Ask Mike: Pennies for your thoughts
Hey Guys,
A little something about me: My mood always improves whenever I pay for things with exact change. It’s the little things, you know? But there are some who want to end my right to hold up the supermarket line while I count out my coins like a grumpy grandpa. I refer to those dastardly souls who seek to eradicate the penny.
Now, to be fair, the penny haters have a point. Those little copper coins can be a pain to cart around. And, obviously, they’re not worth a whole lot. I went looking for more on this movement and found a site run by the “Citizens for Retiring the Penny.”
Under their proposal, the penny would go the way of the elevator operator. Instead of people getting back pennies, the tab would simply be rounded up or rounded down to the nearest nickel. This idea has been around a while and actually has a lot of supporters. My chief concern is that retailers would somehow take advantage of rounding, by pricing items in such a way that the bill is always rounded up. However, according to the organization’s site, this is a myth. Recent studies confirm that rounding will be neutral over the long haul, because shopkeepers can’t predict what combination of items a person will buy.
OK, so maybe the lack of pennies would be more convenient, but does it make economic sense? Again, according to those looking to get rid of the penny, it will. They argue that the penny costs around 1.2 cents to produce. So, the mint is losing around 1/5 of one cent for every coin they make. Even for the government, this seems like a truly bad way to flush money down the toilet.
But just as there are those want to get rid of the penny, there are others who wish to save it. The group Americans for Common Cents (get it?) argues that “the penny plays an important role in our everyday lives and in our nation’s economy. To get rid of it, would have an adverse affect on charities and working families.” Plus, the penny has a lot of sentimental value. It may not be worth a lot, but it has an image of one of our greatest presidents on it. And, darn it, it sure comes in handy when your total comes out to $5.01.
I’d like the penny to stick around, but where do you guys stand on this issue? Should America keep the penny or start rounding to nearest nickel? Leave your two cents in the comments below.
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I think it’s time the penny was retired. Prices like $4.99 etc are just trying to fool us into thinking it’s cheaper than $5. I lived in Australia where the penny was eliminated a few years ago. Bloody marvelous and no pennies to put in a jar or carry in your purse or pocket. It’s a go for me!!
Julie White.
Yesh mish money penny,the prices of tea has gone up beyond the prices of cheese.When i was younger i used to drink a vodka martini stirred not shaken with a lemon twist now the price is double.
there are some things that just aren’t done, such as drinking Dom Pérignon ’53 above a temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs
Keep the penny, rounding up to the nearest nickel will mean we will be paying 4cents more for an item. We pay enough for everything as it. My budget is tight enough without a government denying my 4 cents!
I agree with those who want to get rid of the penny. Using pennies alone, it takes FOREVER to save up any amount of money whatsoever to put back into a bank account… .
In new zealand, their smallest denomination is 0.05$ to make it easier. In england, the penny is really a nuisance. I think that they should not be retired, just very few more made, just so they become uncommon
I was stationed in Germany in the 80′s pennies were not used on the base, the rounding system works.
The question in my mind is, WHY is the penny useless now?
It is because our money has less and less value, compared to standard goods and services.
Just one example in my lifetime, the cost of postage has increased from 3 cents to forty eight cents.
My father in law used to give his children a newly minted silver dollar each birthday. My husband’s grandchildren are rude unless their birthday money is at least $100.
And who’s responsible for this? Why is our money no good?
Wait no more pennies? That CANT be! You see theres this program in my school called “Penny Harvest”. All of New York collects pennies to donate for education, money, supplies..things like that. EVERY PENNY COUNTS! Listen guys, it may seem useless, but last year they collected 1 million dallors in PENNIES! I DISAGREE! SORRY!
Long live the Penny!!!
Julie… 4.99$ is not necessarily a trick to get consumers to spend more. In fact, a number of studies show that numbers that aren’t rounded are less appealing to consumers. Originally, the 1 cent price difference was to force cashiers to open the register and record a transaction instead of pocketing money. Makes better sense to me, what do you think?r
If people in line get mad at you for using pennies, here’s what you do: Go to the bank each day for a month or two and get a roll of pennies. Shove that roll of pennies up your ass and then use them at that same store daily for the two months. The chances of one of the angry line-goers getting one of your Ass Pennies is pretty good. Then you know you have the upper hand in any situation because they have handled one of your Ass Pennies.
I like pennies. i mean, really, if there were none, how would u choose in tricky situations if u didnt have the penny to go: if heads: this. if tails: that. life would suck.
i dont know about ecnomoy n wat not but really, i use pennies for charities n donations. it really is easier for me to drop in boxes n stuff. n one time i was doing a funraiser n we had a coin collection box, we raised quite a lot of money. every penny counts. ppl dont really like parting with their 10s n 20s that really easily.
If we remove the penny, wouldn’t that mean that gas prices would raise by fives instead of ones? I would rather not have to spend more on gas than I already do.
The penny was eliminated long ago in Australia. And trust meh, it’s worth it x3! Well, it was eliminated before I was born @.@
you can hand the clerk a 20.00 for xamount and change
what does it matter..You can always use pocket change for tolls etc
Why get rid of the penny? We have made such a move toward a cashless society why do people say remove the penny? If it REALLY won’t make a difference in favor then people should be fine with it. So many pay with credit or debt.
Check some pennies or pennys..Some can be worth a lot…depending were minted,such as denver philly etc.Only a few tinny coins made in 1943 worth a lot try and find one.
