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The Lincoln Memorial is that big building pictured on the penny.

Since 2008 Lincoln Memorial is no longer on the penny. It was replaced last year with four designs that commemorated Lincoln's life. This year the design changed again, showing the depiction of a shield. For details, see the US Mint.

why not do a "44 presidents" set?

They are. It's been running since 2007. The article summary even says "the US Mint [issues] four new presidential coins each year". And they're going absolutely nowhere except "government vaults."

I'm starting to think this is a strategy to salvage/prolong our faltering money supply: print/coin huge piles of cash, then stash it (either by creating something the public wants so much they hoard it, or creating something the public doesn't want so it sits in vaults, or just create it and don't even offer it for general use), creating a financial ballast to counteract the ever-extending debt. Don't have the whole theory worked out, but there's got to be something to making that much cash and stashing out of the public's hands.

You can also get them straight off the US Mint for $1 each, and they pay shipping. They come in increments of $250 though.

http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&identifier=8100&wt.ac=TriAd-pre$1directShip

You don't even have to go to the bank if you're lazy, as the US Mint will ship a box of $250 of them right to your door at cost if you intend to spend them.

Linky:
http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&identifier=8100

I had seen the Liberty Dollars before, and yes they look "fakey" to me, and probably to most Slashdotters.

Now... to somebody with an IQ of 100 or less... well, maybe they'd be fooled.

In any event, the US Mint does a pretty good job of explaining how the LDs, in essence, used the "trademarks" of legal US currency.

IANAL, but I believe it all hinges on the definition of "current money". If it doesn't hinge on that phrase, then why are the "generic silver rounds" sold by other dealers not being confiscated? I think the Liberty Dollar people would have been fine if they had not used the word "Dollar" or the dollar sign. I'm not sure how "current money" differs from "legal tender", AFAIK they have the same legal meaning for this purpose.

The US Mint explains their PoV here.

Well, I'm bored. The US Mint says that a penny weighs 2.5g and is 19.05mm across. I can't find an estimate for the height of a nuclear power station, but let's say 25m, so a nuclear power station sized penny would weight 2.5g*(25m/19.05mm)^3=5 650 346.68kg. That's quite a lot. The current copper price is $6241/tonne on the London Metals Exchange, that is, roughly $35,263,813.60. Zinc is about a third of that price.

Also, the fact that the government continues to print dollar bills (and does so in vastly greater quantities than it mints dollar coins) doesn't help.

Yeah, the problem is that bills are printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, while coins are manufactured by the US Mint. The two don't really talk to each other (or perhaps they do, but can't agree), so there's no unified policy on whether "the government" should be pushing the use of dollar coins over dollar bills.

The US Mint *really* wants you to use dollar coins; you can buy them online at value, with free shipping.

There's also the idea that people generally prefer bills over coins due to weight. That's the reason I prefer dollar bills over dollar coins, at least. When I get a dollar coin, I try to spend it as quickly as possible to get it out of my wallet/pocket.

I don't think it much matters, since the U.S. mint only produces our coins. You want the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

The thing with lincoln on it is a one cent piece. There is no US coin called a penny.

That may not be it's official name, but both I and the US Mint call it a penny:

http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/circulatingCoins/index.cfm?action=CircPenny

Note that this would only apply to a state minting its own gold or silver coinage, which none of them do. ... However, near the end you said that, in the current system, gold and silver are not legal tender. That's incorrect. American Eagles are legal tender.

Inflation is coming. Inflation is always coming eventually, but there is a current trend of economists to believe that the national debt combined with deficit spending is going to drive a significantly higher rate of inflation in the near future than the US has seen in many years. Inflation is pretty much nullified if what is accepted as money has intrinsic value close to the face value. If the wave of inflation hits at the level predicted by the doom and gloom mongers, then I predict that some states will issue gold and silver coins. It should make for interesting times.

No, I pretty much got all that. My point was, you seemed to think that he claimed the government can't issue non-gold/silver coins, and he didn't. He was just arguing that, since the U.S. Constitution says the coins are legal currency, the Federal Government has to accept them as such.

The Constitution says that states cannot declare anything other than gold/silver to be legal tender.

The Constitution does not say that the Federal Government can't.

