Saturday, January 24, 2004
The Penny Still Pulls Its Weight
Maybe the penny is not endangered after all:
From http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/index.cfm?action=FAQSearchResult:
"17. Are there any plans to remove the one-cent coin (more popularly known as the "penny”) from circulation?
You may be interested to know that the penny is the most widely used denomination currently in circulation and it remains profitable to make. Significantly, it is Congress that determines the denominations of coins that the Mint must produce and put into circulation. Each penny costs .81 of a cent to make, but the U.S. Mint collects one cent for it. The profit goes to help fund the operation of the Mint and to help pay the public debt. In 2000, this profit added up to about $24 million.
"As the Mint produces the coins that Congress mandates, the U.S. Mint does not have the authority to abolish a unit of currency. If directed to do so by legislation enacted by the Congress and signed by the President, the Treasury Department would again study phasing out the penny. Since the demand exists and the Federal Reserve Banks require inventories to meet the demand, the United States Mint is committed to producing the penny."
[Author's note: this post is here in response to a comment about coinage in my post below. The problem for this little hard-working post, however, is that the sentence it responds to was removed by me from the post below ("Coins & Family Fun"), so it must now seem to the reader not actually using my brain, to be some semi-sequitur about pennies, as opposed to a correction of my contention (since withdrawn and expunged from "Coins & Family Fun") that another reason not to keep excess coinage around is that most of the coins will be pennies, and that the Fed might get rid of the penny. I also made the erroneous claim (also withdrawn and expunged, but also 'repunged' here) that there was such a U.S. coin as the "mill", but apparently that never got beyond the planning stage in the late 18th century, proving that one of my high school history teachers was a dork. Why do I tell you this, o longsuffering reader? Well, because this post is semi-interesting (not this part), and also because perhaps you'll think my extraneous and needless admission of stupidity unbearably charming.] ¶ 20:44
From http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/index.cfm?action=FAQSearchResult:
"17. Are there any plans to remove the one-cent coin (more popularly known as the "penny”) from circulation?
You may be interested to know that the penny is the most widely used denomination currently in circulation and it remains profitable to make. Significantly, it is Congress that determines the denominations of coins that the Mint must produce and put into circulation. Each penny costs .81 of a cent to make, but the U.S. Mint collects one cent for it. The profit goes to help fund the operation of the Mint and to help pay the public debt. In 2000, this profit added up to about $24 million.
"As the Mint produces the coins that Congress mandates, the U.S. Mint does not have the authority to abolish a unit of currency. If directed to do so by legislation enacted by the Congress and signed by the President, the Treasury Department would again study phasing out the penny. Since the demand exists and the Federal Reserve Banks require inventories to meet the demand, the United States Mint is committed to producing the penny."
[Author's note: this post is here in response to a comment about coinage in my post below. The problem for this little hard-working post, however, is that the sentence it responds to was removed by me from the post below ("Coins & Family Fun"), so it must now seem to the reader not actually using my brain, to be some semi-sequitur about pennies, as opposed to a correction of my contention (since withdrawn and expunged from "Coins & Family Fun") that another reason not to keep excess coinage around is that most of the coins will be pennies, and that the Fed might get rid of the penny. I also made the erroneous claim (also withdrawn and expunged, but also 'repunged' here) that there was such a U.S. coin as the "mill", but apparently that never got beyond the planning stage in the late 18th century, proving that one of my high school history teachers was a dork. Why do I tell you this, o longsuffering reader? Well, because this post is semi-interesting (not this part), and also because perhaps you'll think my extraneous and needless admission of stupidity unbearably charming.] ¶ 20:44