I don’t really mind pennies; sometimes they could actually be useful. Recently, the public transportation prices in my city have gone up. I still have to use up my 2 weeks worth of OLD bus tickets, though – so that’s 20 tickets for each day I travel to school and back home – but for every ticket I submit I have to pay an extra $0.15 to make up for the price of the new tickets. It hasn’t even been a week of me paying an extra $0.15 for each ticket I spend, yet I’m already having a relatively tough time finding nickels in my piggy bank… (For some strange reason, I don’t have a lot of nickels!) But since my pig is all stuffed w/ pennies, I just usually grab a dime and 5 cents instead of hunting for those darn nickels. So yeah, I actually do find use for those pennies! =]
As a coin collector I kind of hate to see it go. One of the first coins I collected was Lincoln Cents and I still do, though I focus on the wheat back version and not the memorial back version. Most collectors I know started out with the lowly penney. It was affordable and they were easy to get. I suppose five cent pieces would eventually fill the same void.
My solution to the rounding issue is to do the rounding when the sales tax (where applicable) is calculated so that any extra moneys go to your local government and not the merchants. Or cacluate it only on cash only transactions as a check or a credit (debit) card transaction could be done for the exact amount anyway. I am sure a computer programer could work this little tweak into the POS terminal programing.
if you go to a shop with 100 pennies and try to purchase one single item that costs a pound, nine times out of ten you will get refused with the proprierter announcing “hurry, there is a queue!”
if you take them to a bank or post office requesting a pound coin so you can spend in the shop, you will still get refused (if you do not have an account)
i love the penny. when i was a child you could purchase a whole chocolate bar. small as it was but it was worth every bite!
so! goback in to your local shop and try and to purchase 100 penny items. i will guarantee that the same shopkeeper will say “hurry up, you are taking too long”
they could have saved time by accepting the coins in the first instance.
so yes! in my eyes a penny is the same as a pound.
Not only should the penny NOT be retired every effort should be done to make the penny & by default the dollar worth more so that the penny can again ba made from copper and the dime quarter and other coins can be made again from silver or gold.
The people who wish to “retire” the penny are causing the dollar to loose value. The bill will always be rounded up as it is now with the penny. When we are taxed there is the possibility of a fraction of a penny more. That extra is always rounded up. Another example is at the gas stations with the .9 cent on the end of the price.
Have you every been payed back the .1 difference or is it always rounded up to the next whole penny.
Where do you stop? First the penny then the nickle then the dime & quarter . Why stop there then the dollar, it is not worth much
I can understand that pennies en masse can be irritating, and that they are costly for the government to make. However, they are genuinely useful and necessary, as many fellow posters have pointed out. I propose the government simply avoid making them: either making fewer every year, or perhaps only minting them every other year. That would also help to bring all those pennies in coin jars and hidden in couches to be brought back into circulation. Our society is already characterized by instant gratification and disposable thinking. If it’s cheap, throw it away! Why should the penny fall victim to the same Styrofoam mindset? Even pennies have worth.
Hey! There is nothing wrong with pennies. I take all mine (along with all my silver change) and throw it is a jar. Then when my grandchildren need something or are extra good…. we count the money, cash it in and divide it between them. It makes them so happy to come to my place and see the money jar and how it has grown since the last time they were here. Right now, just since the middle of Dec. They have 16.00. I will continue throwing change in the jar until something comes up and they need it. It makes me very happy to do this for my grandchildren and you wouldn’t believe the happy looks as they count the pennies ( there are usually more of those than anything). They are bound do have good memories of going to Grandma’s house and counting the money in the jar.
I haven’t used change, with the exception of 50¢ for certain repetitive transactions, for years. This applies to both billing and payroll. It saves one whole heck of a lot in bookkeeping costs. 50¢ gets rounded up, 49¢ gets rounded down. At the end of the year everything is balanced out, except for the savings in bookkeeping. Change that I receive doing everyday personal transactions is saved, rolled, and turned into my bank. I do not carry change.
Pennies are so far less significant that I have trouble comprehending why anyone would want to use them for anything. You do not gain or lose anything by rounding up/down. You are as likely to gain that 50¢ that might accumulate by the end of the year as you are to lose it. They no longer make any economic sense since the economy has become so inflated. You could buy a loaf of bread a hundred years ago for a penny, what can you buy now? It costs 50% more to make it than it is worth, so where does common sense come in? Talk about inflation.
Sorry, wanted to see how many times I could use cents, sense, and since since it came up.
I love the penny, and I say we keep it!! Although, it is only logical to say that even if your total did come to $5.01 it would still be more convenient if the penny were to be eradicated. In that case you would not even have to search for a penny to make exact change, you would simply round it to $5.00. However, I really agree with the theory that charities would really lose out if the penny were lost forever. Has anyone ever heard of the game Penny Wars?? Well, look it up. My mom is a teacher and the classrooms play to raise money for charities. They raise thousands of dollars every year. Yet, charities or no charities, I want my damn pennies!!
I’ve been a penny hater all my life. The way I figure it, when dollars and cents were first invented, things cost about 20 times less than they do now. In other words, what costs 20 cents today used to cost a penny back then, and no one was griping that we needed half cents and quarter cents.
Let’s call a spade a spade and acknowledge that money is quickly becoming worthless. It would do good for our collective psyche because it’s an admission of a grim reality. Getting out of denial is always the first step to recovery.
To D-rock … so when you go to the pizza parlor to pick up your pizza and they ask you how many slices you’d like, do you ask for 4 because you might not be able to eat 8?
i personally never bother with bringing out change, i usually only bring out a dollar or more..so id love to see the pennies go, i have a whole cup of them in my room…
I don’t know, if we worked on improving the value of a dollar, the penny might actually be worth something.
