money money money

[FarmerChick]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-mint-wasting-money-making-money/story?id=14052997

the link is a pain LOL
here is the copy




By JONATHAN KARL (@jonkarl) , ROBIN GRADISON and BEN FORER
July 14, 2011
The U.S. Mint in Philadelphia is a big, noisy, busy operation, capable of minting nearly 2 million presidential dollar coins daily. But most of those coins go into storage, never seeing the light of day. Costing 32 cents apiece to produce, these manganese brass dollars have proven unpopular with a public that prefers paper.

ABC News went to one such storage facility, the Federal Reserve in Baltimore, where the coins are in plastics bags and cardboard boxes, stacked one on top of another, creating several aisles of presidential coinage worth millions of dollars.

In their most recent annual report to Congress, the Federal Reserve says the coins are piling up so quickly they will need to spend $650,000 to build a new vault in Dallas to hold them. Shipping the coins to the new secure facility will cost an additional $3 million.

Passed by Congress in 2005, the Presidential $1 Coin Act ordered the mint to make millions of coins to honor every dead president, but not even Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., one of the co-sponsors of the original bill, uses the legal tender.

"Do you use these things? Do you have any of these things in your pocket?" Reed was asked by ABC News' Jonathan Karl while holding the dollar coins. "I don't I tell you, but I like everyone else repeatedly use nickels, dimes, quarters. In fact I have a little jar in my car for the traffic meters."

Reed and other senators sent a letter Tuesday to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Mint Acting Director Richard Peterson asking for help in improving the program while eliminating waste of taxpayer resources.

Meanwhile, the coins keep coming off the production lines, already more than a billion made and counting. The Fed's report estimates that they could have more than $2 billion in excess $1 coins by the time the program is expected to end five years from now.

 

[Wifezilla]

All they need to do is start taking back the paper dollars and burning the darn things. Banks turn them in when they are all trashed anyway. Just phase em out.

 

[~gd]

These are 'Collector' Coins. In the current downturn people just are not buying. Most real collectors know that they will never be rare and there is not a trace of silver in them. The state quarters were fairly good sellers because people use quarters. I try to keep a few stashed in my car just to use in vending machines which seem to reject anything but a brand new bill. if they wanted people to take them there should be at least 50% silver which would make a tiny coin which I would stash just in case TSHTF or inflation got out of control, the silver would hold value for barter. and I expect they would be horded by us SS types.

 

[justusnak]

They could ship a truckload to me, and I wouldn't charge them a dime!! Of course, I dont know if I could "store" them for too long.

 

[Boogity]

More government waste. It's everywhere!

 

[k0xxx]

These are 'Collector' Coins. In the current downturn people just are not buying. Most real collectors know that they will never be rare and there is not a trace of silver in them. The state quarters were fairly good sellers because people use quarters. I try to keep a few stashed in my car just to use in vending machines which seem to reject anything but a brand new bill. if they wanted people to take them there should be at least 50% silver which would make a tiny coin which I would stash just in case TSHTF or inflation got out of control, the silver would hold value for barter. and I expect they would be horded by us SS types.

Actually, what the article is talking about is not collector coins, but coins intended for general circulation. There are collector coins of this type, but the general circulation coins are what they are stuck with. The Mint has even gone so far as to offer free shipping on boxes of coins (face value, 250 coins for $250). To quote the Mint website:

"The intended purpose of the Circulating $1 Coin Direct Ship Program is to make $1 Coins readily available to the public, at no additional cost, so they can be easily introduced into circulationparticularly by using them for retail transactions, vending, and mass transit. Increased circulation of $1 Coins saves the Nation money."

By law they are required to produce a certain number of circulated dollar coins per year, and they can't get rid of them. Your Federal government at work.

 

[Britesea]

I would circulate them if I got them. But even when I go to the bank, they always give me paper money instead.

 

[~gd]

These are 'Collector' Coins. In the current downturn people just are not buying. Most real collectors know that they will never be rare and there is not a trace of silver in them. The state quarters were fairly good sellers because people use quarters. I try to keep a few stashed in my car just to use in vending machines which seem to reject anything but a brand new bill. if they wanted people to take them there should be at least 50% silver which would make a tiny coin which I would stash just in case TSHTF or inflation got out of control, the silver would hold value for barter. and I expect they would be horded by us SS types.

Actually, what the article is talking about is not collector coins, but coins intended for general circulation. There are collector coins of this type, but the general circulation coins are what they are stuck with. The Mint has even gone so far as to offer free shipping on boxes of coins (face value, 250 coins for $250). To quote the Mint website:

"The intended purpose of the Circulating $1 Coin Direct Ship Program is to make $1 Coins readily available to the public, at no additional cost, so they can be easily introduced into circulationparticularly by using them for retail transactions, vending, and mass transit. Increased circulation of $1 Coins saves the Nation money."

By law they are required to produce a certain number of circulated dollar coins per year, and they can't get rid of them. Your Federal government at work.

Ok but if they just wanted to get the coins in circulation[and they do] why not stick to the PC women's coins like the Susan B Anthony or the Native woman that went with Lewis & Clark? Every time you make new dies it costs big time and I think they are doing 4 presidents/year.

 

[Denim Deb]

The title to this thread made me think of this song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPDfJekMyBU