View Full Version : Is the US getting rid of the penny?
Tussiemussies
7-31-13, 2:34pm
An article from "The Dollar Stretcher."
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/economics/getting-rid-of-the-penny.aspx
I think we should, it costs twice as much to manufacture it as it is worth. I stopped carrying them some years ago and when I do receive them as change, I'll promptly dump them into the nearest 'give a penny, take a penny' jar.
By some estimates, producing a single penny can cost more than 2 cents. And in the aggregate, production of both pennies and nickels results in a loss of about $436 million per year.
Are they saying the mint is profitable without pennies and nickles? If so, they're wrong. All the mint does is print a bunch of IOU's and they all cost more than they're (physically) worth. And if $436 million is a deal breaker in a budget of almost $4 trillion, well, lets just say we've been around that block before. Can anyone say USPS?
Overall I think pennies are more pain than they're worth, but as long as our system is based on dollars AND cents I vote to keep them. Personally I'll be happy just flashing my Android screen at the scanner and never carrying cash, or change, again.
Personally I'll be happy just flashing my Android screen at the scanner and never carrying cash, or change, again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D5YoLiqUa4
Good one Bae.
I don't quite follow the logic that it costs more to make than it's worth, since they get used like a gillion times before they wear out. I put all my pennies in a big bowl and every several months take them to the bank. I usually get $20 or so in folding money in exchange, which seems to work for me. I even do the hard work of bending over to pick one up off the ground:)
I suppose if they went away, or even if nickels went away, it would be no big deal to me. What I miss is the pre-1964 silver coins. They made a better jingle in the pocket.
Just learned that they are trying to dump the dollar (the paper one) with coins. I was in research with my client who showed me a bunch of Presidents' coins he had gotten at a toll booth. Seems printing costs for dollar bills is exorbitant, and they thought that having special issue of Presidents on the coins would attract use. Wrong--think of the Susan B. Anthony effort. Turns out they are only interesting to collectors.
Dollar coins tend to look too much like quarters. As bae said, maybe promoting virtual cash is the best idea.
When I used to visit England regularly, I didn't like the one pound sterling coins. It felt like I was spending nickels when they cost about $1.50+ each. I feel that dollar coins would be the same way.
Plus my wallet would be heavier!
The arguments in the article in favor of keeping the penny seemed pretty weak.
Of course getting rid of the penny would highlight the fact that thanks to the Federal Reserve Bank the penny has gone from being worth approximately $.25 in 2013 dollars value 100 years ago to something that many people just toss away as worthless the way Alan does. Thanks to inflation for us to get our currency more in line with what existed 100 years ago we would need to drop every bill smaller than the $20 and every coin smaller than the quarter and start using the dollar coins and add a two dollar coin.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-8N0ShIjtsjw/UEfIT6SieGI/AAAAAAAAGNM/V5kSJS_WEFc/s800/Awesomized.jpg
Zimbabwe truly is an amazing and sad place. I pride myself on being able to survive some pretty dire circumstances, but my friends in Zimbabwe have to play that game within an inch of their lives.
That's what I call hyperinflation!
ToomuchStuff
8-1-13, 12:06pm
Let's say they stopped making the penny. I guess we need to start with the question, are the penny's that are made now, only replacements for ones that are turned in as no longer good? (can't account for all damaged penny's, like those in kids presses, or train tracks) If not, then they are still putting their (our) $.02 cents in. LOL
How many penny's are out there? I haven't seen anything on how long it would take to run those out of the system, or would they be considered no longer valid (like plastic tax mills) after a certain point. They add up, if people didn't want them, they could just send them to me.
Tussiemussies
8-1-13, 1:38pm
Wondering though when you are shopping, well I think they will round up the amount up instead of down. We save all of our change and it works well for us. I'm in favor of keeping the penny. Think I am the only one. LOL
ApatheticNoMore
8-1-13, 2:04pm
Personally I'll be happy just flashing my Android screen at the scanner and never carrying cash, or change, again.
sure because I want everyone and their big brother to know what I bought this week. Oh wait, no I don't. Yea make everything an Android screen and we'll be bartering to get by pretty soon .... way to go government.
ToomuchStuff
8-1-13, 2:30pm
Digital divide. I am and plan on remaining a mostly cash user. Still don't have a "smart" phone, in LARGE part, due to cost. But I also deal with lawyers and law enforcement some, and the stories I have heard about stolen phones and laptops (including some attorney's with client information on them), leads me to want to stay far away from the electronic wallets (of which there is no standard).
Money is money, it all spends the same. Japan has a 500yen coin which is about US$5.00. Their first paper currency starts at 1000yen, approx US$10.00.
The wallet can get very heavy, very quickly after a couple of errands!
Let's say they stopped making the penny. I guess we need to start with the question, are the penny's that are made now, only replacements for ones that are turned in as no longer good? (can't account for all damaged penny's, like those in kids presses, or train tracks) If not, then they are still putting their (our) $.02 cents in. LOL
How many penny's are out there? I haven't seen anything on how long it would take to run those out of the system, or would they be considered no longer valid (like plastic tax mills) after a certain point. They add up, if people didn't want them, they could just send them to me.
I imagine you'd still be able to use them. Just as I was able to use a canadian dollar bill that an uncle had given me when I was a kid, decades later when i went to canada on vacation. The clerk at the store got a funny look on his face, but took it just the same. Over time, though, just as no one now spends canadian dollar bills (except me, haha) pennies would become less common, especially since cash registers would probably get programmed to round everything up or down to the nearest nickel, so spending them would require having 5 for any given purchase.
