The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 47, November 18, 2007, Article 24

WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE: MORE CHANGE FOR THE PENNY

"'This is real money,' Beth Deisher, editor of Coin World,
the world's largest-circulation coin publication, said of
the businessman's idea. 'It's like going for gold on the
ocean floor.'

"Deisher, who editorialized against Luhrman, said that
for the past few years, 'Rome has been burning, and the
Treasury hasn't done anything about it.'

"Indeed, over the past few months, the issue has been no
small change in Washington, triggering two bills, a
scheduled hearing and complaints to the Treasury Department
about why it has taken so long to react to rising metal
prices.

"It costs 1.67 cents to make a penny, up from .93 cents
in 2004. This means the U.S. Mint lost $31 million in making
6.6 billion new pennies in fiscal 2007 and another $68 million
for more than 1 billion nickels, according to Michael White,
a spokesman for the mint. Speculators, taxpayers, suppliers
and coin collectors are affected, too.

"The Treasury has proposed that it be allowed to transfer
from the Congress to itself the authority to measure and make
changes in the composition and weight of coins, so it can head
off future spikes in metal prices.

"This would be a historic change. Since Congress created the
mint in 1792, it has exercised constitutional authority over
America's pocket change.

"Before starting his company last year, Luhrman said he checked
with the mint to make sure it was not illegal to melt down
pennies. He was told it wasn't, and the company operated for
about five months before the government ban.

"He bought pennies from banks and used special equipment to
cull the copper-heavy ones minted before 1982. He estimated
that he could process 5 billion coins annually, separating
out 1.2 billion copper pennies.

"The businessman said he had hired 16 people for his operation.
He signed contracts with currency-handling companies such as
Brink's Co. in Richmond, and Coinstar in Bellevue, Wash.,
to get intelligence on the location of penny surpluses and
deficits. And he hired a trucking service to ship the pennies."

To read the complete article, see:
Full Story

David Ganz wrote a detailed article on the situation which
was published on NumisMaster this week.

To read the complete article, see:
Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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