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Listen to part of a lecture in a material science class.
請聽材料科學課上的部分內容。
So what’s the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about uses for copper? Tammy?
提到銅的用途時，你們的腦海中會最先出現什么？Tammy，你來說？
The penny. It’s made of copper.
便士，它是用銅做的。
Okay, good one. But what’s a one cent coin worth these days?
不錯的例子，但是如今一個一分錢的硬幣值多少呢？
You might get back change, like if you go to the store and give the cashier 5 dollars for something that costs 4 dollars 98 cents,
你可能會拿回找零，比如，如果你去商店，然后買了某個4.98美元的東西，你給了收銀員5美元
you’ll get 2 cents back, but 2 cents does not buy much.
會得到2分錢的找零，但是2兩分錢買不了什么。
The value of the penny in terms of what it’ll buy has gotten so low that there’s actually a move afoot to eliminate the coin from US currency, but there’s more to it.
便士在購買力方面的價值變得非常低，以至于事實上現在正在進行一個從美國貨幣中淘汰這種面額的硬幣的行動，但是并不僅因為這個原因。
As Tammy implied, the penny looks like it’s solid copper.
正如Tammy所說，便士看上去像純銅的。
It is reddish orange with a bright metallic luster when it’s new, but that’s just the copper plating.
新便士是紅褐色的，帶有一層亮金屬光澤，但那只是鍍銅的。
The penny’s not solid copper, in actuality, it is almost 98 percent zinc.
便士不是純銅的，事實上，它的材質幾乎98%都是鋅。
But given the rising value of both these metals, each penny now costs about 1.7 cents to produce, so it generates what is called negative Seigniorage.
但是考慮到這兩種金屬的價值都在上漲，現在每個便士的制造成本約1.7分錢，所以它產生了負鑄幣利差。
Negative Seigniorage is when the cost of minting a coin is more than the coin’s face value.
負鑄幣利差就是鑄造一枚硬幣的成本高于這個硬幣的面值。
Even though the penny generates quite a bit of negative Seigniorage, there is concern that if it’s eliminated, we’ll need more nickels,
雖然便士產生了負鑄幣利差，但是有人擔心如果淘汰了它，我們就會需要更多五分錢，
because more merchants might start setting prices in five-cent increments, 4 dollar 95 cents and so on.
因為更多的商家可能會開始給價格定五分錢的增額，比如4.95美元等等。
So we need a trusty five-cent piece that can be minted economically.
所以我們需要能劃算地鑄造的可靠的五分硬幣。