Yeah. Know how ya feel. I carry pennies with me, so I won’t get any MORE back in change. They accumulate real fast. Even when I pay for a cup of coffee, or a lunch.
Call me silly, but if we retire the penny, then how will anyone ever find a lucky penny? You know that moment when you’re walking around outside and you spot something shiney on the floor. You walk over and find a penny heads-side up. It’s lucky, but only a penny. Do you pick it up and keep it for luck or do you just leave it there because it isn’t worth that much money?
How will little kids ever find a “lucky penny” if they don’t exist? xD
The penny has sentimental value to me. When my sister and I were kids, our late Grandfather taught us how to play Blackjack. We each had our own Pringles cans filled with pennies that we placed our bets with.
I can’t say which is better….to keep or not to keep. I am only used to using pennies. There are quite a few good points from both sides here, but on a personal level….I say keep!
Mike,
In Malaysia they do that. Rounding up prices like $0.99 and $0.98 to $1.00 and rounding down $1.01 and $1.02 to $1.00
I believe $0.1 or $0.2 won’t affect an amount of money. Most people don’t care about that. I mean, who cares about 1 or 2 cents. It’s a good way to make business go easier these days.
I don’t care about small amout of changes. It is easier if I just forget about 23 cents changes in $103.23 and 17 cents in $60.17
~Dragon™~
http://answers.yahoo.com/my/message_do?kid=VtztVlTYaa
Getting rid of pennies is nothing but an evil attempt to separate more of our money, from our pockets and send it straight to the state & federal coffers.
Everything will go up in price (which will be in addition to all the other increases that our coming our way over the next couple years) and states with sales tax will be handed a huge bonus, even when the number of widgets decreases, they would get bonused.
Wake up people, we are not going to have enough left to feed our kids, let alone surf the ‘net soon enough.
Don’t HELP them steal from your pockets!
I like the pennies. I put them in a plastic jar until full. Then I go out and bury it some where. Someday some one will dig it up and think they won the lottery. And you never know they might. If you do away with the penny and they don’t get dug up for a couple hundred years, they might be worth a fortune then
Find a Penny pick it up .If it’s Heads up Its Good Luck!
We cant get rid of anything that gives us hope..We have already lost enough of that.
If you add up all the pennies to be removed, how many billions does that add up to, seventy, and who gains from the remains, not I says I, may fill the appetite of a fallen economist, but not this bubble gum machine,
If the value as you say is 1.2¢, why not make them 2¢ worth, and increase the pennies size… and call it a copper topper, an enlarged tense pence, and this will make room for presidents top hat for all occasions,
Add some brass to it or nickel for luster, pennies much more malleable under the wheel of a train, you watch them oxidize to green, and then clean penny in a tray of vinegar,
Oh the ｖａｔ of it all, speaking of taxes, rounding below the limit makes sense, even if it’s by a pennies worth, take care,
In Australia, we got rid of 1 and 2 cent coins ages ago.
There really is not a prolem with rounding, i mean when something is 4.99, you are losing one cent, who cares!
Also the point you made about a penny being useful when the total comes to $5.01, if you didn’t have pennies then it would be rounded down to $5!
Plus, everytime i fill up my petrol, i save two cents by filling it to say $50.02
It is not economically sound to make the penny anymore. Or the nickel to be exact. It takes more money to make them then what they are worth.
I was reading the other day about this. And they quoted a higher price than the one you just did. I don’t know for a fact what exactly it costs. But if it saves money and is worth nothing, why continue it ?
Get rid of it
The penny had its purpose but not any longer. But I I wanted to comment on the writer who insists on paying for everything to the penny and holding up a line while doing so. that pisses me off to no end. If you want to have your change. Why not do what I do. I pay for everything in paper. All the extra change I get. I take home and add to a jar. And over the months it adds up and I take it in and cash it all in. I usually get over 100 dollars in change. But to be what I consider rude trying to dig through your pockets or purse or whatever and hold everyone else up. I say. Try having some simple manners. Its not worth it to dig through everything for a freaking penny or 3 cents. Just save the coins at home and cash them in. simple .. that way you don’t piss people off and you get a big surprise when you cash all your coins in.
L : Your response makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
someone: I’m glad you posted your comment.
In these days of fast actions, transactions, satisfaction, we need to slow down. Pennies have a nostalgic value that no other coin can compare to in times when so many families have precious little money at all. For a child who would otherwise never have any money for pocket or saving, the loss of the penny would be a tragedy.
When I was growing up, we didn’t get nickles, dimes or quarters to put in our piggy banks. It was a chore to roll up pennies after having saved them, sometimes for years, and most of the time our collections didn’t amount to very many dollar bills after having exchanged them at the bank, but the excitement of having those bills in hand made the effort worth every measly penny found, earned or treated to.
This is just another small change that would make the world a slightly sadder place than it already is. Yeah, I’m sentimental. I feel just a bit sorry for you if you aren’t the sentimental type as well.
Happy New Year!
