Pennies Should Not Have A Penny

How many pennies do you have just lying around the house, not being used? I can answer that, TOO MANY! The use of pennies should be discontinued in the United States. Pennies are more trouble than they are worth, literally. They are costing the United States more money than they are even worth.

In the article of ,” Should the Penny Be Retired?” by the Associated Press states that many countries and more have deemed the penny useless and therefore got rid of it. Many people around the world especially in Toronto say to the penny that,” They’re a nuisance and have outlived their purpose. “While many are for getting rid of the penny all together there are still some people who are for keeping the penny around in fear for store managers rounding up to a nickel or a dime. In my perspective I believe that the penny is still valuable for many reasons even though the worth of it is small.

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.

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.

In recent times the U.S. penny has become a heated topic for debate. The issue people debate is whether the U.S. mint should discontinue the penny. Most Americans seem to have a definite opinion about this topic. Both sides of the argument have increasing support and a numerous amount of legitimate reasons to support their argument. In my opinion pennies are a nuisance and do not really offer enough value, therefore the U.S. Mint should discontinue the production of the penny.

The penny is not worth as much as it used to be. In the 1940’s, a penny would get you to pieces of candy, but today you cannot buy anything with a single penny. These days, people don’t even take their time to bend down and pick up a penny that is laying on the side walk. In the story we read, the dad offered his shoe box full of pennies to his eight year old son, to wrap up in rolls of 50, but his son told him “Thanks, dad, but it isn’t worth it.” If its not worth the time an 8 year olds to wrap pennies, and put them in the bank, then why is US Government keep making them.

What would we do with the 250 billion pennies in circulation? That means that 2 to 2.5 billion dollars would be wasted, and worthless. 2.5 billion dollars could be used to help several great causes. The average penny costs 1.67 cents to make so that means that approximately 417.5 billion dollars will be wasted if we decide to abolish the penny (7 Penny Facts). That would make a substantial difference in the lives of many people. Today to try to keep costs down the penny is made from 97.5% zinc and a little copper just for the appearance (Lewis). Many people that are against the penny say that we should get rid of the penny because, “it costs more money to be produced than what the penny is actually worth.” The truth really would be that it wouldn’t save the United States any money. An economic problem would actually arise (7 Penny Facts). What happens if you go to the store and spend 5.01? You would end up getting charged 5.05 and the businesses would take the extra 4 cents. This small amount would add up very quickly and everything would cost consumers more money each time you go to get gas, groceries, clothes, etc. More money would also be put towards producing more nickels, dimes, quarters, or other paper bills because they would get used more often. Also, all of the cash registers around the entire country would need to be re-programmed, due to not having the penny values. This would cost billions of dollars. So, abolishing the penny would not save money but actually lead to a lot of other costs all related to abolishing

How often do we use the penny in everyday transactions? In most cases when getting change from the cashier or when going through the household change jar containing all the change bombarded with all of those unwanted copper colored coins. The penny has such a low value compared to the other money increments we use, such as the quarter and dime. Its usefulness is running out in the society we have today and it is doing way more bad than good. It's time to discontinue the penny and take it out of circulation due to the benefits it would provide to us all.

In Forbes magazine, Neena Moorjani said “It’s practically useless in everyday life” (Lewis). Most people today fling their pennies into the trash, they drop out of circulation, or in couch cushions where you won’t see them again. In the 1900’s there was a thing called penny candy. You could go to a local store and buy one piece, or a few pieces of your favorite candy with just one penny. Today, candy bars from a gas station can cost up to two dollars. Adding to this, vending machines cause problems with coins. The vending machines used to take all types of coins, nickels, dimes and even pennies. If you try to put a penny in a machine now it will just spit it back out or an alarm will sound. In stores when someone says “one second I think I have some pennies” is very annoying. It uses about “...40 wasted seconds per day per person.

Is a penny saved really a penny earned? Well not much longer it isn't, people think that we should discontinue the penny from our current day system. In my eyes i see the penny as a waste of time and a waste of money.There has been talk lately about discontinuing the minting of the us penny,and after reading all four articles it's hard to say that we should keep the penny: “Penny Wise, or 2.4 Cents Foolish?” (Source 1), “Is the Penny Worth It?” (Source 2), “Give a penny-Save the day!” (Source 3) “The Ever-Changing penny” (Souce 4). In my opinion we should discontinue the U.S. penny because it is costing us too much to produce pennies and the cost to produce it is actually more than it's worth, many countries have already dropped the pennies and it's going just fine for them, there is already a plan for when we are going to discontinue the pennies, so we are prepared.

They view removing a coin from circulation that features a president, in this case Abraham Lincoln, is unpatriotic. A ____ study by _____ also shows that “__quote on sentament__” (__). To begin, removing Lincoln from coin currency is not a problem. Lincoln is on the $5 bill, which will not be taken out of circulation anytime in the foreseeable future. Many believe one of the most patriotic agencies is the armed forces. It turns out that even the they have no qualms about removing the penny. The United States Department of Defence has stopped accepting pennies in overseas bases, implementing instead a system “. . . whereby cash transactions ending in 3, 4, 8, or 9 cents are rounded up, and those ending in 1, 2, 6, or 7 cents are rounded down” (Citizens to Retire the Penny). As for nostalgia, the penny will still be in circulation for a number of years before they are completely phased out of circulation. Those that feel sentimental have time to collect pennies or get use to the idea before they are gone for

Another reason we should not have to penny is because most people just throw away the penny. The Baltimore Sun article also says that “people that run landfills say they find about a thousand a year” (Hirsch). This shows that people don’t care about the penny and they are just throwing money away. Since people can’t buy anything with a penny anymore, it is useless

Pennies are everywhere. From the bottom of fountains, under the ocean, and laying aside roads. The majority of these coins will continue to sit there forever. Is the United states really going to waste our money like that? A large debate has been going on in America, should the United States continue to make pennies or should they be demolished? Pennies should no longer be made in America.

Pennies do we really need them? A Lot of people say they don't and just don't use them bc they take too much space for example canadians there is a lot of canadians that just don't bother to use pennies because they think it's a waste of time.