The US Treasury isn't Making Any Cents! (Read 2278 times)

Flapp_Jackson

The US Treasury isn't Making Any Cents!
« on: December 02, 2025, 08:04:13 PM »
Treasury Department Announces
They Are No Longer Minting Pennies
After 232 Years

Quote
Back in February, President Donald Trump ordered Treasury Secretary
Scott Bessent to halt new production of the coin. The reason? It was too
expensive to produce a penny, and it was costing hardworking American
taxpayers millions.
https://tinyurl.com/mtxw7kv3

I'm looking forward to gas stations stopping that insane 9/10th of a cent added to the end of every gallon sold.
Quote
The practice of tacking 9/10 of a cent on the end of a gas price goes back
to when gas cost only pennies per gallon and was a tax imposed by state
and federal governments. Gas stations added the fraction of a cent on the
end of the price instead of rounding up the price. Back then, a full penny
would have been a budget-buster for customers. The federal tax was
implemented in 1932 as part of the Revenue Act of 1932 and was supposed
to expire in 1934 — except it never did.

Instead of ending the tax, Congress extended — and increased — it.
The 9/10 figure to account for a fractions of a cent tax is long outdated.
https://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/fuel-consumption/why-is-9-10-added-to-gas-prices.htm
« Last Edit: December 03, 2025, 11:29:13 AM by Flapp_Jackson »
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-- George Bernard Shaw

QUIETShooter

Re: The US Treasury isn't Making Any Cents!
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2025, 07:43:14 AM »
I wonder how much money in pennies are lying around somewhere in everyone's home, office, and in their car cushions and ashtrays all over the country. :rofl:

Does any of you out there, when you see a penny, do you pick it up?

I do.  What do I do with it?

Nothing.  I just stick it somewhere in the house, lol.  I hate carrying loose change.

Sometimes you gotta know when to save your bullets.

oldfart

Re: The US Treasury isn't Making Any Cents!
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2025, 07:57:45 AM »

Does any of you out there, when you see a penny, do you pick it up?

...
Of course!
Me pake!
What, Me Worry?

Eric808

Re: The US Treasury isn't Making Any Cents!
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2025, 11:18:41 AM »
Yes, I always tap it with my foot first, then use my sanitizer.  Around UH Hamilton Library are a couple of quarters glued to the sidewalk.

Flapp_Jackson

Re: The US Treasury isn't Making Any Cents!
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2025, 11:26:04 AM »
i wonder if the government's reduced demand for copper will have an impact on copper prices?

Copper thieves will have to find a new line of criminal activity, like politics.

 :geekdanc:
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-- George Bernard Shaw

mrgaf

Re: The US Treasury isn't Making Any Cents!
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2026, 05:37:01 PM »
Treasury Department Announces
They Are No Longer Minting Pennies
After 232 Years
https://tinyurl.com/mtxw7kv3

I'm looking forward to gas stations stopping that insane 9/10th of a cent added to the end of every gallon sold.https://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/fuel-consumption/why-is-9-10-added-to-gas-prices.htm

Awwww shit…now the price of your thoughts will be a nickel…friggin inflation! :crazy:
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.  Thomas Paine.

No man can get rich in politics unless he is a crook.  It cannot be done. Harry Truman

Only good liberal is one taking a dirt nap.

RSN172

Re: The US Treasury isn't Making Any Cents!
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2026, 10:20:31 AM »
Keep your pennys.  Very useful if you need a washer and don’t have the right size.  You can hammer it a bit and then drill a hole the size you need.

The diameter wouldn’t work for all cases, but for most normal sizes, it works fine.
Happily living in Puna

Flapp_Jackson

Re: The US Treasury isn't Making Any Cents!
« Reply #7 on: January 30, 2026, 10:53:02 AM »
Keep your pennys.  Very useful if you need a washer and don’t have the right size.  You can hammer it a bit and then drill a hole the size you need.

The diameter wouldn’t work for all cases, but for most normal sizes, it works fine.
Quote
The current U.S. penny, also known as the Lincoln cent, is composed of
97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper. This composition has been in use since
1982, when the penny was changed from a primarily copper-based coin
due to rising metal costs.

