Talk:Seigniorage

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Collecting the US State quarters is given as an example of seigniorage. But even if the quarters are spent, isn't seigniorage also occuring? It doesn't seem like the coin collecting angle is relevant. (disclaimer: I know nothing of numismatics, ended up here by accident reading about the fed and money supply). Also, I think I found a citation for the statement "The U.S. Treasury estimates that it has earned about $5 billion in seignorage profits from the quarters": http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/coin_production/index.cfm?action=production_figures&sqYear=2005#starthere Adding up the figures in my head (1999-2005) gives about $5 billion worth of quarters produced, in total. However the article as it reads now gives the impression the entire $5b is in the hands of coin collectors, which is probably not what was meant. 128.255.22.232 21:49, 6 February 2006 (UTC)Dylan

Funny, I ended up here for the same reason. I never hear this term before, but it does seems illogical that the quarters example has anything to do with this. And the fact that people save the quarters has nothing to do with wheather the gov. is making money or not. The gov. makes money if they do not destroy the money they receive in exchange for the new quarters or if they sell the new quarters for more than $.25 a piece (plus the cost to create the quarter in the first place).

EJG: There are two things to keep in mind about the state quarter series and seigniorage. First, the introduction of the new designs spurs demand for quarters so the mint has to produce more coins, thereby generating more seigniorage. Treasury keeps track of demand for coins and knows that new designs mean more demand. See http://www.phil.frb.org/files/br/brq203dc.pdf[1] for a report analyzing this phenomenon. Second, the earlier comment is right that seignorage occurs when the coin is put into circulation and it does not matter that the coins are collected. Where it does matter is on the back end of the seignorage equation. Ordinarily seignorage is only an interest free loan to the government because when the coins are worn out the government buys them back at face value, thereby negating the "profit" earned when the coins were put into circualtion. The big difference with collectable coins, of course, is that the back end of the deal never occurs because the coins never returned to the government. So the government gets to keep the seignorage profits. In order for the claim that the state quarters have resulted in $5 Billion in profit for the government virtually every state quarter issued must be colelcted and never turned in on the back end. That seems a bit extreme, although many of these quarters will, indeed be kept out of circualtion forever.

Questions about the factual accuracy of an example in an article are not, strictly speaking, NPOV concerns. I've removed the NPOV template from this article. palecur 00:36, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Dated: April 25, 2005 http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=6271&sequence=0 or http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/62xx/doc6271/hr902.pdf (on page 5 of 5, last line of top text) or google's cache if you are impatient http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:wAWT15SZ5HIJ:www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm%3Findex%3D6271%26sequence%3D0+site:www.cbo.gov+50+state+quarters+Seigniorage+OR+seignorage+OR+seigneurage+OR+profits+site:.gov&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3

"The Mint estimates that the 50 State Quarters program has generated about $4.6 billion in seigniorage since the program began in 1999."

[edit] Pronounced?

Like "senior" or like "say"?

Payment Cards, VISA, AMEX also are a recognized form of "coinage" by monetary policy makers. Merchants pay to give their customers the convenience of using payment cards. Add a second definition? Somebody more expert in the use of Wiki should chime in. Also is there a payment card group or monetary policy group to attach this to or cross reference. Google today had a number of articles supporting this definition.