Seniorage is the profit between cost of producing currency and the value of the currency.
Technically there is no seniorage when there is a loss, historically it was called an inflationary tax, meaning a loss in value to the existing money supply you hold.
I think you're mistaken -- seigniorage is the difference between the cost and the value, it doesn't need to be a profit. Negative seigniorage is still seigniorage and many such papers treat it as such, e.g.;
>Negative seigniorage is still seigniorage and many such papers treat it as such
Notice how you qualify your statement as many such papers treat it as such.
Yes, you can find some people, articles that refer to a loss as seniorage, but that’s a misuse and inconsistent with the actual definition. That’s also why when they do use the term improperly they typically add “negative”, specifically because the definition of Seniorage refers specifically to revenue/profit from printing money.
I think Ambani (the Indian billionaire) actually made some of his money in early fays melting down coins, and did it at such a scale government officials had to investigate what was going on
Interesting side story: for centuries coins were intentionally made to have a ribbed side surface because otherwise people would sand/cut off the sides and sell the obtained metal.
Nowadays coins are usually not made of pure and/or very valuable metals, but the notches have stayed to help impaired people and automatic identification of coins.
I think you give Governments far to much credit, they can’t even manage to peg the penny to 1cent or a nickel to 5cents.
In 2020 a penny cost 1.76cents and a nickel cost 7.42cents.