A fraction, just a hundredth of a hundredth of a hundred dollars. About 30 million pennies are produced each year, costing the United States of America 72 million dollars. For a penny. The lowest form of currency in the U.S. is costing us more than twice as much as its worth. So, is keeping the penny worth it? In my opinion, no. Pennies just cost too much, and it's our tax money making it. Many countries, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain, have already dropped their lowest-denominated coin (Sommer). The penny is just a waste of space, time, and money. Each zinc and copper coin cost 2.41 cents to produce and distribute (Sommer). In 2010, the U.S. lost $27.4 million dollars on making the penny (Sommer). It’s just too much money to ignore any longer. In addition to all that, the pennies don’t make any money, they stay one cent forever. So that we can’t even get the money we spent back. Additionally, the pennies are a waste of space and energy. What do we …show more content…
Pennies can actually reduce your money by wasting your time. “Time wasted counting pennies could add up to over $700 million per year nationwide!” (Mancuso) How does time waste money? Well, in retail businesses, employers pay their employees by the hour, and if the customer or employee spends just two point five seconds counting pennies, thoses seconds can add up and both the employees and companies will be losing thousands (Mancuso). If you have a job, then you depend on it to earn money, but with your tax money going to pay for the expensive penny, and/or having your time and money wasted counting pennies in the retail business, the expensive could cost you thousands of dollars. The penny is also very inefficient and people throw them away, but their throwing away your money, costing you even more in taxes to remake the lost
"The Penny Debate " by Brad Andrew is an article written to inform Americans about an ongoing conflict. Both sides are supported with good reasons; However, I think It would be beneficial to keep the penny. Based on the article, which implies that fellow Americas would lose much more than we're gaining. Things such as; Getting rid of the penny, Charities ran on coins will lose profits, putting U.S. Mint further in debt, and prices would rise. Many may think that eliminating the penny will be a plus, but aren't looking at both pros and cons in-depth for future references. Rather than getting rid of the penny altogether we could use a cheaper metal to produce
Pennies should no longer be made because they cost more money than its actual value. In source 3, states, “ A penny currently costs the United States government 2.4 cents to mint.” This shows that pennies cost more than there actually value. this show that because it says that they pay 2.4 cents to the mint to make pennies. In source, 3 it says,” Department of Defense agrees. … abolished the use of pennies at overseas military bases ... because pennies were considered “too heavy” and “not cost-effective to ship.” This shows that even the military finds the pennies useless also. In other words the military said that there too heavy and it's not cost effective to the ship. All in all, pennies should no longer be made because they cost more money than its actual value.
In 2011, it cost 2.4 cents to produce the penny. The penny was first minted in 1857. It cost 2.4 cents to make the penny. Also the United States loses 1.8 cents for every penny being made. In conclusion we should get rid of the penny. The United States should get rid of the penny because it is people are not using them, cost to much, and other countries have already dropped the penny.
Getting rid of the penny is good for the economy because it would save the government on average 60 million dollars a year. Evidence that supports this claim is, “Pennies may not be big money, even if you add them together. But we are paying a cost for the privilege of squirreling
President Lincoln who is a great model of the USA, " would be ashamed to have his face on this specious specie"(Source C). Why would they put the face of a great president who did good things in the US on a piece of copper that has no value what so ever. He will feel no gratitude toward the country by repaying his hard work in a non-valuable piece of copper that should be helping but its really not. As years pass by, the economy is changing by how much money is worth by stating that, " you can't buy anything with a penny any more"(Source C). The penny was worth more back then but now you can't even buy a piece of gum with it. If the penny can't even buy a product why keep it around, its not like its being used. It can also be said that, " Two-thirds of them immediately drop out of circulation" (Source C). Meaning to say that approximately sixty-six percent of pennies disappear or just end up in a place where it will eventually be
Have you ever had the struggle of having tons of pennies overflowing out of your pockets? Do you just have a mountain of change consisting of mostly pennies gathering dust on your dresser? What if there was a way to stop adding pennies to that useless pile of change? We can work together to make that happen. We can get rid of the penny completely. Even though the penny has large sentimental value in the US, the small, brown coin still costs more to make than it’s worth.
