January 23, 2007
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Penny
I mentioned about a year ago that I thought it was time to retire the penny. There was so much talk about how the actual penny would be worth more if it was melted. When I go into a gas station, they don’t even appear to care whether you are a few pennies off.
I just read an article about how they may change the value of the penny. Here is the link: Link If they do change the value of the penny, they will essentially be doing away with the penny.
Should we do away with the penny?
Comments (129)
then what would we pinch?
yes. i hate pennies with a passion.
No. Let’s keep the penny!
And I’ve had people care if you are a couple of pennies off. You’d be surprised how many uptight cashiers there are out there.
Sings: Nobody cares
Yeah. That would be cool.
no that kinda makes me sad.
I am going to keep mine . . Maybe they will go up in value! LOL Plus what would I give my kids for doing their chores? (just kidding . . . they dont’ get paid to do their chores! hee hee)
No, I think they are beneficial. Next they will want to do away with the $1 bill.
What about the 99ยข specials and such? How will we retrieve our change from them? (c;
nah. its the smallest form of currency. Get rid of the single cent and you have to start all over
No way. Keep the penny, get rid of BUSH.
Wait… that has nothing to do with one another, does it.
do away with the penny? however will I get paid??
Prices changing? You’d have a revolt. No, keep the penny.
A Penny Saved, is a Penny Earned!
I love quarters. Not pennies!
NO, what about this site, it will be worthless: http://www.ziplo.com/Pennies.html
i’m indifferent.
i do know that me and 4 friends bought a large pizza, cheese stix and 2 liter from papa johns w/ only a $5 bill and change…let me tell you those (many) pennies added up
pennies suck
As it would then be impossible to graduate the cost of small items properly, and as manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers would adjust their prices upwards rather than downwards rather than take a loss, this would fuel inflation. Plastic pennies would be okay; as no vending machines take pennies, the lower weight wouldn’t be a problem.
Pennies suck.
No, I need my two cents worth put in every now and then. I don’t need to give away three cents to do it.
no, and I’ll tell you why. Ever seen Office Space? if we were to retire the penny, it would throw off our economy by MILLIONS of dollars. A penny does not seem like much, and a fraction of a penny is even less, but multiply it by several million transactions every day, and you come up with a lot of money.
i think lincoln would care ….
No! If you don’t want yours, you can give them to me. ; -)
Incidentally, the price for printing a novel through Ingrams – or at least, the price that I’m getting – is 1.5 cents per page, 90 cents for the cover, so yes, the penny is useful.
No…that would just be silly. I mean, yeah, they seem kind of stupid, but imagine how much money people would loose if they couldn’t get that 1 cent back. I think it would REALLY add up after a while.
No way. Keep the penny, get rid of BUSH.
Wait… that has nothing to do with one another, does it.
Posted 1/23/2007 8:26 AM by happydeviant
Yeah, they have something in common. Bush spends way too many pennies on the war, when he could be doing something more beneficial with the pennies they don’t have. AKA: way in debt!
But, anyway, I agree. Get rid of the penny!! **takes up too much room for something worth so little**
I have been glad for saved up pennies many times!
I feel pedantic this morning, in fact I’m going to nerd-out. From Kevin Plumberg, of Reuters – “Sharply rising prices of metals such as copper and nickel have meant the face value of pennies and nickels are worth less than….”
No. The face values ARE worth less than, or the face value IS worth less than.
Wouldn’t you think someone who writes for a living couldn’t make such a mistake even in his sleep?
They must be hiring emos. Bejasus. “r u shur its ok to say that i dont no do u”
I’m trying to figure out how I would get my correct change if we didn’t have a one cent currency coin. But I think changing to a cheaper metal would be practical.
Why do we think that more is best? No one wants to carry ones or pennies.But the ones and pennins are what gets you through the lean times.When you use them you dont have to break a twenty for something small.They add up.If everything had to be rounded up (they never round it down) we will lose qite a chunk of change in a year.Gas prices,milk,cigs,taxes…
I’m okay with it overall, but some measures would have to be taken to account for the inability to go below or inbetween multiples of 5 cents.
I think something worth considering more is getting rid of coins and going straight to bills. I imagine paper is cheaper than metal. Plus, it’s easier to manage. How many people drop bills vs. drop change?
Personally, I pick up pennies when I see them.
Maybe.
Hey, Dan. I have a question on my xanga right now about relationships, love, and trust. Could you put in your two (or five?) cents, please? I respect the wisdom that has shown through your posts and the way that you word things.
If you have time, I would appreciate it.
(Any body else who is commenting can come answer it to, if they so desire.
)
no, pennies turn into dollars……..haha
but really, i saved all my pennies for 6 months and came up with $80
pennys are kinda annoying
Nope.
My kids learned to count by wrapping pennies.
keep the penny…when you save them they really do amount to some serious cash.
Alot of charities (red cross, ronald mcdonald house, etc) rely on those pennies for a large amount of their donations. For that reason alone, pennies should stay.
