Given that I have never been to the United States. I have never bought U.S. coins. Yet I have approximately 400 U.S. coins including pennies, dimes, nickels etc. I am sure some of you non Americans are in similar positions. My question is does the U.S. mint too many coins?
Yes, the US Mint produces way too many coins - but only because it has to.
Our law says the mint must produce enough coins to meet consumer demand. The consumers are the banks who order the coins from the Federal Reserve banks. The problem is that the public gets our coins in change from stors but many of us don't spend them very often. Many people dump the coins in jars or drawers or the garbage. They just can't be bothered with them. So every year the min produces coins to replace coins that aren't missing, they're just hiding. It's a huge waste of resources especially for our one- and five-cent coins which cost more to mint than their face value. (Look up seignorage for more details.)
Also, the US Congress has ordered many long-running coin programs (especially dollar coins, etc) that the public rarely use but the mint is forced to produce. There are now hundreds of millions of dollar coins stockpiled in banks. This happened with our Susan B Anthony dollar coins too - they were produced in 1979, 1980, and 1981 but were very unpopular. Most of them sat in vaults for many years, unused. Over time, transit agencies started accepting the dollar coins (fares were often $1 or $2) and by 1999 the banks ran out of coins, and the mint had to produce more, but only in 1999. They were already committed to use a new dollar coin design beginning in 2000 (our infamous Sacagawea coin). If I remember correctly, the mint wasn't allowed to use the new design yet so they returned to the SBA after 18 years...
None of this says why you personally have 400 coins in your collection though. But I will say that many of our coin designs are very popular, and they get around fairly well.
PS: I'm not a fan of the recent glut of collector series (Lincoln cents, Jefferson nickels, and various quarter programs...) but that's my problem not yours.
Quote: "TCon"It's a huge waste of resources especially for our one- and five-cent coins which cost more to mint than their face value.
I've been wondering for a while biw why the U.S. still issued 1 and 5 cent coins. The're only used as change, since no one actually pays $1.99, they pay $2.
Quote: "TCon"It's a huge waste of resources especially for our one- and five-cent coins which cost more to mint than their face value.
I've been wondering for a while biw why the U.S. still issued 1 and 5 cent coins. The're only used as change, since no one actually pays $1.99, they pay $2.
We produce 1 coins because everyone loves the "Take a Penny, Leave a Penny" jars at the cash registers.
Quote: "ngdawa"I've been wondering for a while biw why the U.S. still issued 1 and 5 cent coins. The're only used as change, since no one actually pays $1.99, they pay $2.
Most states have sales taxes, that people don't see posted, but pay them every time at a checkout. So, if something is priced $1.99, you actually pay $2.11 (6% tax here, in Virginia). So, anywhere you go, the total amount to pay most of the time doesn't round to 0.05 or 0.10. The stores will give you change with pennies, and people do actually pay with pennies, for example, $20.53, a person will give 20 + 0.25 + 0.25 + 3 pennies.
However, people do have jars of coins sitting at home (never understood it).
Another thing is that people use cash less and less. I personally use it maybe once a month or even less.
Quote: "Cerulean"As others have already pointed out, US coins only circulate in one direction. So many people treat our coins as disposable.
The US has no 2cent coin, and no high value coins. If the Eurozone didn't have the 2c, 50c, 1euro and 2euro coins, you'd see a lot more of the others.
Approximately half of the world's coins are American.
Two thirds of USD cash is in other countries.
The USA has been slower to adopt cashless technology. Politically, "going cashless" is viewed as discrimination against the poor.
Part of going cashless - where people feel it is discriminatory against the poor - is the fees charged by the banks and the credit card companies to use debit and credit cards.
I think the US should produce 10C, 25C, 50C, $1 and $2 coins. Maybe even a $5 coin. Ditch the 1C and 5C coins and $1 and $2 bills.
Surely disposing of the smallest value coins would just lead to higher prices in supermarkets. Every increase in the prices of products would have to be at least the value of the lowest valued coin. In the case of the United States, eliminating the 1c and 5c would necessitate a price increase of 10c per every price increase instead of the usual 1c or 2c.
Quote: "ellemerob"Surely disposing of the smallest value coins would just lead to higher prices in supermarkets. Every increase in the prices of products would have to be at least the value of the lowest valued coin. In the case of the United States, eliminating the 1c and 5c would necessitate a price increase of 10c per every price increase instead of the usual 1c or 2c.
That is not necessarilly true. In Sweden we still have prices like 25.95, even though we haven't had any subunit coins since 2009. If you pay cash you pay 30, if you pay with credit card you pay 25.95. But if it costs 25.45 you only pay 25 with cash, but 25.45 with credit card, so it goes both ways.
Quote: "ellemerob"Surely disposing of the smallest value coins would just lead to higher prices in supermarkets. Every increase in the prices of products would have to be at least the value of the lowest valued coin. In the case of the United States, eliminating the 1c and 5c would necessitate a price increase of 10c per every price increase instead of the usual 1c or 2c.
That is not necessarilly true. In Sweden we still have prices like 25.95, even though we haven't had any subunit coins since 2009. If you pay cash you pay 30, if you pay with credit card you pay 25.95. But if it costs 25.45 you only pay 25 with cash, but 25.45 with credit card, so it goes both ways.
In addition, you round up just the total price in most countries, not a single individual item.
Quote: "ellemerob"Surely disposing of the smallest value coins would just lead to higher prices in supermarkets. Every increase in the prices of products would have to be at least the value of the lowest valued coin. In the case of the United States, eliminating the 1c and 5c would necessitate a price increase of 10c per every price increase instead of the usual 1c or 2c.
That is not necessarilly true. In Sweden we still have prices like 25.95, even though we haven't had any subunit coins since 2009. If you pay cash you pay 30, if you pay with credit card you pay 25.95. But if it costs 25.45 you only pay 25 with cash, but 25.45 with credit card, so it goes both ways.
In addition, you round up just the total price in most countries, not a single individual item.
You only round up the total amount. 22.68 + 53.82 = 76.50, and that you can pay w/o 1 and 5 cents coins.