In certain countries in the world, it’s expected to pay as close to exact change as possible. Well we can’t have everything in America…
The penny ‘jumped the shark’ when they started making it out of copper-plated zinc. Many people don’t realize that those things can be very dangerous if a small child swallows one. The hydrochloric acid in their stomach causes a bad chemical reaction — it’s a medical emergency! Inflation has eroded the value of coins everywhere. I have some little aluminum coins that are no longer produced or circulated in Europe. I try to keep a few pennies in my purse so I can produce the exact change for a transaction. I get them from my husband. Most guys don’t like to load down their pockets with coins. They’ve practically phased out the half dollar — you never see one in change any more. Presumably that was so they wouldn’t get confused with the dollar coins they keep trying to get people to accept. Canadians are OK with their ‘loonies’ and ‘toonies’ — I’m sure the USA will see major changes in our coins and bills before long. It’ll start with phasing out pennies, no matter what the public says they want.
The penny should be REMOVED from circulation!
Who really cares about the penny?
1. Congressional reports state that it cost MORE to produce the penny compared to the cost of the penny!
2. The MAIN reason the penny is STILL in circulation is politics! PEOPLE will lose jobs if the penny production is eliminated! That’s bad in this economy and politicians Know this!
3. TOO many people are damn sentimental about a STUPID coin that’s NOT worth S**T!
- To the old timers… sorry! But you’re time has come and gone! Just like the penny!
- This is the 21st century and this country does NOT need the stupid penny!
- Waste of Resources and time and money to produce it!
Sentimentality and politics are the reasons why the penny still around.
You lose jobs when the penny production is stopped BUT… it costs MORE to produce a penny than it’s actually worth!!!!
This is the MODERN era!!
Sorry people but GET over life!!!
The penny ain’t worth S***!
Other countries do NOT use their pennies anymore and their currency is doing fine!
Too many darn people are AFRAID of CHANGE!
Well, the older generation will SOON be gone ~20 years!
Take the penny and your OLD ideas and sentimentality with you!!!!
Save the Penny! I love the penny and use them quite often to make exact change. I can’t imagine not having them anymore and i really don’t like the idea of rounding to the nearest nickel. Maybe the governement just needs to figure out a way to make the penny for less?
Last time I checked, vending machines didn’t take pennies. However, they do take almost any other change you have, sometimes half-dollars, or even Sacagawea dollar coins.
Because vending machines seem to be the place I spend the majority of my change, the penny has become impractical for me to carry and merely occupies a jar until I have enough to turn them into some other form of currency.
Let’s face it a penny isn’t worth a lot, but a penny saved is a penny earned. And pennies can add up to a nice sum, with a little patience.
My brother who is penny-wise and pound-foolish, would have a difficult time if the penny disappeared from daily use. – He took to rolling pennies to help pay for gas when the prices where high.
And the people who do not have two pennies to rub together, would prefer to have one penny. For one penny is more than zero.
However, so many thing cost a pretty penny, it would be difficult to pay for those items without having the penny around.
Oh, and how can someone give me a penny for my thoughts when there is not penny to be had?
That’s my two cents. And what since would this post make if the penny wasn’t around?
If we keep the penny, it’ll irritate the people who think it should be done away with, and that’s the best reason in the world for keeping it around . Besides, retailers would set prices to where the bill is ALWAYS rounded up, and that’s NOT a myth . Americans can’t possibly afford the extra four cents .
5 pennies make a nickel. I always pay with bills and put the change in a jar. To date I have over $2,000.00 in changefor the past year. Which I will one day take to the bank and buy a money market. I have accumulated some $5,000.00 doing this. Most of it is pennies. Pennies do quickly mount up to real money. To drop the penny would make me forfeit a sizable portion of my saving ability and give it to the retailer which I already give too much to.
When gas goes up a penny, the owner makes an extra $100.
I don’t even know if using it just as a woman’s first name is practical anymore. With the price of inflation what is it really worth in the long run. Working in an industry that deals with recycling metals, the copper it is made with isn’t worth much very often. Even if the market warrants the price to be up some week it’s still got a ways to go to make it profitable in what I see. I wouldn’t keep it around but round it up to .05 or at the very least make it an even dollar due vs. 99
Attention Top Contributers OR Y!A staff:
Right when I reached level 5, I lost my badge. It was around Xmas week when I was busy of course. I had participated heavily in health & didn’t pay attention to subcatagorizes; ie, womens/men’s health, injuries, chronic pain or other. Also answered in many other areas. How do you know “the max/limit” needed to keep badges? Why doesn’t it return when activity/B.A. % returns?
If you have a badge, you’ve obviously earned it, but how do you know how many questions you can answer outside of just 3 areas? There must be rules or a way of knowing how this works. Does a computer do it? How they handle badges in areas with sub-catagories? Are they lumped together?
(I sent 3 notes to Y!A about this. No response, confirmation, or change in “badge” status. Its been 2wks). Would emailing a “staff” member, like Mike help? I’ve seen posts that it’s “random” & Y!A never responds. This doesn’t exactly motivate me. Does Yahoo appreciate the hard work many of us do to provide quality answers & research links? I’m feeling very frustrated, so any insight, experiences or helpful hints would be appreciated. If you have the key or unlocked the code, can you please share it? Thank you!.
I am a change saver and the penny does not bother me. I will sit down every so often to count and roll my change manually because I am too cheap to use one those coin machines in the grocery store. I think it defeats the purpose of saving change to use those machines at something like a 9% cost.
I do on the hand think that is foolish for the government to continue to make the penny when it is more costly to make that the penny is worth.
But that is the way our government works. I live in Tallahassee, Florida and in 1989 a penny tax was added by the city government to help fix and replace roads and in the late ninties our newly elected mayor paid $20,000 to have signs posted around with a picture of the penny and it read “Your tax dollars at work.” How dumb was that?