If we got rid of the penny, thoughts would become alot more expensive… I say we keep it
Could we solve these issues by going to “plastic”? What if we stopped making the penny but didn’t stop USING it? We could still pay for gas and other things with our credit/debit cards, thus still utilizing the precious penny, but cut down on the coin issues? (I really don’t know– just a thought)
I don’t think it really matters? Whatever happens, happens. I can see both sides of the argument and I don’t feel that either are all too strong. The mint should just do what they feel best, and then we’ll deal with it.
Save the penny!!
no i think we should keep them
If we get rid of the penny, the world will explode from pure chaos. First you get rid of the lucky “find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck” statement. Then four leaf clovers everywhere will wilt, mirrors will be breaking all over the place, and black cats will run rampant.
Eh. Get rid of the penny. I’m too sick to care if the world ends.
Just like the article says, the penny is mostly zinc and then coated with copper. Besides, how could we do away with the penny when we charge $2.099 for a gallon of gas? Also when you’re dealing with sales tax. At 7% on a $0.99 item it comes out to $1.06. Now what, raise the sales tax to 10%? It simply won’t work with our current system. EVERYTHING would have to change if we got rid of the penny.
I hope not. I do think its about time gas stations quit posting their prices with the 9/10 of a cent in them though.
no…
I want my pennies!
No, I like pennies…
I’ll talk to you in a week, Dan. Enjoy yourself and keep your theologian readers happy with food for thought
NOOOO. That is foolish.
I hate pennies! BURN THEM!!! BURN THEM ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!
i kinda like the penny, actually. I don’t have a good reason why though.
I did some Spring Semester cleaning in my room the other day and threw away about a half dozen pennies. I can’t wait until we go to a cashless system, we’re already on our way.
I actually have deep seated love of the penny. I am a bigger fan of the penny than I am of any other denomination of our currency. I therefore believe that the penny needs to be saved.
Well in the end of the article, it said there was a happeny (1/2 of a penny) and a farthing (1/4 of a penny) which were retired. I guess pennies won’t last any longer. Lets say there are now 9 billion pennies in circulation, we’d lose 9 billion dollars or increase it to 45 billion dollars.
no, simply because the penny is a sign of the strength of our economy.
If we stoped makeing them they would become worth more.
In a way.
no, let’s keep the penny!
Personally, I think that anyone who cares that much about getting rid of pennies needs to find another cause to advocate. I’d say that there are countless other causes more important.
but think, if we did away with pennies like the article says, they’d be worth so much more. I’m all for getting those rascals out of my purse!
Sure, and set up large deposit areas where people can turn in their pennies and get bills or larger coins in return.
Of course not!
I like the penny. Even though it is annoying.
i think we still need a penny…
Nope.
although i would have referred to the richard pryor role in Superman, the comment by RX_8fan regarding Office Space makes the same point…
i love abraham lincoln … he’s one of my heroes… but i am unsure what to do with all of the pennies i have…
my husband hates all coins and wants everything to round up or down to a whole dollar amount.
i’m just waiting for an economic recession so we can revalue the US dollar
With the rise in the use of Credit/Debit cards in recent years, it seems like “they” are trying to get rid of hard currency all together.
i think they should for sure
and no, things wouldn’t have to change. you can still make something $2.99, even if there are no pennies. it means you pay $3.00, but if you, for instance, bought three things, you would pay instead $8.95. it balances out in the end, i promise. you can keep taxes at 7% etc.
trust me.
yes.
There was a time the penny used to be worth alot. . .
heck, even if we merely changed the penny from a one cent piece to a 2 cent piece–that would DOUBLE ITS VALUE AND EFFECTIVENESS.
yes.
Get rid of the penny.
Don’t be a penny pincher!
I say we take a bunch of pennies. . .toss them on railroad tracks. . .watch a train smash them. . .don’t those run over pennies look cool?
No, I have a whole jarful to use up!
they would round down, mosaictiles.
in the military exchanges overseas, we, the cashiers, never gave out pennies. if it was 7 cents, it would be 5 cents, and 8 cents would become 10 cents. and same 2 and 3 cents.
everyone was happy
Yes. And while we’re at it, let’s do away with the copper mining industry.
Yes.
How on earth would we get our change back properly? Or will everything just become more expensive?
Because if so, I think it’s a really bad idea.
Poor lincoln
No. Pennies make dollars.
Find a different, cheaper material to make them from.
yes…i hate change as it is and there are hundreds of pennies just lying around my house…i despise them lol
I throw away my pennies..
I don’t remember the last time i used a penny!
BUT..
Because so many people don’t use pennies..
A lot of them store them in a jar or something..
And after awhile, they donate the whole thing to some sort of charity.
I think that even though we don’t need it..
Other people still do.
If we retire the penny..
There would be less donations.. =/
I remember in my 6th grade class,
we had this fund raiser where everyone brought in all their spare change.
Almost all the change were in pennnies..
SO i hope the penny doesn’t retire =[
pennies are fun
i think we should keep it
No. I would mind. I would hate to have to round to a 5 or 10 cent mark after tax, instead of only rounding a cent.
