Comments on: 2009 is the new 1943: Welcome Back, Steel Penny

By: brian prawes

brian prawes — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:11:36 +0000

before Turkey went to New Turkish Lira, when I first arrived to that country, they used 100 lira and 500lira coins. Their “cents” were called kurus which were long gone out of circulation. When I left Turkey 3 years later, they were using the 500, 1000, and 5000lira coins and the 100 lira coin was no no longer legal to use. They had just started printing the 100,000 lira paper bills.

Thought i would let you know as Obama is printing money in record amounts deflating our currency, any dollar savings you have will become worthless.

By: MARC SEFCIK

MARC SEFCIK — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:54:10 +0000

minimum wage at $0.0675??!? i like the100X re-base. half cents were made in 1800s. but for a corp millionaire to get a paltry $300,000? loss of PRIDE. same as i read years ago in THE JOURNAL, if usa paper moey goes colorful, it will be as worthless as south american color currency. gas $4, coke $1, bread $3, well, blame it on obama, he does all the ills according to McShame.

By: 2009 Lincoln Cents

2009 Lincoln Cents — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:00:10 +0000

Looks like the legislation died. I think next year’s redesign will cause some excitement and attention that will put off any composition change. Also the price of zinc has moderated.

The debate seems to be revived every few years. Next cycle 2011?

By: stonegatherer

stonegatherer — Sat, 24 May 2008 05:03:36 +0000

I think the obvious solution is to move up to the dime as the lowest form of currency.

By: Bill McGonigle

Bill McGonigle — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:23:38 +0000

It’s tough to have a decimal currency without a proper ’1′. When inflation gets out of control, like with the US dollar, it’s often wise to re-base the currency. A 10x re-base would take care of all of the penny’s problems, and create quite a bit of work. A 100x re-base would take us back to probably pre-WWII, at least based on prices I’ve heard my grandparents talk about, but I think that’s too severe; for a Lexus to cost $400 and have no way to operate in a coin-op world (having a soda cost $1 or $2 as the only options is too restricting). But if we implement re-basing systems now on 10x we can do it again in another couple decades, when the dollar will probably have inflated itself that much again.

And, just maybe, it’ll get somebody’s attention that we can’t just keep inflating the money supply without consequence.