U.S. Mint Announces New Penny Material

U.S. Mint Announces New Penny Material

Everyone has heard for quite a while how a copper penny costs the U.S. Mint about 1.5¢
to produce, more than it’s worth. For several years the fluctuations and dramatic rise in
the cost of the raw copper to make the coins have jeopardized perhaps the very existence
of the penny, much to the dismay of people who like to do things precisely and to the glee
of merchants who would just as readily round prices up. Thanks to new technology, the
U.S. Mint has arrived at a solution that will solve the problem without debasing the coin
(making it worth less than a penny.) They just announced that all pennies will be made out of highly compressed dirt. This is just another example of technology from the space program being used to benefit us in our everyday lives. It is not known what parts of the International Space Station are made out of the new high strength dirt. Other options including high strength ceramics were considered but proved to be too costly. The new dirt formula is expected to have a similar life span to that of a copper coin and will certainly have the look of an old copper coin. The Obama administration expects a new slogan from the new coin’s mintage to lead the rallying cry for the value of the U.S. dollar- “The U.S. dollar is worth more than dirt”.

©2009 Eric Stamets