The Constitution also does not (explicitly) say that states can declare gold/silver to be legal tender, however, since states are not prohibited, they're allowed (that's how the Constitution works). Note that this would only apply to a state minting its own gold or silver coinage, which none of them do. Coinage authorised by the Federal Government (e.g. minted by the U.S. Mint, which isn't a governmental entity but is authorised by the government to issue currency) would, I presume, be forced on the states because the Federal Government said it's legal tender and the states don't have the right to say no it isn't.

However, near the end you said that, in the current system, gold and silver are not legal tender. That's incorrect. American Eagles are legal tender.

The U.S. Constitution doesn't, but the U.S. Mint does[.pdf] – page one, 3rd column, under "Easy to buy and sell". (JPEG, if you prefer)

Just Plain Wrong.

31 USC 5103

        United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.

Oh, and American Eagles are legal tender[.pdf].

Quarters, unlike gold coins, are legal tender.

Blatantly, outright, not even close, missed by a mile, false. 10 seconds on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gold_Eagle

Refers you to the US mint government webpage:

http://www.usmint.gov/downloads/mint_programs/am_eagles/AmerEagleGold.pdf

Here's a direct quote from the first page of this US MINT government issued document:

"They're also legal tender"

Unlike a Library of Congress the quarter is an instantly relatable and contextual unit of measurement. Its a standard size that most everyone has access to. I'm sure there's specs available somewhere.

Can you point me to a specification that details nose length? This one blatantly omits the nose. The issue is further complicated by the fact that Washington's nose was longer before 1998: compare the images. So are they referring to a Short Washington's Nose or a Long Washington's Nose?

I believe it's safe to assume that at least part of this story couldn't have happened here in the U.S. The design of pennies is a work of the Federal Government, and as such is not eligible for copyright. However, see this section from the U.S. Mint website:

Designs of the new quarter-dollar coins issued under the 50 State Quarters Program may be derivative works of designs covered by third-party copyrights licensed to or assigned to the U.S. Mint, or in some cases may be covered by third-party copyrights assigned to the Mint.

Which Dollar coin?

Someone should inform the US Treasury and US Mint of that factoid. http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/index.cfm?fla sh=yes&action=coin_specifications

Consider especially the boy-bands of the late 90s. It was literally a money-making machine owned from the industry from start to finish.

Hmmm, I'm going to have to disagree with you there. None of the boy bands, to my recollection, looked anything like anything I see here. Could you have possibly meant "figuratively" where you wrote "literally" above?

Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States; or whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled or lightened - shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

Wow, and I thought I was on the cutting edge by stamping bills and entering them into Where's George?

In fact, a April Fool's joke I recall was that WG had developed a way to track US dollar coins, with a machine that would emboss a unique serial number into the coin's smooth edge. The new project would be "Where's Sackie?"

Looks like the Canadian government is way ahead of the curve on that one. Better alert the folks at Where's Willy?, the northern branch of Where's George?.

* Most 1943 pennies were zinc-coated steel, due to the need for copper in the war effort.

The US Mint published an interim rule blocking the melting of coins in the Federal Register, which is valid for 120 days. During the next 30 days, the Director of the Mint is required to accept public comments on the proposed rule. After 120 days, the Director will make a final decision. Anyone who has something to say that is more literate than "OMFGROFLBBQ! The US MINT is suxx0rzzzz!!1!11" is invited to comment at the website the government has set up just for that purpose, or submit comments in writing to:

Office of Chief Counsel
United States Mint
801 9th Street, N.W.
Washington D.C. 20220

60. Is it illegal to damage or deface coins?

Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who "fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States." This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.

Half-dollars continued to use a lesser amount of silver through 1970 (and 1976 bicentennial), after which they transitioned to the same makeup as the quarter. Some of the earlier Eisenhower dollers also contained a silver mixture.

You can actually still get current production US silver coins. The "silver proof sets" are available, cost more than the standard proof sets, and may or may not be more collectable a few decades out. Here's a link. I've found a few of these very new proofs (half dollars) in circulation. Some meth-head or kid is cracking out the coin sets, I suppose.

It was 1982.

sigh. Whatever. At least we have the MTV spaceman on the Ohio quarter. Rickenbacker, as a foreign trade zone, and a bigass flat open space besides, has financial and public support advantages in attracting travel facilities (never mind that several regional airlines have tried and failed while based there). I'm doubtful, however, that this idea will (shoot down this pun if you care to) get off the ground. Main Reason: the weather. Can a suborbital rocket ignore the usual NASA precautions and launch through our 200+ days of cloud cover?

