Coins aren’t disposable. Why does it matter if the production cost is higher than the face value?
But, while coins are durable, the Mint has been making billions of pennies every year since the 1950s, and yet retailers have trouble sourcing enough pennies to make change. They do tend not to be recirculated, even if they're not disposable.
I realize this is a joke but again, my objection is that this is the actual reason given.
> But, while coins are durable, the Mint has been making billions of pennies every year since the 1950s, and yet retailers have trouble sourcing enough pennies to make change. They do tend not to be recirculated, even if they're not disposable.
These are all better reasons than the one we were given.
Explaining that it costs 4c to make a 1c coin is a pretty clear and solid justification. People know that producing a physical unit of currency should cost considerably less than its face value, and if not, it's a huge problem.
Complaining that one news article, which is just reporting a current event, doesn't give you an in-depth background analysis and context, is absurd. If you care about a topic enough to want that level of in-depth, you can go look for it elsewhere.
CNN pointed me this NYT article: https://archive.is/Ek38I
It’s really not though, for the reasons I described already.
> Complaining that one news article, which is just reporting a current event, doesn't give you an in-depth background analysis and context, is absurd.
Well then it’s good that I didn’t do that.
> If you care about a topic enough to want that level of in-depth, you can go look for it elsewhere.
Like the HN comment section?
Trump himself said:
> For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!
That certainly sounds like the reason is production cost and not any of the compelling reasons you have provided.
You can buy pennies or nickels in bulk, melt them down, and turn a tidy profit. That's literally a "money printing glitch"
Every penny or nickel that gets lost in the gutter, stored in a coin collection, used as a washer or shim, turned into jewelery, or sets around in jars unused, represents a financial loss to the Treasury.
It's called seigniorage and melt value. Also see Gresham's law (hoarding).