DailyDirt: How Much Are Coins Worth?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

While early coins represented the value of the metal they were made of, modern day coins are issued by the government and their value is determined by free market currency exchange rates. Ideally the value of a coin should be higher than the cost of the metals used to make it, but when the price of metals, like copper, increases, pennies can end up being worth more for their metal. For example, the Canadian government has officially stopped distributing pennies because not only do they cost almost 1.6 cents per penny to produce, but most people think pennies are worthless. But are they? Here are a few more interesting coin-related stories.

• Pennies aren't worthless. They're legal tender and carry a value of 1 cent. That's why a Utah man tried to pay a disputed $25 doctor's bill in pennies. After he presented the clinic with almost 14 lbs of pennies and demanded that they count them, he was found guilty of disorderly conduct and fined $140. Hopefully he didn't try to pay the fine in pennies as well. [url]
• Have you ever wondered why there are 100 cents in a dollar? In 1784, Thomas Jefferson suggested that the U.S. dollar should be decimalized, and being the influential guy that he was, he managed to convince the government to follow the suggestions he proposed in his essay, "Notes on the Establishment of a Money Unit, and of a Coinage for the United States." [url]
• Coin collectors can now get their very own platinum-plated "trillion dollar coin" for just $9.95. The coins commemorate the idea that the U.S. Treasury could simply mint a $1 trillion platinum coin to get around the debt ceiling. Apparently, U.S. law allows the Treasury to produce platinum coins in any denomination. [url]
• The Royal Canadian Mint wants to create a secure digital alternative to cash in the form of MintChip. The MintChip smart card chip could be installed in a number of devices, and value would be transferred onto the chip by a MintChip broker, allowing users to securely exchange Canadian dollars both online and offline. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: coins, currency, dollar, money, pennies, platinum, royal canadian mint