According the article “Give a Penny-Save the Day” written by Ted Waterhouse, it cost more than 2.4 cents to create one penny. That is double the amount the penny is worth. The US mint which creates our money is investigating how to make the penny more cost effective, but in reality we could spend that money plus the money we use creating the penny on other, more important things. Jeff Sommer, author of “Penny Wise, or
Though some parties may claim that the penny holds value to the United States, majority of the arguments presented are invalid or out of date. Examples such as the man who has saved “90 pennies a day” (Source B) are an extreme case that cannot be used to argue for continuation of the penny. In the average lifespan of an American denizen, it is improbable that one will have the time to collect this many pennies. In addition, on order for this man to reach his grand total of $13,084.59 took about forty years, making this argument illogical as the process is time consuming and one can save even more by simply collecting larger denomination coins. In addition, arguments made those countries such as the “EU … and Canada” that have kept their “penny”
A third reason why the penny should be abolished is because it is a time waster. When making a purchase and an annoying penny is needed, precious seconds are wasted digging in pockets or purses. In a culture where time is money, why is an annoyance like the penny still used. The penny is a timewaster and its use and production should be halted immediately.
The penny costs more to make than it is worth. For example the article Should we get rid of the Penny 8 Reasons to Keep it vs Eliminate it says,”According to the 2014 report from the US. Mint, it now costs about $0.017-or 1.7 cents-to make one cent.” The government actually lost over $55 million making pennies in 2014 alone. It also takes a lot of energy to make pennies, which costs money to. We should get rid of the penny because of how much one costs.
As indicated in Source 2 “Is The Penny Worth it?” , “Mark Weller, Americans for Common Cents spokesperson, claims that stores will not choose to round their prices down. He claims that what he calls the “rounding tax” will cost consumers $600 million per year.” So in reality is removing pennies from the United States currency system really worth it? It seems not because it is costing civilians so much more to live than it already is with
The penny is practically worthless to many people in our country. In a Gallup Poll of 1,002 adults conducted from June 11 of this year displayed shocking results. Nearly 75% of those adults would stop and pick a penny that is present on the ground. About 40% of men and 35% of women would walk passed a penny that is on any type of surface. This poll also found that 58 percent of Americans stash their pennies in piggy banks, jars and drawers. Some Americans redeem their cents at banks or coin-counting machines, but 2 percent admitted they toss them into the trash. They consider the penny a nuisance to many fellow Americans. This sentiment has been growing through recent years. The penny is basically obsolete and should be removed from American currency.
The penny must be eliminated as quickly as possible. The United States is in massive debt and instead of cutting programs which are vital to the economy and to citizens of the United States, the United States must find ways to cut expenses in parts that are often over looked. One great way to cut down on unnecessary spending is the penny. Believe it or not, the penny, the smallest denomination of currency in the United States is a huge waste of money. The one cent denomination has no use. You can no longer “buy anything with a penny” anymore. (William) The only use the penny has is to pay for the taxes, which, can be rounded off to the nearest nickel thus obliterating the need for a penny.
Although this may be true, according to The Ever-Changing Penny, the text states, “In 2011, it cost… 2.4 cents to produce one penny… production costs are slightly lower today… just over 1.8 cents to produce”(Story 5). As a result under this piece of evidence, the price of the penny is lowering every few years. The materials used to construct the penny could be changed to more common and cheap metals. An equally important piece of information comes from the article Penny Wise, or 2.4 Cents Foolish?, where Sommer states, “The mint defer to Congress, and Congress hasn’t told it to abolish the penny. Lawmakers have directed the mint to study ways to make small coins more cheaply”(Sommer 3). Provided the information, the mint has tried to reach out the Congress in hopes of getting an answer, yet the Congress never made a decision. In hope that the U.S. Mint does believe that they can create more efficient pennies with cheaper materials, than the U.S. will keep the one-cent
In America, there is still a debate if the penny should be eliminated. If it was to be eliminated it would still be used, but in a minimal way. In Canada, the Canadian penny was eliminated due to cost, time, and the country believed it was a waste of money, “inflation reduced its purchasing power by 95% since it was first minted domestically in 1908: back then the cent could buy goods of the cost of $0.20, today in other words.”(The Economist). Once a small coin can no longer be used to buy individual items at that price, but it is only used to make change, it becomes more trouble than it is worth. Canadian pennies cost “1.6 Canadian cents to manufacture, and the government expected to save $11 million a year by eliminating them”(The Economist). But that sum equivalent to 0.0006% of GDP is small change. Canadians feel that eliminating pennies is that their feeble purchasing power means dealing with coins,