Kenny Duncan, Jr. - U.S. Coins & Jewelry Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Seven fifty two, our time here in Houston's Born News
to say hello to Kenny Duncan, Junior US Coin and Jewelry.
Good morning, sir, Hey, good morning, Thanks for having me.
You bet well. At the end of an era, guest today,
the last ever US penny minted in Philadelphia. If you
could get your hands on that last penny, and I'm
sure somebody already has, But if you get your hands

(00:21):
on it, what would that thing be worth? Do you think?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yesterday? Asked the mint So I started getting calls yesterday
earlier about this, and I would say the highest estimate
I heard, and the one I agree with the most
is a million plus.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Wow. A million bucks? Oh yeah, easy. I wonder how
they control where that penny goes. What do you think
they'd do with that penny?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
So that and probably I would say the last five
coins would enter an auction one of the large, rare
coin auction houses here in the United States. I'd say
you'd see that circulating sometime in the news next month,
next or next year.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Wow. I had no idea, you know, for coin collectors
out there, for those who do collect pennies, does the
general value of a penny go up? As a result
of them not minting them anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
You know, it's a tricky, tricky question. They made on
average about six billion pennies a year, so that's you know,
there's a there's no shortage of them. I would say
maybe some of the short sets or the collector strikes that.
I would hope that the mint continues to do. They might,
they might bring more value.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yes, okay, so.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
I would say, just your standard, just your standard change penny.
I don't think you'll see much change.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah. Well, with them having minted over a billion a year,
it kind of makes you wonder, how do we find
ourselves in a penny shortage? If you have a I
wouldn't think you have a penny shortage of US coin
and jewelry.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Right, absolutely not, they're everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Okay, Well that being the case, then is this just
an excuse do you think for some businesses to say, well,
we're going to have to we we have a penny shortage,
We're gonna have to round up or round down.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
That's exactly. I think you're right on the money. That's
what other countries have done in history. They would just
round up to the nearest nicklin. I think you'll see
that sooner than later.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, I think it's already happening with McDonald's, for example.
I know that they are already doing that, But I'm
just wondering, is that an excuse for them to be
able to go to that type of system. Is there
really a penny shortage out there? Business is really having
a hard time getting their hands on pennies.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Well, the truth of the matter is it costs almost
four sins to strike and produce the penny, so I
think are the scent So that's really the issue. It's
just really it's costing four x and it just doesn't
make financial sense to make. So I think that's the
real crux of the problem.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
That being the case, do you see a situation or
do you think there'd be a situation where future president
might say, I'm going to bring the penny back.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Very doubtful. Again, and a four to one business model
doesn't really make sense to anyone. I just don't understand
the economics for them to do.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
So, you know, Kenny Duncan, I'm also kind of curious
about the idea of a cashless society. I mean, there's
been that kind of talk going on, as you know,
for years Obviously, coin collecting is a big part of
what you do at US coin and jewelry. What does
that potentially do to the value of coins in general
if we gradually move ourselves towards a cashless society.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, I mean, I guess it just depends on if
collectors are born during that era. I mean, I think
a lot of the you know, again, this is just speculation.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
I think maybe.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Millennials might not care as much, and they might like
digital currency more than they like fiat. I guess it
would just have to you know, the collectors would have
to rise up and start collecting. We would see, we
would see how that turns out.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, that'd be interesting. Thank you sir. Appreciate your time
and you're insight.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Hey, thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Take care you bet with us coin and joy that
is Kenny Duncan, Junior,