Obama Wants Cheaper Pennies And Nickels

Obama Wants Cheaper Pennies And Nickels: Mint of the United States faces a challenge - especially in these times mean. It turns out that it costs more to make pennies and pennies that are part of.

And because the Obama administration this week asked Congress for permission to change the mix of metal, which will earn money and a penny, my recipe, which has remained unchanged for over 30 years.

To be precise, it is worth 2.4 cents to a penny in 2011 and 11.2 cents for every nickel.

Given the number of coins the Mint production - 4.3 billion dinars and 914 million last year, only a penny, these costs add up quickly: only $ 100 million for each part.

But even if the Finance Ministry studied the new metal from 2010, it still comes with a realistic mix that will undoubtedly be cheaper, and he had no details yet about what metals are used and how it will be to save it.

Despite the cheaper metal can be used, it can not take a penny less than the cost of a penny.

Only the administrative costs of minting pennies worth 4300000000 nearly half a cent per share on its own, leaving very little room to less than a penny per cent, irrespective of the raw materials used.

The cost of raw materials from metals used in a penny today, only 0.6 cents per piece, depending on the prices quoted on the London Metal Exchange, as well as by the composition of a penny mint. The Mint made 1.1 cents on average for the metal used in the penny in 2011, but it cost ready-to-white root providers, not commodities traded on commodity markets in the first place.
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There have been times in recent years when a run-up in zinc and copper prices has taken the raw material value of a penny above one cent.

That's the case for a nickel today. Its more expensive metal mix means the raw materials in each are worth almost 6 cents per coin, based on current market prices. (States eye silver and gold currencies)

Despite popular belief, since 1982 pennies have only been copper plated, not copper through and through. Much less expensive zinc makes up 97.5% of the mass of a penny, the rest is a copper coating.

Nickels actually have much more copper in them -- 75% copper and 25% nickel, the same mix it has always had.

The mint did make steel pennies for one year -- in 1943 -- when copper was needed for the war effort. And steel might be a cheaper alternative this time. Steel is roughly one-quarter the price of zinc on the London Metal Exchange.

Treasury had already made a cost-saving move in December when it stopped making dollar coins.

With 1.4 billion surplus presidential dollar coins sitting in bank vaults waiting to be circulated, and American consumers showing little appetite to start using the coins, Treasury estimates the halt in production of the coins will save about $50 million a year.
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The Treasury representative Matt Anderson said that the Treasury has the right to stop making a dollar coin for himself, but he can not change the mix of metals in cents without permission.

As for some suggestions it would be penny dropped, Anderson said, "this is not a proposal we put forward."