Our great and wonderful congress is pushing through legislation to resolve the problem that it costs more to make pennies and nickels than the face value of the coin. The value of copper and zinc is the problem they are addressing. A penny costs 1.2 cents and a nickel costs 7.7 cents. The proposal is to change the content to steel with a copper coating. If enacted a savings of over $100 million will be realized. While this is a solution, a far better solution is to stop minting pennies and nickels all together. The effect of inflation over the years has made their use impractical. All merchants would need to do is round up the cost of a product to the nearest dime. I am sure if this was done savings approaching $1 billion could be realized. The cost of the raw materials and cost of minting are huge.
Why do they continue to resist? Do they think Americans would be outraged at the loss of these nuisance coins? Are they afraid to admit that reckless spending policies over many decades have reduced the value of our currency? Coin collectors can amuse themselves for centuries until such time as they become extinct.
This is just another of my simplistic solutions to our many problems. I felt I had to write about it.
Jack B. Walters
3961 N. Hillwood Circle
Tucson, AZ 85750
(520) 722-2958
May 9, 2008
jackbwalters@yahoo.com
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