This could hurt the hobby

[lovewiibrew]

CoinWorld.com - Testimony cites savings from using steel

The article mentions recommending culling out older coins like canada does. CWR would still be good but this would be very detrimental to the hobby if this happened.

 

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[SilverMan86]

That's really bad. How soon could it happen? Also it would be harmful to metal detectorists; those new coins would rust up so fast in the ground!
It says switching to steel could save the mint 200 million a year, but that's really not that much. Maybe they won't think it's worth it to go through the trouble.

 

[jeff of pa]

yes would definitely effect coin roll hunting,

it would take a long time though.

They claim the law preventing pennies & Nickels from being melted is to prevent shortages in circulation.

removing all but the steel ones would do the same faster unless they have a trillion or so steel ones
in circulation first, which I don't see happening because most people throw away pennies &
throw nickels into change jars.

 

[Generic_Lad]

The switch to steel is bad for a few reasons:

1) Steel coins won't work in vending machines. Just about every single one of them are specifically designed to reject steel coins.
2) Steel is just a bad coinage metal. Silver/Gold are great, long lasting, won't wear down too much, easy to put designs on, etc. Copper is decent, it will corrode but holds up decently. Zinc is terrible, steel is terrible, manganese is terrible (manganese is what makes war nickels look green and the presidential/sacajawea coins turn black with minimal circulation) and iron is terrible.
3) Any "savings" will be quickly eroded by the root of the problem: printing of money and the printing shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.
4) A civilization's prosperity has historically been linked to the quality of its coinage. Rome started with a nearly pure silver coin which as the empire got weaker and weaker had less and less silver in it until it was a plated copper coin. The British empire had a sterling base and was .925 silver from the early modern age (some medieval rulers debased the coinage) until WWI when it was reduced to 50% silver and finally eliminated once the British empire entered into a decline after WWII. There are many, many other examples, the switch to steel signals only one thing, the decline of the American dollar and with the decline of the dollar comes the decline of the civilization itself.