Question: Owing to the rising cost of copper, in 1982 the U.S. Mint changed the composition of pennies from 95% copper (and 5% zinc) to 2.5% copper (and 97.5% zinc) to save money. Your favorite aunt has a collection of 5,000 pennies minted before 1982, and she intends on gifting the collection to you.
a. What is the collection's value based on metal content alone? Copper sells for $3.50 per pound and zinc for $1 per pound. It takes approximately 130 pre-1982 pennies to add up to one pound of total weight.
b. If it cost the U.S. Mint $0.017 to produce a penny in 2012, is it time to eliminate pennies and round off all financial transactions to the nearest 5 cents (nickel)? As a matter of interest, it cost the government almost 10 cents to produce a nickel in 2012.