To American Citizens,
Chance are, you’ve likely used a penny in your lifetime. Everywhere you look, you’ll find pennies. Between your couch cushions or on the street, pennies are everywhere. But have you ever thought, how much do pennies cost, and why do we still use them? We need to get the United States Mint to stop production of the penny and slowly take it out of circulation. This is only possible if we all band together and demand a change in our currency.
Before we finally agree to do away with the penny, let’s learn a little bit more about its history. “The penny, the first currency of any type authorized by the U.S. government, was initially struck in 1787, though it didn’t become legal tender until 1856. Since then, more than 300 billion one-cent coins have been minted. Abraham Lincoln became the first U.S. president to adorn a coin when he was put on the penny in 1909 on the 100th anniversary of his birth (he wasn’t added to the $5 bill until 1914). The Lincoln penny was also the first to include the inscription “In God We Trust” (“Should We Eliminate the Penny?”) If the penny seems like an ancient artifact, that’s because it is. Pennies were made over 200 years ago. Don’t you think in such a fluctuating and constantly changing economy, a newer form of currency would be necessary?
To put it simply,
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“10 Things You Can Do With Pennies.” Mental Floss, 12 Mar. 2018, mentalfloss.com/article/526919/10-things-you-can-do-pennies.
Source 2: Livingston, Amy. “Should We Get Rid of the Penny? – 8 Reasons to Keep It vs Eliminate It.”Money Crashers, 7 May 2018,www.moneycrashers.com/get-rid-penny-reasons/)
Source 3: Should We Eliminate the Penny?” MILE Wealth Management, 15 Sept. 2017, milewealth.com/articles/should-we-eliminate-the-penny.
Source 4: Isidore, Chris. “Should the U.S. Kill the Penny?” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, 10 May 2018,
"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
The U.S. penny has been a standard in our currency system for almost as long as our country has existed as a sovereign nation, but due to inflation, production costs, and the changing times we live in, it is no longer a sustainable unit of currency and only serves to increase our national deficit and waste our time. When the penny was produced for the first time in 1792 by the U.S. Mint, it was made of pure copper, featured a woman with flowing hair, and was inscribed with the words “Liberty”. Since then, the design and composition have changed numerous times to reflect our changing nation. Despite its fading glory, the penny has been kept alive by numerous false lobbying fronts and a stubborn ideology, but
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.
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”
Finally a fourth reason why the penny should be abolished is because its production cost exceeds its face value. The U.S. Mint is losing money, as it costs 1.5 cents to manufacture a one cent penny. This results in the U.S. Mint losing millions of dollars per year. For example, in 2016, the U.S. Mint lost $46 million dollars by producing pennies. This makes no sense logically. Why would you manufacture a product that you can not make a profit
Many Americans feel that the country needs to “change it’s change”, but when you look at the facts it really doesn’t look that way. America should keep the penny because of price inflation, nickel cost, and the economy issues of other countries who’ve done the same.
The penny debate has been going on for many years. Many people want to get rid of the penny, but others want to keep the penny. We should keep the penny. The penny is a benefit in our society.
We should get rid of the penny. It cost more to make a penny then it is actually worth, the penny is worth 1 cent and it cost the mint 2.41 cents to make just one penny according to source 1. This would also make the U.S. millions by saving 1.4 cents per penny if we get rid of it. Some people might say, “we should not get rid of it because Lincoln is on the penny and he will be forgotten”. Well I think not, because we already have tons of documents about him and there are statues of him as well. We should get rid of the penny, because most people just forget about the pennies and put them in dressers according to Jim Flaherty, the Canadian Finance Minister. We also just throw pennies into wishing wells or water fountains.
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.
We should stop the penny because history is outdated and insignificant.The indian men that was on the penny was even real which meaning it was outdated and not that important. Many differnt designs before it got to Abraham lincoln.No one like the l.ady liberty of the penny because her hair was to wild and many people started complianing about
On top of not having a use, the penny is a big waste of time, literally. Gore, a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley has made a calculation that approximately “four hours per person per year” is wasted on rummaging for pennies which in turn costs the nation “over $15 billion per year.” (Kahn) These $15 billion could be used to create jobs, invest in renewable energy, or invest in education, all of which would greatly improve the nation while at the same time getting rid of a pointless coin.
The penny is way too established into the american lifestyle to eliminate it from the american society. The removal of the penny would attract too much unnecessary effort that won't benefit, but harm the economy and the people. Source E shows a majority of 2,136 people surveyed voting to keep the penny. 59% vote in opposition of abolishing the penny. Abolishing it is basically impractical. “Up until 1982, pennies were made mostly of copper; since then they have been 97.5% zinc” (Lewis). Since the recreation of penny to primarily be composed of Zinc, The price for production has dropped significantly. In 2011 the price to produce a cent was 2.41 cents and dropped to 1.67 cents as of 2014 (Wikipedia). Though completely eliminating the penny
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,
In modern America only 25% of all transactions deal with cash. The remainder is completely dominated by the use of electronic currency. With the constant rise in internet usage the data shows that the elimination of the penny will not negatively affect commerce in any way. However, by removing this denomination from the financial system the Federal government will save 105 million dollars a year annually. You may wonder how such a low valued coin could be costing the government so much money? The truth is that penny production has been outsourced resulting in the price per coin to rise to a whopping $2.41 (US).
First of all,in 2011, it cost 2.4 cents just to make a penny. ”in 2011,it cost the U.S. mint more than 2.4 cents to produce a penny.” (Source 4, par. 4) But the cost to produce a penny now has dropped to about 1.8 cents but it still costs more to make than it's worth.We should also get rid of the nickel to because it costs 9.4 cents to make so they are just basically losing money by the minute.”In the United