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Ban the Penny and make a Zinc Nickel

by Tryan Hartill

The Economics

The penny just costs too much to make. At the present time it’s up to 1.4 cents to make each one.

Pennies are made from 97% zinc and a small amount of copper. Prices of these 2 metals have gone up over the last few years and now we spend $100 million to make 7 billion pennies every year. Plus when you mix this with the amount of time it takes for customers and employees to deal with it, it’s just not worth it.

Who banned it and who wants to?


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Australia banned the Penny in 1992) and they seem to be getting along fine. They still have prices in cents, but you round up or down. If you have cash in hand they round the number to 5 cent denominations by law.

$9.97 turns into $9.95 and $9.98 turns into $10.

The last time the U.S. dis-continued a coin, the half-cent, because of it’s low value, was in 1857. A half cent of 1857 would be worth 8 cents today.

Bills have been brought up in Congress, but always by Jim Kolbe from Arizona and he has zero (no co-sponsors) support. Most view the Legal Tender Modernization Act as a “bring home the bacon” move because his State is the biggest copper producer in the U.S. And since the Nickel is made mostly from copper, a penny ban would call for more nickels to be made.

If we go Fiat, Go Cheap


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Each Nickel costs 2.5-3 cents to make because of the large amounts of copper needed. A penny ban would cause the Nickel to be “The new Penny”. Switching to Zinc would save a good chunk of change .... (puns) for the U.S. Mint. And since we know it costs near 1.4 cents to make a coin out of Zinc, it would save a few more million per year. Possibly more if the price of copper keeps rising at the same pace.

Sure these moves would only save a fraction of a cent per U.S. Taxpayer and a few seconds of time per day, but why not?

Every little bit helps.

Dec 3, 11:33 pm | Tryan Hartill
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2 comments on this article (post your own)

1 On Dec 4, 08:37 am, Walter Richards wrote:

Yes, we should do away with pennies and take them out of circulation. I have a whole container of them I could then save and pass on as collector items. (lol)

The only real reason to even have “hard” currency (cash & coins) anymore, is to avoid gov’t being able to track each individual’s purchases/sales.

The gov’t now gives “credit cards” to people instead of food stamps. Some businesses don’t even give checks anymore – they pay via a “credit card”.

It wouldn’t be that difficult to get rid of currency altogether, and switch to an “electronic economy”.

2 On Dec 7, 09:38 am, Jeff Hazen wrote:

This topic is covered in the December issue of the Costco Connection. If you don’t have one mailed to you, it can be picked up at the warehouse. The article has opposing opinions along with member comments. You can also participate in the poll to give your opinion.

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