I like pennies. They’re easier to flick than nickels. Inflation has made them obsolete, but inflation has also already rendered nickels and dimes equally useless. A quarter won’t buy you a toy, start a video game or even get you a gumball, a dime won’t get you a phone call (where’d the boothes go anyway?) and nickels don’t do anything! Why keep any coins? Jobs?! Gee, we could employ people to dig holes we don’t need, but that doesn’t help either. What a waste! I would like to see the deflation of the US dollar, making small coins worth something again. Since that is a pipe dream, then maybe embracing inflation will lead to accepting the fact that coins should be collector’s items.
The lack of a penny will come in even more handy when that $5.01 total gets reduced to $5.00. Just my two cents;-)
I say, “keep the penny.” They are the easiest to save because of the fact that they are a bother to spend. It’s much easier to spend the silver on a daily basis then to mess with pennies. So what better place to put them, than in a jar. They really do add up! We use ours for our 2 week vacation every year. They may not pay for the whole trip, but we don’t have to come up with near as much when the time comes.
No, the penny should stay alive.
The sentimental value is simply too great.
i agree with d-rock about the gas prices
Keep the penny. Otherwise, it will increase the price of everything. If it is such a pain to keep those pennies, then, just tell the store/retailer to keep your change. Or, pay with your debit card.
I almost always pay exact change. That’s because I use my debit card for as many transactions as possible and the money is all electronic. So I say, don’t just abolish the penny. Abolish cash altogether and go to a purely electronic economy. It would put drug dealers, counterfeiters, fences, and whole other categories of criminals out of business while legitimate commerce could continue.
When I would see a penny on the street my grandmother would say pick it up it only takes 99 more to make a dollar. After 60 years I still pick up pennies. People will tease me for picking up a penny , but other people pay to work out at the gym and I get paid evertime I bend over to pick up a penny. Long live the penny.
save the penny. penny haters can just stop using them for all i care
I like pennies. In fact, my preacher likes saving his pennies each day in a jar. Once/year he takes that jar and cashes it in to donate to charity. What a great way to do this! I never have the extra $20+/month to donate to these starving kids, but I bet doing it this way would go a long way!
Pennies aren’t the problem; store prices cause the problem! Stores could ease the pain by offering prices based on local tax. If it costs, say, 9 cents on every dollar for restaurant food, instead of saying $10.99 for chicken dinner, make it $10.96, thereby making the price $11.95.
In fact…
People want a bargain, even if it really isn’t one. I bet it would be fun to go to a restaurant that is willing to ROUND DOWN to the nearest 5 cents. How fun it would be if you know that if you go into “Harvey’s Restaurant,” and if your bill is $11.04, they’ll only charge you $11! It would be a kick!
Thanks for bringing up the idea of keeping the penny. Like I said, though, it’s the weird pricing that needs to quit!
I say get rid of the penny, to me it seems useless to carry around a bunch of pennies, especially when you keep getting them as change. You can use any other coin to flip and you still get a heads or a tails, don’t see the problem there. For those of you who said you didn’t want to pay 4 extra cents, it said round up or down to the nearest 5 cent, so it would even out. What they could do is make sure all prices end in multiples of 5 and so we wouldn’t have to fight over the 4 cents you lost. To me, it would seem more convenient to pay without pennies as they do hold up lines. It especially bothers me when I’m in a hurry to pay and someone pulls out all their coins to pay. At work, sometimes I work as a cashier and so this especially irks me when I have a long line and the total is 2.99 and the person says, “Wait I’ll give you the 99 cents.” COME ON!! If they know they’re gonna pay in coins why don’t they pull them out from the beginning instead of waiting until the last minute? Now I’m just rambling, sorry, but I for one am in favor of doing away with the penny, the time we would save waiting in line would more than make up for a couple of lost cents a day.
To all the people on here who want to give up the penny. I’d love to see you find every penny in your house, and take it to a local charity. I bet they think your pennys are worth something!
i want the penny 2 stay!!!!! plz find a cheaper way to make it!!
this is a sterategic matter not to be desided by the public nor by the goverment but rather by consumer advocate
groups,enviromentalists,economists and experts i
personaly feel that you are a very lucky country that you have been able to keep your unit of currency so
far ,penny is a standard,and i believe that the standards are the gifts of god to the man and it should be kept indirectly by good peractice of all
people in all aspects of the social life,like terrafic reuls for example it does not only
effect usa,but ommiting the penny will have a world wid global effect enviromentaly,its is like atoms very small but very very powerfull constructive and if used
in negetive ways distructive as well
LONG LIFE THE PENNIES AND YOU MIKE
I am not in the USA but we are talking about doing something similar in the UK so I feel OK venturing forth an opinion. I remember when we did away with our half pence coins years ago and despite the initial furore and sentimental outpourings we soon forgot about it and haven’t noticed a great impact on our daily lives since. Doing away with the penny will, I am sure, prove to be much the same. I do however have reservations. We also have two pence coins and five pence coins that are also of little real value and often end up in the xmas savings jar and charity boxes and children’s money boxes. Imagine the impact on families, especially low income families, if doing away with the penny was only the thin end of the wedge? Businesses would make sure that they didn’t lose out and over the course of a year it could add up to a pretty packet for the consumer. It is inevitable that as economies change and develop, some coins will become obsolete. It is predicted that all coins and paper money will eventually be replaced by electronic methods of payment and this may or may not be good for everybody. I feel we should embrace change if it is for the better but keep a close check on who the winners and losers are going to be in the process.
Guess many people are just Too damn sentimental and CHEAP!
They’d rather spend TIME and effort to save and roll up the pennies!
