Currently

 The mint at Philadelphia has struck the last penny. We currently have four mints, Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and West Point. I hadn't heard of the one at West Point until I looked that up. The Denver mint also made pennies but the Philadelphia mint was the primary source. Well, no more are being minted but they will not be disappearing any time soon. They are still legal tender for all debts public and private. Prices will be adjusted in increments of 5. Which way do you think that adjustment will go? And, not only that I'm thinking the adjustment will begin today! The mints have not increased the production of nickels yet, but I can see that becoming a necessity. I looked that up and guess how much it costs to produce a nickel? Fourteen cents! The reason for stopping pennies was they cost about 4 cents each to make. Maybe we should just stop making nickels, seems like a bigger savings to me. We can make dimes for about five or six cents. 

  I'm not a numismatist, I don't collect coins. I do have a jar full of pennies though. If the government had contacted me I would have sold them to back, saving on production costs. It cost them four cents to make a new one, I 'd sell them a used one for three. Sounds like a good plan to me. If the figure came out to the penny they could round it up to the nearest nickel. I do have some nickels saved as well, they are for sale for ten cents each, a savings of four cents on each one in production costs. You know I think I may be on to something here. It only costs about 12 cents to make a quarter, maybe that is the lowest denomination coin we should be using. The penny, nickel and dime cost more to make than they are worth so producing only quarters will be a big savings. Only need one die, one stamping machine, and a handful of workers. 

  I did google this and the numbers are staggering. Each mint produces between 300 and 350 million quarters every month! That's about 3.2 Billion quarters every year. That's a lot of money for production and distribution. The government would love to go "cash free" to avoid that expense. Of course that does mean one thing, the government now controls your money. When the government can issue your money electronically, it can also just take it away, electronically. The government hasn't gotten to my penny jar; yet. Is this the first step toward that? Some will say so, and I tend to agree with them. It does make far more fiscal sense. I keep hearing about this stuff called BITCOIN and how you can mine it. I won't pretend to understand any of that but it is money that is free to those that know how to get it. It's not real money though, but you can spend it. Like I said, I don't know much about that. I just know there is no actual currency. Not in my lifetime, but one day I expect that will be the standard thing. Credits in the bank, that's what currency will be. That will be the current thing. Currently we still have pennies in circulation and that will continue for a good while. 

 Only the government could justify producing new coins that cost more to produce than they are worth. After many years, 232 to be exact of producing pennies, they decided that wasn't a good idea. It costs about four cents to make a penny yet when I take it to the bank it was only worth one cent. It would have been a lot cheaper if the bank just credited me with two cents, thereby getting that coin for half price! A 50% savings. It's like BOGO. The value remains the same regardless of the age of that coin. On average a penny remains in circulation for thirty years. Man, that's a lot of saving. But now the government as decided it will just stop making them, the prices raise a least a penny, increasing the amount of tax collected and eventually recouping that loss revenue. Yeah, that's the plan alright. Only the government can operate a business like that. 

                                                                                  

Wonder what Abe would have to say about this.