I do not understand why they need 5 different "backs" top this new coin as well. It is very wasteful and they should just stop making the penny to save money. Just round up or down the costs involved with a purchase or just don't make pennies a necessary part of life. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
People had to design that penny, so that's jobs that are being created. As far as production costs, the design is a tiny fraction of the total cost of minting, so it's almost irrelevent. They just change the molds and keep stamping.
I'm kind of excited about it. I've already gotten an email about how In God We Trust has been taken off. idiots, turn the coin over.
It already costs more than a penny to manufacture one. All this did was add to that "negative return". Besides, who gives a damn whether Lincoln split rails, or sat around with his thumb up his ass grinning like a mental defective ? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
When they started to remake the penny the cost of copper was over 5.00 US per pound but today has slipped to below 1.60 US so it could rise once again when speculators want to rip the market off as they do over and over again and again. So while the cost to produce them today is low they will cost us more than they are worth in the very near future. So just stop making them I'd say, they aren't a necessary thing to have in society any longer.
Actually the American Penny is 97.5% Zinc. The US mints 13 Billion Pennies per year (not sure it is per year or on demand) which is about 66 million pounds of Zinc.
