Re: The American Penny
In Britain, when a coin starts to cost more to make than its face value, it is redesigned or eliminated. I don't know why they use this rule - it seems rather arbitary, but that is what they do.
Fairly recently, all our 'silver' (coloured) coins were redesigned to make them smaller. The new 10p is smaller than the old 5p, and the 5p is ridiculously tiny.
The copper coins were also changed. Now they are steel disks plated with a thin layer of copper, so you can pick up modern british copper coins with a magnet!
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