Change For Change?

Yesterday, I finally found some time to haul our spare change container off to the bank for conversion into cash money. The container, a vintage flour canister, had been overflowing for several weeks and a trip was long overdue. As I heaved the coins out of the car, I found myself thinking about how I had heard somewhere that the materials used to make the penny (copper-plated zinc) were worth more money than the penny itself. That nugget was quickly forgotten, however, when I found out our “throwaway” change was worth just over $370. Disco party time!

This morning, the penny returned to my thoughts when @linklog pointed to a blog post about the production costs associated with the penny and nickel:

In recent years the penny has cost approximately 1.8 cents and the nickel approximately 9 cents to produce. Costs have exceeded the value of these two coins by over $100 million in prior years.

That quote comes from the 2011 US Budget which includes a directive enabling “the Department of the Treasury to explore, analyze, and approve new, less expensive materials for all circulating coins.” Is this what Obama meant when he promised to deliver “change?” (sorry about that, I couldn’t help myself)