reason.

[ggdwill]

The reason given is that pennies and nickels perform a function in our economy - making precise change - is of greater value than the loss the mint takes by creating them.

Of course, this still doesn't change the collectivist underpinnings of the mint - and the entire Federal Reserve System for that matter. That the economy is "ours" and that it's the government's responsibility to keep it functioning efficiently. Just because some people might need a way to be compensated precisely does not justify the government actually taking everyone's money through inflation.

- Grant

[DarkWaters]

I would be interested in hearing what the potential cost-push inflation other products of heavy industry could be experiencing, if any, as a result of this government ban.

[DavidOdden]

The reason given is that pennies and nickels perform a function in our economy - making precise change - is of greater value than the loss the mint takes by creating them.

I've noticed, though, that when goods are sold 2 for 99 cents and you buy one, the stores have a way to compensate for the lack of the ha'penny, and similarly, when you buy a pound and a quarter of burger at $1.09 / pound, they round down the extra quarter penny. If we were to dump the penny, it would be no loss, and a great gain. If we were to privatize currency, that would be even better, even assuming state-controlled currency, there is no rational basis for having the penny at present.