preview

Are Pennies Paid Too Much

Decent Essays

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

Get Access