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Making fewer pennies means needing more nickels. Which have an even larger loss per unit: https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/business/cost-to-make-penny-nickel-dg/i

Making fewer pennies means needing more nickels. Which have an even larger loss per unit: https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/business/cost-to-make-penny-nickel-dg/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/business/cost-to-make-penny-n...

black6 2y ago
Why would we need more nickels? Transactions will end up being rounded to the nearest nickel, which will end up being a dime on one side or a nickel on the other as the smallest necessary coin. Seems like it all evens out.
- whynotmaybe 2y ago
  Both will be used more, the issue with the nickel is that it costs around 14¢ to make one.
  - sgerenser 2y ago
    I'd have to see a mathematical proof as to why nickels or dimes would be used more, I don't actually think that's the case.
    - svachalek 2y ago
      The only logical argument I can imagine is that people are using stacks of 5 pennies now routinely instead of nickels. But personally I never see that happening.
MadcapJake 2y ago
All of the "more nickels" noise is being paid for by the penny copper supplier.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  The penny is mostly zinc. It's only 2.5% copper. Interestingly, the nickel is 75% copper -- so copper suppliers would strongly prefer to ditch the penny if it meant making more nickels.
Cerium 2y ago
Keep going! We only need the quarter.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
marbro 2y ago
We need to stop minting pennies and nickels. We could stop inflation by restoring the gold standard but nobody seems to mind inflation that much.
- clejack 2y ago
  Getting rid of pennies/nickels sure, but where does the gold standard come in? You want to tie the economy to a material that doesn't capture economic growth and which also has its remaining stores in areas of the world not owned by your nation? If Google wasn't lying to me with its response, the current USA gdp is over $20 trillion, and the US owns around $200 billion in gold. Wouldn't tying gold to the current economy either devalue the dollar or inflate the current value of gold before locking the country into a state of economic stagnation?

black6 2y ago

Why would we need more nickels? Transactions will end up being rounded to the nearest nickel, which will end up being a dime on one side or a nickel on the other as the smallest necessary coin. Seems like it all evens out.

whynotmaybe 2y ago
Both will be used more, the issue with the nickel is that it costs around 14¢ to make one.
- sgerenser 2y ago
  I'd have to see a mathematical proof as to why nickels or dimes would be used more, I don't actually think that's the case.
  - svachalek 2y ago
    The only logical argument I can imagine is that people are using stacks of 5 pennies now routinely instead of nickels. But personally I never see that happening.

MadcapJake 2y ago

All of the "more nickels" noise is being paid for by the penny copper supplier.

JohnFen 2y ago
The penny is mostly zinc. It's only 2.5% copper. Interestingly, the nickel is 75% copper -- so copper suppliers would strongly prefer to ditch the penny if it meant making more nickels.

Cerium 2y ago

Keep going! We only need the quarter.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

marbro 2y ago

We need to stop minting pennies and nickels. We could stop inflation by restoring the gold standard but nobody seems to mind inflation that much.

clejack 2y ago
Getting rid of pennies/nickels sure, but where does the gold standard come in? You want to tie the economy to a material that doesn't capture economic growth and which also has its remaining stores in areas of the world not owned by your nation? If Google wasn't lying to me with its response, the current USA gdp is over $20 trillion, and the US owns around $200 billion in gold. Wouldn't tying gold to the current economy either devalue the dollar or inflate the current value of gold before locking the country into a state of economic stagnation?