Should the USA mint stop making pennies and just start with nickels?

Why or why not?

Should the USA mint stop making pennies and just start with nickels?
It isn't a question of IF the penny should be eliminated, but WHEN. How worthless must it be before it is eliminated? In 1982, the U.S. government switched the penny from an almost pure copper content to a zinc coin with a copper coating. Instead, they should have eliminated it in 1982. Now the penny is even too worthless to make out of zinc. How many cheaper materials must we find prior to just eliminating a coin that people don't want and don't pick up if it falls out of their hand?



Even the nickel is too expensive to make in it's current state. The U.S. government should have eliminated the penny in 1982 and should now be working on eliminating the nickel and dime. You can't just eliminate the nickel because their would be no way to make change between a quarter and dime.



At the same time, this would free up coin sizes to make $1 and $5 coins. Paper $1 bills barely last a single year and are a huge waste of money. Yet, $1 coins will never work unless the goverment eliminates the paper $1 at the same time. This is because businesses will never give $1 coins as change for fear that their customers would rather have bills. Eliminating the option is the only way it will work. Most industrial nations have coins worth over $5 already. The U.S. is way behind.



Oh...and the idea that eliminating the penny will make them valuable is ridiculous. There are hundreds of billions of pennies in circulation. They won't exactly be rare anytime soon and aren't made of precious metals like silver.
Reply:The US$ is falling in purchasing power. The smallest denomination could be 5 cents if rounding was introduced.

The base metals contained in US coins is increasingly far more valuable than their face value. The U S Mint is losing money in producing most of their coin currency.



Australian officially started to withdraw all copper coins (1c %26amp; 2c) by 1990.
Reply:janie j mrs lovely i think your question is how much is that nickel worth what backs the u.s. currency i know this may not answer your question lovely the usa mint is a business to show profits
Reply:It seems like an easy enough question. Why not just drop the pennies and try to put more money in the econonmy with the lowest value a 5 cent piece. But you have to remember that the pennies would become more valueable.

Some pennies sell for millions of dollars. That is millions of dollars spent on a small piece of metal that used to cost 1 cent.



So, I think that it is a good idea. We could get some of the millionaires to dish out big bucks for extinct pennies.