I keep seeing comments like this, but you know exactly what I and the others in this thread mean.

Fair or not, right or wrong, good domain names are not an unlimited resource, and all of the single dictionary word dot com domains have been gone for quite some time, and they do have value beyond the $12 (though you can pay less) that somebody spent to register them.

We're discussing names that aren't being used for any practical purpose, but merely squatted to try to make a buck off of someone else that really does want to use it.

Also note that the claim was not `unused domains'. It was `all domains'. If you look at specific domains, some are worth may more than $12 (google.com) and some probably aren't worth anything (2435346sdgdfgeryu42t43g.tv.)

People squat on domains because it makes them money (or at least they think it will.) Like it or not, it's life.

Saying `all domains are worth $12, no more, no less' is like saying that `All pennies are worth $0.01. No more, no less' -- it totally ignores the fact that some pennies (and domains) are worth more. Like this one, which some have sold for as much as $82,000.

"The Mint took great care to create the coin with the same size, weight, and electromagnetic properties as the Anthony dollar, but with a golden color."

...Susan B. Anthony dollars. ...worth more than a buck to a collector

why the heck didn't the government make the Sacajawea dollars the same size, mass, and conductivity as the Susan B.'s

Not in the US... some other countries, such as Canada, prohibit destruction of the national currency, but the closest thing the US has to a law like that is USC 18 331, but that only applies to fraudulently altering, defacing, etc... a coin. As the US Mint's FAQ mentions, "As a matter of policy, the Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent."

Lots of tourist places have these "penny presses", where you put a penny and a quarter into the press, turn the crank, and it flattens out the penny and presses a design into it (generally related to the tourist site you're at), and of course, keeps the quarter.

Sacajawea dollars are exactly the same size (26.5 mm diameter) as Susan B. Anthony ones, presumably so that vending machines wouldn't have to be retrofitted to accept them.

Link

Seriously though, pennies have very little copper. Most all other U.S. coins are mostly copper and the rest is nickle.

Yes, pennies are now 97.5% zinc, with a 2.5% copper coating.
However...

At 2.5g per penny, with a 2.5% copper composition, with the minting of 7,700,050,500 pennies in 2005, you've got around 480 metric tons of copper tied up in the creation of pennies alone in the past year. Figures for 2003 and 2004 are around 430 metric tons. Coin minting, in general, tends to increase, so if/when we exceed 8 billion pennies, we'll top 500 metric tons.

Moreover, as referenced in the subject here, it's interesting to note that the Nickel is 75% copper, the dime, quarter, and half-dollar are nearly 92% copper, and the dollar coin is 88.5% copper.

Now, 500 metric tons of copper a year for pennies isn't a lot in the face of 1.6 billion, but I'm not sure I'd call it a trivial amount, either.

Now, I'm not saying I think I'm afraid of copper running out. I'm just saying we use a fair bit here in the US to mint coins.

First off, zinc is not necessarily dangerous, in fact it is necessary for proper developement. My wife had to take zinc as a child due to a zinc deficiency.

On a different note, pennies have the lowest copper content of US coins at 2.5% copper in contrast to the dime, quarter, and half dollar at 91.67% copper!

One guy said that pennies made before 1971 are worth more than 1c in copper, and that the newer pennies might soon be worth much more than 1c due to their high zinc content.

Oddly enough, the composition of pennies did not change between 1962 and 1982. There should be no difference between a 1971 penny and a 1981 penny, in terms of copper content.

The US Mint made 7 different variations of the penny in 1982 (counting the various different mint marks), after which they made pennies exclusively out of copper plated zinc.

More info is posted here and here.

The gold that "was" at Fort Knox? There's still nearly 150 million ounces there; none has been removed for many decades. http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/fun_facts/ind ex.cfm?flash=yes&action=fun_facts13

Poor design of the coins themselves (too easily mistaken for a quarter, etc).

Um, the new dollar coin, the Sacagawea, cannot be mistaken for a quarter at all:

http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/golden_dollar_ coin/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=golden_dollar_spec s

Resistance from the vending machine industry (machines would need to be retooled to accept a coin significantly different from the ones currently in use)

I've seen plenty of machines that take dollar coins. The coin acceptor is a swappable unit in all the machines I've seen, meaning changing to accepting dollar coins is trivial- just swap the coin acceptor.