DAMN Frugal Americans! Nickel and diming everything over pennies!
No wonder America is so falling behind while the rest of the world is modernizing!
Pathetic cretins!
I think the penny should stick around. People say it’s hard to save money with just pennies. Well, why are you trying to save money with just pennies? Throw some nickles and dimes in there every now and then. I believe maybe producing less of them might work. I’m not an expert on the subject, but you asked for opinions, lol. So my opinion: Keep the penny, worry about more important stuff, like cutting back on drunk driving, or stopping the production of cigarettes entirely. Pennies seems awfully insignificant in the big picture.
Wow. I’m shocked by all the rude comments and hateful messaged left by people. I can’t believe some of the things that have been said! Did your mothers teach you no manners or respect? I’m a 21 year old from Texas, so i’m not an Old-Timer. I listen to Heavy Metal music. And some of you have STILL offended me. I think the real problem here isn’t the pennies, I think it’s the corn cobs half of you have shoved in your behinds. Come on y’all, be big kids and play nice.
How about we all just go electronic? Think about it, the government offers and incentive for people to put their money into a free federal checking account.
Printing money is no longer an expense, we just use the gold standard for electronic dollars… however the IRS would have a field day…
We must not get rid of the penny.
One good argument: Pennies for Peace, founded by Greg Mortenson of the Central Asia Institute. He has raised many thousands of dollars from schoolchildren who donate their pennies. If they asked for nickels, do you think they’d get as much? Check out penniesforpeace.org.
Many people believe that pennies are greetings from departed souls. Have you ever noticed how many pennies you see lying on the ground, in the oddest places? You hardly ever see dimes or quarters, just pennies.
Ever wonder why things cost $12.99 and not plain ol’ thirteen dollars? Retailers designed these annoying prices so that cashiers would HAVE to open the cash register and give the customer change; that way the purchase was recorded and the cashier could not just say “thank you” and pocket the cash. Good idea!
Americans for Common Cents makes sense.
Coin collectors usually start with the one cent piece, commonly but wrongly called a penny. (A penny is an English coin.) Serious coin collectors wouldn’t stand for the one cent coin to be retired.
I can think of 46 really good reasons to keep pennies in circulation, and they all collect sales tax. Do those among us who live in states with statewide sales tax REALLY WANT the sales tax rounded UP to the nearest 5%?!?!? Imagine if you will: purchasing an item that is $2, well if pennies are eliminated, the sales tax would be at least 10 cents, because there would be no way to make change for any rate below 5%…at 4% the state would get an extra 2 cents that they are not entitled to…etc.
As for the concept of “9-pricing” that did originally begin as a means of requiring the sales clerks to record the sale and open the register to provide the customer with their change. The pioneering merchant behind that: James Cash Penney (yes, THAT JC Penney). It later (much later) became a tool or marketing majors who decided that if you mark a price of $5.99, customers would think of it as $5, rather than $6, which it is actually much closer to.
And, yes, I do agree with the respondent who said they would rather that the price of gas could change in penny increments, rather than nickel steps. (The oil companies are getting rich enough as it is — the station operators only get pennies per gallon, even when the price per gallon is north of $4. ExxonMobil (XOM) made aver $13 Billion in PROFITS during the first quarter of last year. That’s PROFITS after ALL expenses and taxes were paid.)
I say keep the penny, it has a long history, is the gateway coin for budding numismatists, and even if you throw yours in a gallon pickle jar all year, you can wind up with a hundred bucks (yes, $100) by the end of the year.
It IS very annoying when somebody is counting out the correct change to the penny. Yes, Quit holding up the line. Give the money in bills, and let the professional count out the change. Susie Orman would say, Take that change home and throw it in a bottle or cookie jar. It’s a great way to save. Keep the penny.
Eradicate the penny? Do you know how dumb that is. Think about it. People would not round prices of 2.01 down. The price would be 2.05. Which may seem small in scale but think about the countless transactions a day of gas, credit cards, interest, food costs, etc. You would be weakening the dollar. The best thing to do is to go on a plastic money system. Its very hard to replicate and best of all no change to count out.
Pennies are what I save for a rainy day. Don’t take my pennies from me. I love my pennies. Especially when I have enough to take to the bank and put in my savings account.
Keep the Penny… Save them up and they make dollars.
They got rid of the penny Gumball machines and our economy started to go down the tank. Replacing them now is too late, sad that the little Gumball machine held
our economy in check.
If we eradicate the penny, what will I use to measure my tire tread?
It takes a lot more pennies to buy a measuring tool.
Why get rid of the penny — because people are too lazy to carry the nonexistant wait in their wallets or too impatient to let someone pay their bill in exact change? If we were to retire the penny, we would ultimately end up paying more for each item (think about it — are most sellers really going to round DOWN 5 cents? No.. they are going to put the prices up — even if it is only by 4 cents — to make a bigger profit) we spend our hard-earned money on and think about it: how many programs in schools (as one commenter brought up) collect pennies to fund new school supplies for underprivelaged students or food for the poor — even some to help families in other countries or to aid in the search for cures to many different diseases!!
I have a suggestion: every person who disagrees with the penny’s existance start collecting them. Put every penny you find into a jar and watch it grow. Find them on the ground, pick ‘em up. Get them back as change? Drop them into the jar. Watch as the money adds up. One woman did this for about 4 years and soon had enough to take her and her whole family on a vacation out of the country!!!
Retire the penny? In THESE economic times?! I think NOT!
Disagree!!
