Pennies from China

In 1982, the U. S. Mint changed the composition of pennies to remove most of the copper. They had to do something because it took more than a penny's worth of copper to make a penny. Now pennies are made mostly of zinc, but they have a nice copper coating so they still look like pennies. Canada made the change a few years later. Fast forward thirty years and now it takes more than a penny's worth of zinc to make a penny. Canada has announced it is cancelling production of the Canadian Penny because of the cost. Can the U. S. be far behind? With a targeted rate of inflation, our Government has a stated policy which will lead to cancellation of the penny ... and then the nickel. It all started when we gave up the gold standard. Call me old fashioned, but I like pennies. So I'd like to make a suggestion: Instead of cancelling the penny, let's just make them cheaper. Let's move production of pennies to China. I bet the Chinese could find a way to make pennies for one cent each. Hell, let's just move the minting and printing of all our coins and currency to China. I bet no one could make our money cheaper faster than they can.