US running out of places to store money

[xxChrisxx]

For the last 4-5 years, it has cost more to mint pennies and nickels than their face value. For a time, when zinc and copper prices were on the rise, it actually cost about 2 cents to mint a penny. Both of those coins should go!

I assume there is a law about not weighing them in for scrap

 

[mgb_phys]

I hate shrapnel, and wish they'd get rid of 1 and 2p,

It's worse in the US and Canada - the various sales taxes aren't included in the price.
So even if you buy something for $1 there are a bunch of federal, state and city tax % added to it so the price always ends up as some odd number.
And since you never know which taxes apply to which items you can't have the correct money ready.

If the law required the listed price to include all taxes (like in europe) then the shop could round this off to a sensible number and you wouldn't need as many pennies.
Timmy's (the Canadian official religion) sort of does this - their coffee are all priced at some odd number like 1.78 , so that with tax it comes out to a round $2

I assume there is a law about not weighing them in for scrap

When copper price went through the roof a couple of years ago and the $ was valued so low it reached the point where a c was worth about 1.1c in scrap and they did have to introduce a law limiting how many you could get form the bank.
They also changed the coins to plated steel.

It's not just the cost of making them, since coins last 30years the cost vs the face price isn't really that important. But having $bn sitting around in jars instead of being spent or invested does have an effect. Although the biggest effect is the cost to shops and banks of dealing with them it costs a lot more than a penny to count, wrap, store and transport pennies.

 

[Chi Meson]

Timmy's (the Canadian official religion) sort of does this - their coffee are all priced at some odd number like 1.78 , so that with tax it comes out to a round $2

Off topic, re Timmy's:

We have Tim's in Connecticut, but they aren't doing as well as Dunkin. Went to Canadian Timmy's a few times over the past two weeks and discovered something: they CAN make coffee that tastes...uh..."OK"!

The Timmy's in CT don't seem to feel the need to replace coffee filters daily, I guess.

Back to the thread...

 

[mgb_phys]

Went to Canadian Timmy's a few times over the past two weeks and discovered something: they CAN make coffee that tastes...uh..."OK"!

To be honest their coffee isn't fantastic - I think it's more a case of not being starbucks!
They call them small,medium, large, x-large for instance - not some madeup words, and they understand that tea should be made with boiling water, a technology that starbucks haven't discovered yet.

Here there a lot of other options, Wavez, Beanz, coffee around the world - but we are close enough to seattle.

Personally I like McD's coffee - but you can't tell anybody that.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I assume there is a law about not weighing them in for scrap

There have been regulations in place (for the first time I'm aware of!) for about 1-2 years now, but no laws as such.

 

[turbo]

At one time, nickels were made of silver and pennies were made of steel because actual nickel and copper were needed for the war effort. There is nothing sacrosanct about either coin and we should put them on the chopping block since they have outlived their usefulness. If gas stations want to sell gas, they should price it in even increments, not in 10ths of a cent/gallon. Same thing for taxable consumer goods. Price everything in even increments so that state/local sales taxes are part of the purchase price. Really, who ever buys anything for a nickel or a penny these days? 50 years ago, the cheapest candy bar you could buy was a Hershey lunch bar for 3 cents. Back then, pennies could actually have enough value to warrant their use. Not today.

Coincidentally, my wife brought home a dollar coin today. A lady at work had gotten it in change somewhere and wanted a bill to use in a vending machine. It's a James Polk. A slave-owner who, apart from starting the Mexican-American War, accomplished little of note.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Coincidentally, my wife brought home a dollar coin today. A lady at work had gotten it in change somewhere and wanted a bill to use in a vending machine. It's a James Polk. A slave-owner who, apart from starting the Mexican-American War, accomplished little of note.

He did reduce tariffs and set up the Treasury; that's more than nothing.

Not a whole lot to hang your hat on, though.