When you start mixing a variety of metals, you invite major corrosion between them.

Someone used stainless steel screws to assemble the sliding window frames in my house.  They all broke apart at the corners from massive corrosion between the screws and the aluminum frames.

i guess if you can't get the correct washer, anything lying around is fair game.   :thumbsup:

I keep the knock-out covers from electrical outlet boxes.  Galvanized steel usually matches the galvanized fasteners I use most. 
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-- George Bernard Shaw

changemyoil66

Re: The US Treasury isn't Making Any Cents!
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2026, 11:58:20 AM »
It wasn't until my 1st trip outside the US (Taiwan) that I was shown how useless US coins are.  In Taiwan, you can pay for an item with a paper bill and get change.  Put the coins in your pocket and then use that to buy more stuff later. 

Where as here, the only thing coins are really used for if in your pocket are making the amount even so you don't get coins back.  So $4.08 item, if you give $5.08, you get a $1 bill back. So the $0.08 is benefical to get less coins.

In taiwan, I bought a can of coffee for 15 NTD and gave a 100NTD bill (the smallest bill).  Got 85 back in coins and later bought a milk tea for 30.  I still have 55 in coins left over.  Bought some snacks and so on.  At 1 point, I was actually thinking a coin holder would be beneficial as to not have a pocket of coins moving around.

The only thing I use coins here for is to put it in my coin jar. Then once it's full I have about $200-350 in coins. When I go to Vegas, I put it on 1 hand and if I lose, oh well. "Free" money.  Most recent I was at golden Nugget and wanted to put the $287 I had from my coin jar on the bonus for 3 card poker.  The dealer wouldn't let me as the max was like $50 or something.  Well wouldnt you know it, I was delt a flush.  So damn, I missed out on my $287 turning into over $700 (3:1).  Instead I got $150.

Flapp_Jackson

Re: The US Treasury isn't Making Any Cents!
« Reply #9 on: January 30, 2026, 04:24:55 PM »
It wasn't until my 1st trip outside the US (Taiwan) that I was shown how useless US coins are.  In Taiwan, you can pay for an item with a paper bill and get change.  Put the coins in your pocket and then use that to buy more stuff later. 

Where as here, the only thing coins are really used for if in your pocket are making the amount even so you don't get coins back.  So $4.08 item, if you give $5.08, you get a $1 bill back. So the $0.08 is benefical to get less coins.

In taiwan, I bought a can of coffee for 15 NTD and gave a 100NTD bill (the smallest bill).  Got 85 back in coins and later bought a milk tea for 30.  I still have 55 in coins left over.  Bought some snacks and so on.  At 1 point, I was actually thinking a coin holder would be beneficial as to not have a pocket of coins moving around.

The only thing I use coins here for is to put it in my coin jar. Then once it's full I have about $200-350 in coins. When I go to Vegas, I put it on 1 hand and if I lose, oh well. "Free" money.  Most recent I was at golden Nugget and wanted to put the $287 I had from my coin jar on the bonus for 3 card poker.  The dealer wouldn't let me as the max was like $50 or something.  Well wouldn't you know it, I was delt a flush.  So damn, I missed out on my $287 turning into over $700 (3:1).  Instead I got $150.
You're complaining about a problem that is about to solve itself.  With the proliferation of credit cards, debit cards and gift cards, it's possible that currency in general will cease to be the common means of conducting trade. 

Even casinos are evolving where you can walk up with a cell phone, scan the QR code on the game table layout, and pay for your buy-in with any monetary service they accept -- PayPal, debit, bank account, credit card, bitcoin, CashApp, Venmo, and so on.  No need to carry your jar of pennies to the table to show how broke you are.     :rofl: :geekdanc:
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-- George Bernard Shaw

eyeeatingfish

Re: The US Treasury isn't Making Any Cents!
« Reply #10 on: February 04, 2026, 01:18:44 AM »
Good, this is long overdue.