This was an interesting read.
https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins-page/federal-reserve-contractors-suspend-lincoln-cent-orders
Surprised to find it is entirely up to Congress, not the Mint. I suppose that is the same here.
Three cents to make one. I've been told it costs about 6 cents to make our 5 cent piece. Not sure how true that is though.
Feels like this has been a long time coming.
Re the 5c, I think at times they have been unprofitable but I thought it was usually okay due to metal price movements.
Mints - whether in the US, Australia or anywhere else - don't make coins just because they fell like doing it. They make coins in response to government orders. The government also legislates in terms of design and composition of the various authorized denominations, which the Mint is compelled to obey. So if the government orders the Mint to manufacture unprofitable coins, that Mint is legally obligated to do so.
Now, the Mint does have a say in advising the government what it should and shouldn't do in regards to coinage. But their advice has tended to be more towards advising what is physically possible to do, from an engineering or metallurgical point of view, rather than advising them as to profit and loss of the various denominations.
Re: the cost of coinage: the cost to purchase the raw materials is just one aspect of the cost of producing a coin. There's also labour, plant (the dies will wear out eventually and will need replacing), the cost of preparing or shipping the blanks, as well as the cost of distributing the freshly minted coin from the actual mint site to wherever the coins are actually needed. So while the "melt value" of the American 1 cent coin's components are increasing, the other costs add up tot he extent that even if the coins were made of thin air, they would still cost more than 1 cent each to produce. The US Mint already acquires the zinc blanks effectively for free, and they still lose money making them.
In the case of the Australian 5 cent coin, while the copper and nickel components cost 2.5 cents per coin at current market values, the other costs add up to something around 10 cents each - meaning that from a purely economic point of view, the Australian 5 cent and 10 cent coins are both already loss-makers, and changing the composition (a la New Zealand) isn't going to help much.
What we do not know at this point in time, if the Lincoln cent will be made for proof and uncirculated coin set for 2026 onwards.
I think the dropping of the cent coin is wise, not just because its too expensive to make, but they really have no actual value or purchasing power. You can barely buy anything with a quarter, let alone a cent.
Same for you Aussies, your coins are a laughable throwback to 50 years ago. The cents coins are all too large and completely worthless. You can get like one small stick of bubblegum with 50 cents now, back in 1966 you could get a steak.
NZ getting the small steel coins was a wise move. The copper plated muck metal 10c coin is like a cent here, most people barely notice they exist. Since March I have accumulated $215 in change and only $2.10 of it is in 10 cent coins, yet $138 of it is $2 coins and $44 is in $1 coins.
Yes, I think we should have gone the same way as NZ, although I am not a fan of the copper plated 10c.
I agree, I don't like steel of any type full stop. Its the cheapest hard metal alloy that is not toxic. Lead and aluminium are considered light and soft metals. People use stainless steel, steel, plated steel or whatever else you call it now - as its the cheapest and most durable material for worthless coins.
Most countries switched to steel and its variants in the 90s and 00s and genuine cupro nickel or nickel coinages are scarce now (Japan, Switzerland, Australia are main users of cupro nickel - the American dime and higher are mostly copper as they are only clad with 8.33% nickel and hence why the edges of any American coin older than a year or under MS63 has a brownish tinge). The costs of American pennies are drowned out by quarters. A quarter costs 9 cents to mint yet has a 25c value and even a half dollar is about 16c to make and yet is worth 50c. In an average year they mint at least 1 billion quarters and around 5 billion cents (Its massively dropped from the 12 - 14 billion pennies per year of the 1990s and 2000s). Zincolns are cheaper than the old copper/bronze pennies of 1982 and earlier.
I also know many American collectors and even preppers save pre 1982 pennies (With 1982 its hard to tell if a coin is bronze or zinc as they had both that year, and being 1 cent, not worth the effort to find out - Bronze pennies weigh 3 grams, zincolns weigh 2.4 or something) as the coins contain around 3 cents of copper each and copper is a good conductor of electricity.
My wife and daughter will be in NZ in early December for a week. I'll be interested to see what they bring home. Their accommodation is paid for and they have a hire car but none of that requires cash.
I've given my wife $1550 NZ to cover whatever they want to spend it on. I doubt she will get through it all.
NZ is very pretty. Been there twice and enjoyed it both times.
I don't mind steel coins for their durability, but to handle them, I find them slippery little suckers.
Gweidon, I think they will have no trouble, everything is so expensive now. Even basic fish and chips is over $10 now. Milk is like $3 a litre, bread $5 a loaf and decent restaurant meals are like $100. Any attraction will be $50 or more.
They will enjoy it though, the weather lately has been hot and dry, almost like Australia.
I am now up to $257.10 of change and the 10 cents has increased to 2.80 of it. $2 make up $170 of it (85 coins) and there are 48 x $1 and $39.10 of 50c,20c and 10c.
America apparently are doing a 3 coin penny set for 2026 with the Semiquincentenary set (A fancy way of saying 250 years).
https://www.pcgs.com/news/new-coins-for-us-collectors-to
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic171627.html
Has links to the set with 3 coins, 2 standard ones with an "Omega mint mark" and a gold penny - just 232 sets issued to celebrate 232 years of the coin issued between 1793 and 2025.
Despite the rumours, none of the American commem coins will show Donald Trump.
I think all the sets are being auctioned. My pockets aren't deep enough.