The perception by the great unwashed that coins aren't "real money",

Huh? Coins certainly ARE money. They just aren't worth that much. :-)

lack of education about the new currency (think of the oft-repeated Taco Bell two dollar bill story);

Are you saying that, if you had never seen or heard of a two-dollar bill, you would not have thought it was fake??

this goes hand in hand with Americans' fanatical opposition to being educated.

Ignorance about a rarely used bill does not equal "fanatical opposition to being educated".

The real reason dollar coins are not popular?? No one in America WANTS dollar coins. $20 in bills fits easily and comfortably in your pants pocket. $20 in dollar coins creates a lump in your pocket and weighs you down, swinging and bumping against your leg. Who wants that??

and in 1955 added "In God We Trust" to coinage and paper money.

This is factually incorrect:
from http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/fun_facts/ind ex.cfm?action=fun_facts5
In God We Trust

From Treasury Department records it appears that the first suggestion that God be recognized on U.S. coinage can be traced to a letter addressed to the Secretary of Treasury from a minister in 1861. An Act of Congress, approved on April 11, 1864, authorized the coinage of two-cent coins upon which the motto first appeared.

The motto was omitted from the new gold coins issued in 1907, causing a storm of public criticism. As a result, legislation passed in May 1908 made "In God We Trust" mandatory on all coins on which it had previously appeared.

Legislation approved July 11, 1955, made the appearance of "In God We Trust" mandatory on all coins and paper currency of the United States. By Act of July 30, 1956, "In God We Trust" became the national motto of the United States.

Several years ago, the appearance of "In God We Trust" on our money was challenged in the federal courts. The challenge was rejected by the lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of the United States declined to review the case.

What risk is there in US $.05 coins? They don't contain nickel--if they did, melting them down would get you more than $.05. Moreover, they'd be magnetic, like iron and cobalt. Try sticking a nickel to a magnet--it doesn't work.

I try to get my information from the most accurate sources possible...

According to this website, the US mint claims the current nickel in circulation is a cupro-nickel alloy (25% nickel with the balance copper).

Are there more accurate sources to support your claim?

http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/golden_dollar_ coin/index.cfm?action=Pr8

"Beginning in March, the Mint will launch a six-month nationwide television, radio, print, transit and Internet advertising campaign to promote public and business-sector awareness and use of the Golden Dollar."

Anyway...

If the US Mint can spend money saying "Hey look, we came up with another coin! Ummm, support our money?", then NASA really should spend money to say "Hey look, we invented pacemakers, and a ton of other amazingly important inventions! Support our funding so we can make more world changing technologies!"...

If more people knew just how many of the 'essential' technologies they use on a daily basis came from NASA, they'd have a lot more support from the general public.
Unfortunately, since advertising isn't rocket science...

Coins are stamped.

a link

Some idiot filled their tank with Eisenhower Silver Dollars? And you spent them?

See what the US Mint says about the subject.

The Eisenhower silver dollars (1971-1978) did come in a 40% silver version (about over their value in silver), and a copper nickel clad version. Both are 24 grams or so, slightly under an ounce. Needless to say the ones I got were worth about a buck, and I have 20 of them. My local coin shop circulated ones for $1.00. Spending one was NOT a big deal.

The 50 cent piece hasn't been made in years, it has been phased out just like your currency, the only difference is we never quit accepting it, we just quit using it.

The 50 cent piece hasn't been made in years, it has been phased out just like your currency,

err, no

The United States Mint has a list of current legal tender. There may be some photos of them somewhere on the site, but I'll let someone else post the URL.

There is also another link with information on the two dollar bill.

The United States Mint has a list of current legal tender. There may be some photos of them somewhere on the site, but I'll let someone else post the URL.

There is also another link with information on the two dollar bill.

That has happened to me too. I think it is hilarious to see young kids working at the drive-through windows who have never seen one. Sometimes they get all flustered and call another employee over to ask if it's real. I have even run into kids that are confused by the new Sacajawea dollars and those are recent!

If anyone wants to have their own fun with dollar coins it isn't necessary to ask for them at a bank. Just go buy a book of stamps from a machine at your postoffice. Pay with a $10 or $20 bill and you will get a mix of Susan B. Anthony's and Sacajawea's with your change.

I haven't seen any silver dollars in circulation since I was a kid and those Kennedy 50 cent pieces are extremely uncommon anymore but I did get one sometime last year.

Why not sell the picture while you're at it? I'd gladly give up one of Sacagawea dollar coings from my change!