Should the penny be scrapped?

[Silverzone]

http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/18/news/penny/index.htm

This is pretty interesting (I guess). It actually costs 1.4 cents to press a penny, when the penny is only worth 1 cent, so a bill is being passed through discussing the killing of the beloved 1 cent coin. Although the only thing I ever do with the pennies i get from change is put them in the Salvation Army bucket outside. Discuss.

(I just saw that the article is a little old, but it was the poll question of the day and I thought it'd be something different to discuss.)

 

[Famine]

You guys call your cent a penny? Bizarre.

Anyway, it's to do with the price of metals and the relative weakness of the currency. Our 2p costs more than 2p in metals, and it's worth about 4c currently.

 

[Omnis]

I wonder how long it'll be until everyone has a federal treasurey cash-card.

Perhaps we should make pennies out of recycled plastic bottles and cans. Poor old Abe.

 

[Philly]

Yes the penny is unwanted, annoying and burdensome. That is just why it should be kept.

Everywhere you go, you'll see those do-dads that do stuff when you insert a coin. That is a big part of the charity funds. People put their unwanted coins in there all the time. I mean, what else are you going to do with 1¢? Taking pennies away would make people less likely to put their spare change in those bins.

It would also leave the nickel as the smallest denomination of currency here. That would totally mess up financial stuff. Prices would always be rounded. Another disaster would be sales tax. Tax would either have to be a certain percent that would always work, rounded, a fixed rate, or abolished. For credit card users, that could lose them lots of capital over a significant period of time.

What are they going to do? say "Here have half a nickel."?!?!

The penny is an investment, however stupid, annoying or hated it is. We must have it as it is an essential part of the USD system.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Anyway, it's to do with the price of metals and the relative weakness of the currency. Our 2p costs more than 2p in metals, and it's worth about 4c currently.

Not quite right. The old 2 pences cost more than 2 pence. Something like those made before the late 80s. Newer, more common, ones don't cost as much as they are made of an alloy.


Are your 'nickels' made of nickle? At $20,000 a ton that's one hell of alot of cash.

[EDIT]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Two_Pence_coin

The coin was initially minted from bronze, but since 1992 it has been minted in copper-plated steel except for a few months in 1998 when bronze was used again. As copper-plated steel is less dense than bronze, post-1992 coins have been slightly thicker. The coin weighs 7.12 grams and has a diameter of 25.9 millimetres.

 

[Danoff]

Ditch it, we don't need it. I use a credit card anyway. I think we could probably get rid of the nickle, dime and quarter as well. A half dollar would be good enough.

 

[3-Wheel Drive]

The penny should not be scrapped. Here's why:

I do not want tax rounded up on every single purchase I make. That may only be a few cents per purchase, but that will add up. Quickly.

As for the credit card argument:
They are fine...as long as you are 18+ years old.
Some people just prefer cash. It can be a whole lot quicker, can be used anywhere.

So keep the penny. Paying cash is fantastic, but I'm not about to pay above the actual price of an item just so tax can round off to a nice, even number. I mean, they could round down. But they wouldn't. It's simply too much extra revenue to pass up.

 

[Danoff]

The penny should not be scrapped. Here's why:

I do not want tax rounded up on every single purchase I make. That may only be a few cents per purchase, but that will add up. Quickly.

As for the credit card argument:
They are fine...as long as you are 18+ years old.
Some people just prefer cash. It can be a whole lot quicker, can be used anywhere.

So keep the penny. Paying cash is fantastic, but I'm not about to pay above the actual price of an item just so tax can round off to a nice, even number. I mean, they could round down. But they wouldn't. It's simply too much extra revenue to pass up.

They could round down, and offset the loss by not making pennies. 💡

 

[Tornado]

They could round down, and offset the loss by not making pennies. 💡

And realistically, how many businesses and other expense occuring things would round down? Charities, maybe?


Anyways, lowering inflation would probably fix problem just as well, with the added bonus of strengthening the dollar.

 

[3-Wheel Drive]

They could round down, and offset the loss by not making pennies. 💡

Bear in mind our government is the one that has federal laws prohibiting Medicare from buying drugs in bulk at anything less than retail price. And the same one that takes away any budget money for next year that NASA doesn't spend that year (thus almost requiring them to waste billions because they may actually need that money in the future). And the same one that spends next to nothing on it's public education system, but okays billions to go to the War in Iraq.

I don't trust the government to save money. And it doesn't matter who is on office.

 

[Danoff]

And the same one that spends next to nothing on it's public education system, but okays billions to go to the War in Iraq.

We spend a ton in public education, 100% more than we should. And the war? What could be more justified than national security?

I don't trust the government to save money. And it doesn't matter who is on office.

Agreed.

 

[Matt R]

The penny should be kept.

Old women need something to fill up those five gallon water buckets they take to the grocery store. Let's not forget the old women!

They come in handy to throw for some random reason. Cheaper than throwing quarters!

Abe faces to the right on the penny. All other common currency faces left. We need someone facing right still!

Kids across the country use the penny in the mouth thermometer trick. Lazy kids need an easy way out of school, keep the penny!

 

[Danoff]

Kids across the country use the penny in the mouth thermometer trick. Lazy kids need an easy way out of school, keep the penny!

Why was I not aware if this in grade school?

 

[Matt R]

Why was I not aware if this in grade school?

Didn't become popular until 1879.

