Are Coins Going The Way Of Stamps?

I have recently come across, in change, coins that were ten or 15 years old, but looked virtually uncirculated. The government keeps making them, but they are used less and less, just as it does with stamps. Anyone else notice this?

Don

If you had 100 of any coin just as they come in circulation, it would be almost impossible not to have a coin from the 1960's (with the exception of half dollars and dollars of course). That, plus the fact that the current coinage one gets is on average in pretty nice condition I think is still not enough information to make any kind of conclusion. The US mint produced 14 billion coins last year of which 8.6 billion were pennies.

That alone shows that coins are still pretty healthy!

Peter

Is it time to do away with pennies? Do they have to print that many because they wind up stashed in cars, dressers, jugs, etc since very few people bother to dig out pennies for exact change?

Rounding up might even stimulate the economy.

A penny not minted is a penny earned?

In Canada, we got rid of the penny several years ago, and it was a surprisingly smooth process. Cash transactions are rounded up/down to the nearest nickel, and non-cash transactions are actual amounts. Of course Point of Sale software had to be adjusted, but overall a pretty non-eventual adjustment and people don't seem to miss them.

"coins that were ten or 15 years old, but looked virtually uncirculated. "

Easy to explain. Lots of people just throw their change in a jar or can where it sits for a long time before they turn it in. As it just sits there it doesn't get any wear.

I'm in the dump the penny group.How many tons of metal do they have to mint to produce 8.4 billion pennies each year that just sit and are worth less than they cost to produce?

I agree with eyeonwall about people saving coins in a jar. For many years, my wife & I saved dimes. Then every couple of years or so, when the dime jar was finally full, we would take them to the bank to have them counted. Then we would spend the $200 or so on something fun.

I never carry pennies and nickels for more than one day; they wear holes in my pockets. They are put in a bowl and then rolled. Somewhere between $4 and $8 they go to the bank, to be exchanged for bills.