Wooden Rouble
With copper prices at $5,000 a tonne, the Russian central bank has decided to save a few kopecks by switching to a cheaper material for minting coins. Starting at the end of this year, one, two, and five rouble coins manufactured from nickel-plated steel will go into circulation to replace the existing copper ones.
At only $400 per tonne, steel offers a considerable cost saving over copper. Kerching! Russia is facing the worst economic crisis for a decade, so the penny-pinchers are taking extreme measures. Discussions are also under way to scrap some of the country’s smaller coins, which are pretty much valueless and actually cost over ten times more to produce than they’re worth.
The design of the new coins will remain unchanged – unchanged. . . .