 

[Tornado]

We spend a ton in public education, 100% more than we should. And the war? What could be more justified than national security?

One part of me wants to make a sarcastic comment involving John Kerry, whereas the other wants me to try to kill off that tangent before it starts.

 

[Dave A]

They come in handy to throw for some random reason. Cheaper than throwing quarters!

Funnily enough I throw pennies and 2 penny coins at the cat when she's scratching the furniture, well not so much at but near to. Shouting doesn't stop her, a penny rolling past however captuers her attention for minuets, taking it right off the sofa.

 

[3-Wheel Drive]

One part of me wants to make a sarcastic comment involving John Kerry, whereas the other wants me to try to kill off that tangent before it starts.

Yeah...I thought about commenting on the war, but I didn't want to open that can of worms. This thread would derail faster than an Amtrak headed for a railroad crossing.

 

[Deathclown66]

Yes the penny is unwanted, annoying and burdensome. That is just why it should be kept.

Everywhere you go, you'll see those do-dads that do stuff when you insert a coin. That is a big part of the charity funds. People put their unwanted coins in there all the time. I mean, what else are you going to do with 1¢? Taking pennies away would make people less likely to put their spare change in those bins.

It would also leave the nickel as the smallest denomination of currency here. That would totally mess up financial stuff. Prices would always be rounded. Another disaster would be sales tax. Tax would either have to be a certain percent that would always work, rounded, a fixed rate, or abolished. For credit card users, that could lose them lots of capital over a significant period of time.

What are they going to do? say "Here have half a nickel."?!?!

The penny is an investment, however stupid, annoying or hated it is. We must have it as it is an essential part of the USD system.

No.

Here's a thought:
instead of wasting all that money making pennies, many of which end up in streams, or the sides of roads to never be seen again, why not take all the money that would be spent on pennies, and split it among the current penny donation regulars, like the salvation army, and just hand it to them.
At the least, they'll still get that charity, but at the best, they'll get more.

 

[Philly]

So you want our government to contribute to charity?



If the penny goes away, don't count on it, buddy. If there's no pennies to go toward fountains, it'll be nickels. I already see lots of quarters in those.

NO matter what you do, there will be a situation where someone owes someone else 3¢.

If you hate pennies, think about the poor europeans, whose $1 equivalents are coins.

 

[Deathclown66]

like I said, if we care about that, then give 'em the money you save, or like u said, nickels

 

[Omnis]

As for the credit card argument:
They are fine...as long as you are 18+ years old.
Some people just prefer cash. It can be a whole lot quicker, can be used anywhere.

Last time I checked, Credit Cards aren't legal tender. We need a 1-cent piece. To get rid of it would be absolutely stupid. We just need to decide to make it out of something that's dirt-cheap.

 

[3-Wheel Drive]

Last time I checked, Credit Cards aren't legal tender. We need a 1-cent piece. To get rid of it would be absolutely stupid. We just need to decide to make it out of something that's dirt-cheap.

I never said they were legal tender. I was saying cash is better than credit cards, because you can use it anywhere. Credit cards are limited in their acceptance.

What about steel for pennies, i.e. WWII? I'm pretty sure that's cheaper than copper.

 

[Sakiale]

OMG, start collecting pennies! They'll be worth fortunes in future years!

I doubt theyll ever scrap the penny.

 

[Philly]

We need a denomination smaller than 5 cents. It just doesn't make sense to have a currency that cannot facilitate the most miniscule values for exchange. (In english: Why have a system where you can't always make exact change?)

I will go with scrapping the penny, but only if the whole economy is restructured from dollars and cents to dollars and nickels. Then we could have the first system where there are 20 of the smallest division of money to the standard unit. That might be kinda cool, until the whole world looks at us like wierdos. Then we could have another wierd system to go along with the wierd, nonmetric measurement systems.

8 nickels to a dime. 4 dimes to a loonie. 6 loonies per goonie. 7 goonies per dollar. Figure that out.

Not exactly realistic, but just had to let my mind run on that one.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Australia got rid of the 1 cent and 2 cent a long time ago. Get with the times.

 

[Kylehnat]

Pennies are only worthless until you have a stash of 5000 of them sitting in your bedroom.

 

[Philly]

Australia got rid of the 1 cent and 2 cent a long time ago. Get with the times.

How did you guys do? That may be the gauge of the feasability of eliminating li'l Lincoln.

Are your 'nickels' made of nickle? At $20,000 a ton that's one hell of alot of cash.

They are made of nickel plated copper. I'm not sure what each costs, but the amount of copper in a nickel is probably about the size of a penny.

 

[MrktMkr1986]

Ditch it, we don't need it. I use a credit card anyway. I think we could probably get rid of the nickle, dime and quarter as well. A half dollar would be good enough.

The options market (for stocks, anyway) is priced in nickel increments... meaning the cheapest option price (not the strike price) is $0.05 and goes up in increments of $0.05. Now, however, there are companies that are trying (with SEC approval) to make the transition from quoting in nickels to pennies -- reducing the cost of options trading for investors/traders and hopefully adding liquidity to the market by making it more attractive.

Mind you, most standarized options are traded in 100 share increments so a $0.05 option would cost $5.00 anyway...

 

[skip0110]

I never have a problem collecting pennies, you just have to spend them as you get them.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

How did you guys do? That may be the gauge of the feasability of eliminating li'l Lincoln.

You would have to ask an older member, this change happened before I was born.