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Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Woman charged after driving into people outside baby shower in Waldorf, authorities say
CHARLES COUNTY, Md. () — A Charles County woman is facing several charges after she allegedly drove into multiple people and cars outside of a baby shower in Waldorf last week. Robin Lessette Alexander, 53, of Indian Head, was charged with eight counts of aggravated assault and two counts of destruction of property. Authorities said Alexander was attending the baby shower on June 1 in the 1300 block of Smallwood Drive West when she began arguing with another woman who was at the event. The argument continued to the parking lot, where Alexander got into her car and intentionally drove toward the woman and two other people, hitting the woman and another person, according to the Charles County Sheriff's Office. After this, she pushed on the gas and drove directly into another parked car, which had someone sitting inside it, CCSO noted. However, the passenger was not injured. Kilmar Abrego Garcia pleads not guilty to human smuggling charges in Tennessee federal court Alexander then circled the parking lot and rammed into the woman's car, according to authorities. Several people tried to stop her and eventually halted her car by slashing its tires. Responders took one person to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries while medics treated two other people at the scene. Officers arrested Alexander and took her to the hospital for treatment. The next day, on June 2, a judge released her from the Charles County Detention Center on electronic monitoring. The investigation is ongoing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
If pennies stop circulating, could Utahns cash in — What you should know
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — 'Make Sense, Not Cents.' That's the name of a bipartisan bill proposed by Senator Mike Lee to have the U.S. Mint stop producing pennies. The reason? According to the U.S. Mint, it costs 3.69 cents per penny to produce. In a statement Sen. Lee said in part, 'No private business would produce something at a 4x loss. It's time to stop wasting Americans' hard-earned tax dollars making overpriced pennies.' If this passes and the penny is no longer produced, don't start hoarding old copper Abe Lincolns. Experts at All About Coins in Salt Lake City tell they don't foresee a spike in their value. Store clerk Casey Hackford-Peer explained, 'I don't think that we're ever going to see a day where like a 2024 penny is going to be worth so much more. Maybe in 200, 300 years, but not in my lifetime.' That's bad news for people hoping to cash in. However, many people collect pennies for fun. Hackford-Peer says they get tons of pennies through their store. 'Maybe ten times a day we have people come in with pennies. Anything from error pennies to like just wheat cents to Indian Head cents. Even like the older, like large cents.' Not all pennies are chump change though. Some rare finds can be worth some serious coin. For example, Hackford-Peer tells us a 1909 S 'VDB' cent can be worth hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars. It's a penny that still had the artist's initials minted on it. Worth even more, an error penny from 1943 that's worth upwards of $750,000. During the war, copper was needed for the war effort, and so pennies were meant to be made with a zinc round covered in steel. However, there were some made with copper by mistake, and they are a rare find nowadays. Will people miss the penny? We took to streets to find out: When was the last time you used a penny? Should they get rid of the penny? In the proposed bill, the penny would still have value and be used to purchase things. If pennies stop circulating, could Utahns cash in — What you should know Roy City Police investigate third auto-pedestrian accident in just over two weeks A look behind the scenes with volunteers at the LPGA Black Desert Championship 'They're felonies': Homemade pipe bombs are increasingly common in Utah, officials say Utah to experience warm weekend, followed by rain and thunderstorms Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
12-02-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Is eliminating the penny a good idea? Other countries have already done it
Is eliminating the penny a good idea? Other countries have already done it Show Caption Hide Caption President Trump pauses penny production The penny may soon be obsolete because President Trump told the treasury department to stop making them. Fox - 5 NY The penny design included 'Liberty,' a 'Flying Eagle' and an 'Indian Head' The penny was originally made of pure copper and now made of a copper-coated zinc composition With rising production costs and dwindling usefulness, President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. Treasury to stop minting the penny, reviving the debate over the future of America's smallest coin 'Let's rip the waste out of our great nation's budget, even if it's a penny at a time,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. While Congress holds the authority to approve coin production, Trump's case is simple: pennies cost more than they are worth. Pennies 'literally cost us more than 2 cents" to make, Trump wrote. Story continues below photo gallery. According to the U.S. Mint's fiscal year 2024 report, it is considerably more. It costs 3.69 cents to produce and distribute a single one-cent piece, up more than 20% year-over-year and 75% since 2021. During the 2024 fiscal year, officials at the U.S. Mint reported losing $85.3 million on pennies. Frequently given as change but seldom spent, the penny has been a target of criticism for decades due to its ever-diminishing value and utility. The U.S. penny, first minted in 1793, has undergone many design changes throughout its history, according to a December 2022 Congressional Research Service report. History of the U.S. penny design The penny started with a depiction of Liberty, symbolized as a woman with flowing hair and interlinked chains representing the unity of the original 13 states. There were the "Flying Eagle" and 'Indian Head' designs in the 19th and 20th centuries before the penny's design was changed to honor Abraham Lincoln's 100th birthday in 1909. It was the first time a U.S. president appeared on a circulating coin. Lincoln has sustained, but the reverse of the coin has changed in the past century. It went from two wheat sheaves and then the Lincoln Memorial to the current Union Shield design. Perhaps more telling, however, have been the changes in the coin's composition. Is the U.S. penny made of copper? The Coinage Act of 1792 set the stage for the original penny: large, pure copper pieces. As costs rose, the penny shrank, and its composition shifted. In the build-up to the Civil War, it went to a copper-nickel blend before settling on bronze during the war. Copper shortages in 1943 led to zinc-coated