I would be out a lot of money. Add 1-4 cents to each transaction, (don’t fool yourself, they won’t round down, how preposterous) and it would add up fast.
If they change the value of the penny, I imagine that would cause inflation…
As annoying as pennies may be, I don’t like the idea of having to pay more for something [because, chances are, things will round up--not down] just because they’ve done away with the penny…
So yeah, they should keep the penny.
YourOuterCritic: Pennies are made primarily of zinc. Ironically, the nickel is made up of copper mostly. So, getting rid of the copper industry would mean getting rid of nickels, not pennies.
Not coincidentally, Arizona’s representative Jim Kolbe, is really pushing to get rid of the penny. Why? Because Arizona is the copper state. If we get rid of the penny, we will need more copper to make more nickels. That could make his state very rich.
Even this issue, sadly, is all about politics.
Pennies suck. A dollar isn’t worth too much anymore, and it takes 100 pennies for a dollar, so…
No, how would we make change? What would we do when the amount is smaller than 5 cents?
YES! the “extra” cents can be a tax. So if your food was a 1.83 that 3 cents is a tax. And the tax can be for a specific purpose. NOT Social security, that is a waste, but in 401k’s. Like what chile did. A penny tax would be great.
time to start taking care of my pennies.
Personally, I think we need to set everything in intervals of 5 cents.. I’ve thought that for years. It makes sense, it’s easy, but it still allows for minute differences in prices.
yeah, i’ve had a cashier actually give me the couple of cents i was missing out of his pocket.
Sure. But the millions of pennies eventually add up.
Lincoln has his face on the $5 bill, so it’s not like we’re desecrating his memory. So, why not? I hate pennies.
That’s ridiculous. Get off the penny’s case.
Nah.
Where would Abe Lincoln sit his face on then?
Yes because pennies are annoying and weigh down my purse.
No because then we would have no penny wars or ways to put our two cents in or a penny for your thoughts. And to top it all off, companies will round UP when the total for what you just bought doesn’t round off at a 5 or a 0. We’ll be paying more and that’s always annoying.
even if they did decide to stop making pennys they cant just make them worthless over night…they would have to wait until the penny was out of circulation…and that will take a long time…have you seen how many “old” 5s 10s and 20s are still making their way into our pockets?? fine make the penny worthless…take it out of circulation…by the time its acctually gone we will all be paying with the chips that are put into our fingertips at birth.
I think pennies are cute
ooh i don’t even know about that. but i remember in chem, we did a lab with 2 pennies. one from like the 60s and the other from about now and we dipped them in hydrochloric acid after creating notches in them to get to the center material. the penny from the 60s didn’t dissolve, while the one from today dissolved and all that was left was the shell of it. (i later found out the inside was made of zinc.) it made me kinda sad actually. but it was still a fun lab!
I meant to post this this morning, but for some reason my internet cutout before I was done.
I don’t think that we can take away the penny, because there are still people who are so anal about their change that they would feel ripped off if they were $.02 short.
nope. if not, then what will happen when we need to pay with a few cents, say $5.67? we cant just give them 5.65 or 5.70 and not care, even if i dont, but others might care about those few cents and it could change the economy.
No, I love pennies.
That just seems like it would screw up the whole economic system…
no
“YourOuterCritic: Pennies are made primarily of zinc. Ironically, the nickel is made up of copper mostly. So, getting rid of the copper industry would mean getting rid of nickels, not pennies.”
Facts?! My brain hurts. I’d better go be sarcastically indifferent somewhere else…
no, i like pennies.
Never.
No.
Penny for your thoughts, big boy.
Yeah, I dont like em, but it would just be way too much trouble to change all of the prices.
A penny’s actually worth 1.1 cents in raw materials. Unfortunately, it’s illegal to melt them down and sell them.
We save pennies all the time. I’ve taken as much as $5 in pennies to Coinstar. I wouldn’t care if we did away with them though.
Please no. I actually have use for them often!!
First Pluto gets demoted as a planet and now they want to take away the penny! Everything that I once held as beautiful and good is being taken away from me
Ok that was a little dramatic. I think I would be sad to see the penny go, but I would get over it.
NO! You have to start somewhere.
they did away with one-cent-pieces in australia, and it’s working out well, so maybe… you’d have a decent-sized opper and zinc surplus, thats for sure…
It costs more than one cent to make a penny, so America loses millions of dollars a year manufacturing pennies.
I, on the other hand, collect them.
No.. I like pennies
my buddy says “NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!”
I say: “NOOOOOO!!!”
then i would have to go around pinching people instead
Noo! I love the penny! >.<
> No. As silly as it seems, Pennies do add up to quite a bit, over the long haul….. A good example, if a bit silly, the way it was presented, was the Superman movie with Richard Pryor? Shuffle a few pennies here, there, who knows where from ‘n to, and presto! Instant fortune for the recipient…. In the long run, the Fed gets all defaults, so NO! Give ‘em nada!! I will choose Who to toss those pennie to!
Peace
aww, no, I feel bad for the penny, poor little guy. It’s not his fault.