Change has become expensive

Everything old is new again. . .

Some of you may recall the steel pennies which were minted during World War II due to shortages of precious metals caused by wartime production. I have a few in my coin collection and, if some in Congress get their way, you may have a few in your pocket soon. Perhaps even some nickels as well. Although today's military demands haven't caused any shortages, copper and nickel prices have tripled since 2003, and the price of zinc has quadrupled.

Pennies, consisting of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper, cost 1.26 cents to make as of yesterday. And nickels - 75% copper and the rest nickel - cost 7.7 cents, based on current commodity prices. That's down from late last year, when even higher metal prices drove the penny's cost to a whopping 1.67 cents. The cost of making a nickel then was nearly a dime. Striking the two coins costs well above their face value and set the U.S.Treasury and taxpayers back about $100 million last year alone. A lousy deal, lawmakers concluded as the House moved toward a vote this week that directs the Treasury secretary to "prescribe" - suggest - a new, more economical composition of the nickel and the penny.

"Euros Accepted Here"

Is America the new Canada?

That's the phrase which has been popping upon signs in the windows of many New York City retailers. With the severely weakened U.S. dollar, and waves of European tourists with money to burn, shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.

While shops in many U.S. towns on the Canadian border have long accepted Canadian currency and some stores on the Texas-Mexico border take pesos, the acceptance of foreign money in Manhattan was unheard of until recently.

Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, says,"We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank. We didn't realize we would take so much in and there were that many people traveling or having euros to bring in. But some days, you'd be surprised at how many euros you get."

Newest United States Currency

The denomination of U.S. currency notes generally reflects the popularity and-or importance of the individual presented on the face of the bill - George Washington has the highest ranking, therefore he was selected for the most commonly used bill. Have you ever even seen a Salmon P. Chase? ?

$1	Washington	ONE between obverse and reverse of Great Seal of U.S.
$2	Jefferson	Monticello
$2	Jefferson	“The Signing of the Declaration of Independence”
$5	Lincoln	Lincoln Memorial
$10	Hamilton	U.S. Treasury Building
$20	Jackson	White House
$50	Grant	U.S. Capitol
$100	Franklin	Independence Hall
$500	McKinley	Ornate FIVE HUNDRED
$1,000	Cleveland	Ornate ONE THOUSAND
$5,000	Madison	Ornate FIVE THOUSAND
$10,000	Chase	Ornate TEN THOUSAND
$100,000	Wilson	Ornate ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND

However, the Treasury Department has chosen to break with this longstanding tradition in order to recognize the actual value of the individual selected for their newest note - ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Bush note:



Note: Money