–Morgan<3
WOW!!! People are crazy! I think we should keep the penny. We are a family of 5 that doesnt make alot of wages thru the year and we dont usually pay exact change either. we throw the “silver” coins in one jar and the “copper” coins in another. I have been unemployed now for 4 months due to our “economy” and I dont get very much for the side jobs I do and what the state pays me for my hard work in the last years. So, when the paycheck is gone on bills and we need a gallon of milk (which pricing is outrageous) so the children can eat a bowl of cereal in the morning, those jar with the “silver” coins comes in very handy. and after those coins are all gone, and we need another gallon of milk, the obviously so much hated Penny comes in really handy for us. And when its all said and done, after I get my bi monthly check, My children are so very greatful to have the leftover pennies from the jar to put in their own savings. Then the process starts all over again. It has nothing to do with sentiment,(although I have very fond memories involving pennies) it has to do with the fact that the penny still spends and has bailed my ass out quite a few times. All you people who talk about how expensive it is to make the penny, I think you are looking at the wrong side of things. How much of that 1.2 cents goes to the man/woman sweating their asses off in the mint? Being that its our government that is their employers, Im assuming not alot. So look at the big picture here. Fire a boss that doesnt do anything and maybe it wont cost so much to make a penny. Just my two (appreciated) cents.
Also, Im not an “old coot” Im 26 years old and even my children ages 10,7, and 1 appreciate the penny for all that its worth
As a cashier, I can tell you that I HATE pennies. Well, actually, I hate the exact changers in general. “Here, let me see if I have the 99 cents.” Screw them. They’re a nuisance and hold up the line.
Yeah, get rid of the penny. Heck, get rid of coins entirely. Have all prices in dollar amounts.
I think the penny should stay. Just don’t hold me up in the checkout line because you have to dig out exact change. If you cannot count out exact change in less than 5 seconds, wait for the cashier to give you change and let the world keep on turning.
Also – once the penny goes, what’s next? The nickel? Ten years from now they’ll start rounding up to the nearest dime? No thank you.
I want the pennies to stay! I mean wouldn’t be harder as well if you need to round up and/or down? It seems like you would lose some money as well if decided to be rounded up. I understand why some people hate the pennies but go to a self checkout or something and put in your coins before you put in your cash if you wanna get rid of them.
I really hate the penny. I do not carry around anything lower than a quarter when I leave the house. When I get back home I am full of pennies and nickels and I hate it, but once a month I go turn it into about 7-8$, so it is close to a secret bank acount that I can save up for something when I need it, like pet food or a house hold appliance after a while
I would sure as hell rather pay 1-2 cents extra sometimes than have all the bloody pennies!!! I mean, they can put the presidents face on the back of a quarter or something since they always are changing the backs of those.
I would sure as hell rather pay 1-2 cents extra sometimes than have all the bloody pennies!!! I mean, they can put the presidents face on the back of a quarter or something since they always are changing the backs of those!
If the penny is allowed to be erradicated then that only leaves room down the road to eventually discard the nickel and then the dime and so on and so forth.
Every round up is not just 4 cents… it adds up.
Why not just round to ‘dollar’ then?
I live in Canada, but I say keep the penny. You can save them easy, and they do add up. A lot of people always put their pennys in donation boxes on counters where purchases are made, including myself. What about penny candys? You’d have to pay more. If the penny was retired now, the nickel would just become the new penny. Keep it.
a penny actually takes 1.26¢ to make. So every penny that the gov. makes, it actually goes into debt. That alone is a good reason to get rid of them.
How about just controlling inflation instead and also require our government to actually govern trade instead of every once in a while shaking things up to boost the economy? It seems like the last time this happened the economy crashed. Wait… it still hasn’t recovered. But it doesn’t matter about the penny now because it’s not worth the money it takes to make them.
Keep. Here’s why:
1. The sentimental value of course.
2. They’re sooo shiny!
3. You use them for games like pokeno
4. They are reason to try and improve the value of a dollar (and indirectly the penny itself)
5. They’re great for giving to charities
6. They’re useful in teaching children to count
7. They’re great to teach children about money value and how money grows over time and things like that
8. A penny is apart of history, why break our penniful tradition?
9. Pennies have so many phrases like every penny counts. Why take away our hope that comes from things like that? Taking away pennies could indirectly cause more suicides.
10. Pennies add up. Why make them useless. Haven’t you ever counted up your coins and changed them to other currency? It’s so awesome to think of how much money you can get by adding up all your change. Pennies are important.
Oh and a note about our government…
Maybe if they worked more on making the dollar go further, it wouldn’t cost so much to make a simple penny.
I don’t mind when others count out their change. Personally, I don’t like touching it because it feels so much dirtier than dollars
To those who say pennies don’t add up to anything, my kids’ school collected pennies for a math project, the goal was one million pennies which they collected – $10,000 they now have to use towards scholarships. Also I put my spare pennies in a jar and every Christmas my daughter gets to cash it in, usually comes to around $40. Keep the penny – they DO add up!
I definitely say keep the penny. Everyone has already given spectacular arguments for it but I have to say that the most important one to me is sentimental value. Nothing can beat the joy on a child’s face when they find a penny on the asphalt. They’re an icon, and I can’t imagine life in america without the penny. Especially now, when EVERY penny DOES count.
My husband does the same thing you do and it seem to put him in a good mood when he is able to do that, we talked about getting rid of the penny, but I have to tell you it would seem like we are getting rid of an old friend a part of our way of doing things that we are so use to that it would be really hard to get use to.