Let's say they stopped making the penny. I guess we need to start with the question, are the penny's that are made now, only replacements for ones that are turned in as no longer good? (can't account for all damaged penny's, like those in kids presses, or train tracks) If not, then they are still putting their (our) $.02 cents in. LOL
How many penny's are out there? I haven't seen anything on how long it would take to run those out of the system, or would they be considered no longer valid (like plastic tax mills) after a certain point. They add up, if people didn't want them, they could just send them to me.
Well, Canada just eliminated the penny a couple months ago. They should have done it a few years back, if you ask me. And how it works is that pennies are still valid currency. Stores have to accept them. But they no longer give pennies out. Cash purchases are just rounded to the nearest 5 cent. Credit/debit card purchases generally aren't rounded, though some places chose to do so. I much prefer not having to worry about pennies. No idea how long they'll stay around, but I'm sure they'll be valid indefinitely.
Giving up the penny is a no-brainer. It is working very well in Canada. The coins are no problem either with our use of twonies ($2) and loonies (they have a loon on the back for those who wonder about the name).
Different friends collect the coins each day and save them for a special use account. It is amazing how the amount can grow.
Sorry, folks, but all the fuss about the loss of the penny and the use of coins are a fuss about nothing. I agree with both decisions after using them
sure because I want everyone and their big brother to know what I bought this week. Oh wait, no I don't. Yea make everything an Android screen and we'll be bartering to get by pretty soon .... way to go government.
Between debit & credit cards, store loyalty cards, ever present surveillance cameras, the NSA and everything else going on in our society that tracks consumer movement I don't think choosing to not use your phone will end up buying anyone much additional privacy. I wave at the camera every time I stop by the store for bananas, even when I'm paying with cash.
I don't worry too much about my privacy since I really don't do much that would be suspicious, but I do worry about identity theft and am not too gung ho about using electronic media for financial transactions. I suppose to resist is futile.
I was a numismatist in my younger days and always admired the older coin designs that featured Native Americans and various visages of liberty embodied on the face and symbols of unity and strength, usually the noble eagle, on the back. Now it's a bunch of moldy old politicians and tourist destinations, which seems sort of boring.
I don't worry too much about my privacy since I really don't do much that would be suspicious, but I do worry about identity theft and am not too gung ho about using electronic media for financial transactions. I suppose to resist is futile.
I was a numismatist in my younger days and always admired the older coin designs that featured Native Americans and various visages of liberty embodied on the face and symbols of unity and strength, usually the noble eagle, on the back. Now it's a bunch of moldy old politicians and tourist destinations, which seems sort of boring. I also would worry about ID theft if I was forced to live in a cashless society. I'm all for getting rid of the penny - even if it does cause small price increases due to rounding off higher like Tussiemussies pointed out - but you'll have to pry my quarters and dollar bills out of my cold dead hand :-) :-)
ApatheticNoMore
8-2-13, 1:29pm
Between debit & credit cards, store loyalty cards, ever present surveillance cameras, the NSA and everything else going on in our society that tracks consumer movement I don't think choosing to not use your phone will end up buying anyone much additional privacy.
I don't own a debit card and never have (they don't have the protections against fraud that credit cards do), I rarely use credit cards or checks for in person payments, I've never owned a store loyalty card (but I always curse myself whenever shopping at stores that give big discounts for them - I'm like: why do I even shop at this @#$# store, I know better, and yet here I am again, why?). And I often don't have a cell on me when shopping. Now survellance cameras fine, there's not much I can do about that.
DH has some mills put away somewhere (they were his grandfather's) and I thought they were actual currency coins, but apparently not, according to wikianswers: A mill is 1/10 of a cent. There has never been a US coin in this denomination, but in the 1930s several states had tax tokens made for 1 or 2 mills in order to collect sales tax on small purchases. Yes, we collect pennies too and turn them in for dollars, but it does take a long time to save them up. I guess it's worth it, tho, as it's not much of an effort. Even tho we (often/usually) have to pay to do it.
ToomuchStuff
8-3-13, 12:45am
I don't own a debit card and never have (they don't have the protections against fraud that credit cards do), I rarely use credit cards or checks for in person payments, I've never owned a store loyalty card (but I always curse myself whenever shopping at stores that give big discounts for them - I'm like: why do I even shop at this @#$# store, I know better, and yet here I am again, why?). And I often don't have a cell on me when shopping. Now survellance cameras fine, there's not much I can do about that.
Debit cards do not have the same protection when run through the debit system, but are supposed to when you use the credit system (no pin number transactions). At least that is what Visa claimed on the debit cards my credit union issues.
DH has some mills put away somewhere (they were his grandfather's) and I thought they were actual currency coins, but apparently not, according to wikianswers: A mill is 1/10 of a cent. There has never been a US coin in this denomination, but in the 1930s several states had tax tokens made for 1 or 2 mills in order to collect sales tax on small purchases. Yes, we collect pennies too and turn them in for dollars, but it does take a long time to save them up. I guess it's worth it, tho, as it's not much of an effort. Even tho we (often/usually) have to pay to do it.
When mills were out in use in MO, originally, at least part of our sales tax, was supposed to go for a Missouri based system, similar to social security ("retirement"). Or so I was told by the neighbor that made it just shy of 101, and her local daughter.
We did used to have a half-cent, two cent piece and a three cent nickel.
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