Treasure Hunting

May 07

It Costs More Than a Penny to Make a Penny… Say What?

First things first: I know we took some time off, but it’s spring time. Can you blame us? After researching all fall and winter it’s finally nice to be outside again and we’ve been hard-pressed to sit at a computer for very long.

Second: With the current economic news/trends/status, we’re pretty happy to have a hobby that pays us instead of drains us. Which leads me to the article I stumbled on this morning.

It would seem that the price of making pennies ain’t cheap.

MSNBC is reporting that “it now costs more than a penny to make a penny. And the cost of a nickel is more than 7½ cents. Surging prices for copper, zinc and nickel have some in Congress trying to bring back the steel-made pennies of World War II, and maybe using steel for nickels, as well.

“Copper and nickel prices have tripled since 2003 and the price of zinc has quadrupled, said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., whose subcommittee oversees the U.S. Mint.”

This shouldn’t be any surprise to those of us who have been watching gold creep higher and higher… it looks like other commodities and precious metals are slowly but surely doing the same.

But steel pennies? Really?

During World War II, there were Massive shortages of Copper. Copper was the main ingredient for Shell Casings, Bullets, Bombs and Guns for the war. The US Government was forced to forgo the copper they typically used for coins until they could find more elsewhere.

When first introduced, the steel pennies were completely shunned by the general population.

When brand new, the 1943 cents looked like, and were often mistaken for, dimes. And in 1943, making a 9 cent mistake was a big deal. When these cents corroded, they looked like slugs, hence the nick name, “lead pennies.”

In 1945 the mint began to withdraw steel cents from circulation. Over the next 20 years the mint retrieved almost 15% of the steel pennies that were minted and destroyed them.

But it looks like these unpopular pennies will be making a comeback if the economy continues down the path it’s on. So metal detectorists beware - that coppa collection might be looking a little funny in the future.