And a Penny's not a Penny

This morning there was a discussion about the introduction of the decimal system to Britain. I lived in England during the 60's as a schoolboy and not only did we have Shillings and Pence, we still had talked about Guineas-equal to 21 Schillings, and actually had half-penny coins.

What was actually more interesting however was the discussion of the metallurgical value of the coinage. According to the US Mint, it currently costs almost twice as much to produce and ship a penny then its face value.

As of January 14, 2011, the pre-1982 penny which is made of 95% copper has a metallurgical value 289.56% of its face value. 1982–present US pennies, which weigh 2.5 grams, are 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper (coated over the zinc) by weight and have a metallurgical value of 64.376% of the face value.

I guess it's something I should have thought about previously but I am still surprised to find out that not only is the value of our paper money predicated on a willingness to accept a piece of paper as a medium of exchange, but our coins are also part of this belief system.

I guess alchemy does work.