This is really cool. I love to hear about the little things in life to brighten up someone’s day. I mean sure, it can definitely be a hassle carting around a bunch of pennies in your pockets but just a few every here and there? Not really too bad if you ask me. I, too, like the fun joy of having just enough change not to have to receive any back. But that is my own opinion and everyone is entitled to their own. Well, that’s all I have to say for now!
Draeeannae out!
Here in Australia we got rid of our 1c and 2c pieces a long time ago using the round up or down system as described above. I havent been able to tell if any shopkeepers or retailers are finding any way to take advantage of the system but as far as charities are concerned, I would guessthat if anything they get more money. I say this in the belief that those that want to give will give regardless and 5c really isnt a great deal of money to those who are generous.
When I first read the title I thought it said “Penises for your thoughts!” My mind is in the gutter. :-/
Now in New Zealand we don’t even have 5c coins let alone 1c – our smallest denomination is 10c!!!
It can be a bit of a pain sometimes – though the rounding is fairly easy. And most items are paid for electronically by EFTPOS or Credit card, and less often by cheque so you are paying the exact cost anyhow. Pennies can be cumbersome, and prob cost more in time taken to count them (i.e. productivity at the checkout line) than they are worth in turnover!!
Hi. To answer that question, penny lovers or haters cannot do anything to make it stay or disappear.
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Coins disappear only when they stop making sense for the government. Businesses have great profits from extra one pennies, or pricing their products 1 or three pennies less than competitors. If pennies disappear, it will be a natural process – inflation causes devaluation of money. Of course eventually price competition will not make sense on “penny-level”, because consumers will no more see the price difference between, for example, 29.50 and 29.51 or 29.53 (except for the 29.99 and 30 case, where it is just an on-purpose illusion of one-dollar difference). So, if the difference in one sense is not valued by consumers any more, business will naturally use prices in price-competition, that demonstrate the difference, so 5, 10, 25, 50-cent or even 1-dollar differences can start for smaller things. Price get rounded up naturally. If that happens, then there will be no sense for government to produce the pennies with a higher production cost than their value (the case now is that the profit that pennies bring now to business and the taxes they pay to government do cover up that loss of .2 per penny). In that case, the pennies that go to the bank will stop circulation. Government produces those values of money most, which are most circulated. With inflation the value of the most circulated money-values will increase also. In some countries, where the inflation rate is very high coins get out of use at all until the next devaluation, which only happens in cases, when prices go too high and the value of money too low.
As for giving exact prices at the counters, you will be able to do that with nickles and dimes still
Since Obama/Pelosi/Reid began dumping trillions of dollars, it really doesn’t matter one way or the other. Just one of their wasted trillions of dollars is comprised of one hundred trillion pennies, an amount way too large to mean anything at all.
Well, if people don’t like the penny they can just round it up to the next higher nickle themselves and walk away or leave the left over pennies on the counter for some one else to pick up. This issue over retiring pennies is stupid. I bet a lot of poor people would love to take them off your hands. Save them up and give to the poor.
I think I am truly on the fence about this one. I had heard about them removing the use of the penny years ago when I was a kid and at the time, I thought it was a good idea. But now that I’m grown up a little more and have bills and things to pay, I wonder… how much more would I be paying if the penny wasn’t around. Sure, not every total I have will be rounded up, but I am concerned that enough will be rounded up that I will end up pay significantly more for things over my life time. And here’s another thought…. why round at all? Why not just eliminate the idea of pennies from prices and have everything priced to the nickel? I assume that’s what they would do and then the computer would round out the percentage so the customer has no idea if they are paying a couple cents more or less. I guess I’m over thinking the whole thing. It also does seem a bit of a waste that it costs more to make a penny than it is worth. What to do what to do….. for now, I say keep the penny. While it can be annoying at times, it does come in handy.
Keep the penny.
There’s probably more a person does in their day that is inefficient, sentimental or downright wasteful than getting rid of the penny could ever prevent.
Think of those you know who literally save pennies in a jar, box or whatever to whichever goal. It’s a commitment that few can manage or complete. I’ve noted that those who have the discipline to save pennies have fewer financial issues.
Taking out the penny wont solve the real problem: Lack of Self Control in a system of Instant Gratification.
The penny can’t go, I love pennies, they come in handy. And what about finding them on the ground and getting good luck? We need pennies, One cent used to be something grand, and we can’t let it go. Long Live the Penny!!!!
I have been saving my change from the store and average around $50.00 every month. I never noticed it before, but i clean out my purse and pockets and its like a little savings acct. Recommend u kids ask mom and dad for their change and save it! I also found a precious liberty head nickel. older than the one that sheik had. One article said He got $3,500. and another lied and said he got 3 million. Id be happy with the $3,500.00 any coin collectors? I did look it up, just need a buyer~
I use my pennies! I will pick them up if I see one on the ground. Mostly though, I like getting pennies back because the grocery store that I shop at has a ride for children that only costs a penny. While I am waithing in line and checking out, my restless 3 year old can go and spend 3-5 cents and ride the horse until I am done. It is simple, fun, and helps me out. If it was a quarter or more per ride, I probably wouldn’t have her go on it.
I love pennies, but if the government wants to buy them for a nickle apiece, I might reconsider. On the other hand, some of my favorite childhood memories are of me and my parents walking down the main street and looking for change for my piggy bank. I was so excited to find pennies. I thought they were prettier than the dimes and nickles. I was 5. I am also sentimental about them, and by the way they are a blast to play with when I go to Las Vegas!
Hi, I found a Canadian penny from 1952. It has a small P under queen elizabeth… Do you know if it is worth anything ?