[Dreamtwister]

Or in this case, steel:

Copper and nickle are getting too expensive to use in coins

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he dollar has been devalued to such an extent that a penny — as in one hundredth of a dollar — can only buy a fraction of the metal needed to make a physical penny. Each coin takes significantly more than one cent to produce.

[mattduke]

Anything can be valuable. All the government has to do is stamp a number on it.

[3aidlillahi]

I think it's amazing that for only a couple of coins and over the past few years that the government has lost money on producing coins. And they are going bonkers over it. But think of all of the other years in which they paid less than a cent for a penny, less than 5 cents for a nickel, less than 10 cents for a dime, etc. They were actually MAKING money doing that (since they don't have to back it up with anything).

If metal prices dip, then it's just going to mean even larger margins for the government for these steel coins.

[Kingcoal]

Why does cash still exist? Cash can be hidden, it can go undocumented, it's yours and you can keep it a secret. In light of money laundering laws and whatnot, how can the government continue to allow cash to exist? Want to stop RICO behavior, turn all money into ATM accounts, it's as easy as that. Without cash, the courts can simply directly levy your accounts in the event of a court judgment. A world without cash would make life a lot easier for the governments of the world so why does it still exist, why do the governments continue this costly enterprise of printing paper money and making coins?

Maybe it's because if the government were to do away with cash, the black markets would have to turn to another paper/coin currency for use in transactions? Think about it, that would undermine the dollar because illegal transactions make up a significant percentage of the total. Criminals would be using the Euro instead of dollars. It seems to me that while the government does what they can to stop criminal organizations, in the meantime, they want their piece of that economic activity.