steel pennies that resembled dimes, but by 1982, rising copper costs pushed the mint to today's copper-coated zinc composition. Rising copper costs triggered a penny shortage in 1974, when about half of the 62 billion pennies went out of circulation, according to estimates from U.S. Treasury officials. People kept them and dreamed of future returns on the copper they contained. Today, people still horde them, but not for their copper value. Only about one-third of the billions of pennies made each year actually circulate, due primarily to their diminishing utility, according to the Congressional Research Service report. Their journey is often a one-way trip from production to consumers. Is this the end of the road for the U.S. penny? Few people consider making sure they have pennies with them before leaving the house, and for good reason. The obvious places for spare change, such as parking meters, vending machines and toll booths, have shunned pennies for decades. Even still, the argument from the U.S. Mint officials was that they were profitable, there was demand and discontinuing them would send an alarming inflationary signal to the public. Even as pennies were converted to mostly zinc in the early 1980s and became highly profitable, they were nonetheless targeted for government cost cutting. Many called for their demise in the mid-1980s after a Reagan administration report saw them as an opportunity for savings within the Treasury Department. Replacing them with two- and three-cent coins, as minted between 1851 and 1889, was also proposed at that time. Other countries have ended penny production There are arguments that removing the penny could save money, free up resources at the mint and allow for more focus on cost-effective higher-denomination coins. Discontinuing the smallest-denomination coin has been done by major nations before. Canada ended penny production in 2012, calling the coins a waste of resources and implementing rounding rules for cash transactions. Australia stopped minting one- and two-cent coins in 1992 due to rising inflation and production costs. Sweden and New Zealand also ceased producing their one-cent coins. There is opposition to getting rid of the penny However, the push to eliminate the penny in the U.S. has encountered significant resistance. Americans for Common Cents, an advocacy group, argues that abolishing the penny would not result in savings, as many of the mint's operational costs would remain, therefore raising the production costs of other coins. Additionally, eliminating the penny would likely increase demand for nickels, which are even more expensive to mint, costing 13.78 cents each, according to the mint's 2024 fiscal year report. For comparison, the U.S. $1 and $2 notes cost just 3.2 cents to make, according to the Federal Reserve Board. Opponents for decades have warned that removing the penny could lead to rounding prices upward from the 95 and 99 cent pricing strategies, effectively introducing a new tax on small purchases. Moreover, sales tax would still remain, messing things up even if retailers rounded prices off to the whole dollar. Still, some have found a use for pennies, most notably the rare bronze pennies minted during World War II. In 2019, one sold for more than $200,000, according to Heritage Auction. While finding one of those is a long shot, other valuable pennies could be tucked away in jars, drawers or piggy banks. Here are a few examples, courtesy of Heritage Auction:
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
These 12 Coins May Be Extinct, but They Are Worth Thousands Now
Unlike living creatures or fads, coins don't become extinct due to ecological changes, predators, overexposure or boredom. Instead, the U.S. Mint simply stops making them, which puts them into the 'extinct' category. This has happened a lot in America over the past 250 or so years, with coins coming and going — sometimes in only a couple of years. For collectors, extinction can help push coin values up into the thousands and even millions of dollars. Check Out: For You: 3 Things You Must Do When Your Savings Reach $50,000 The Numismatic Guaranty Company has speculated that all coins might eventually become extinct currencies as digital wallets and payments continue to take up a bigger role in the economy. The first current U.S. coins that could be headed for extinction are one-cent and five-cent pieces. This is partly because it costs more to produce them than they're worth. Even so, it will likely be many years before that happens, if it happens at all. For now, you can still dig into your pocket or purse and pay for items with coins. The penny, nickel, dime and quarter are the circulating coins in use today. Half dollar and $1 coins are produced as collectibles, though they still may be ordered by the Federal Reserve for circulation and used as legal tender, according to the U.S. Mint. Even certain modern currency from the past few decades has become extinct — including bicentennial quarters, some of which now fetch nearly $20,000 on the collectibles market. If you're lucky enough to stumble upon long-extinct U.S. coins from the 18th and 19th centuries, you could find yourself an instant millionaire. Here's a list of now-extinct U.S. coin denominations as cited by the NCG: Half-cent: 1793-1857 Two-cent: 1864-1873 Three-cent nickels: 1865-1889 Three-cent silvers: 1851-1873 20 cent: 1875-1878 $1 gold: 1849-1889 Two and one-half dollar gold: 1796-1929 $3 gold: 1854-1889 $4 gold (patterns): 1879-1880 $5 dollar gold: 1795-1929 $10 gold: 1795-1933 $20 gold: 1849-1933 Depending on the condition, you might get anywhere from less than $100 to more than $2 million for some of the coins on the above list. Coins that are in pristine shape are so rare that it's almost impossible to find them on the collectibles market, because the owners don't want to sell. Others that are scratched and defaced are much more available on the market — and you won't need to sell your house to afford them. Good To Know: Here's a look at 12 extinct coins that can bring thousands of dollars. The list includes the highest prices cited on the NGC and other coin sites. Keep in mind that the highest-priced coins are extremely rare, and most of the coins still out there are worth much less than the highest price. 1793 Liberty Cap half cent: up to $35,000 Shield two cents (1864-1873): $58,500 1865 three-cent nickel: $10,000 Silver three cents (1851-1873): $60,000 20 cents (1875-1878): $70,000 Gold dollars (1849-1889): $170,000 Indian Head $2.50 (1908-1929): $100,000 $3 gold (1854-1889): $192,500 $4 Stella (1879-1880): $2.75 million Indian Head $5 (1908-1929): $235,000 Indian Head $10 (1907-1933): $2 million Liberty Head $20 (1850-1907): $385,000 More From GOBankingRates 5 Subtly Genius Moves All Wealthy People Make With Their Money4 Unusual Ways To Make Extra Money That Actually WorkThis article originally appeared on These 12 Coins May Be Extinct, but They Are Worth Thousands Now Sign in to access your portfolio
