Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., has proposed getting rid of the U.S. penny. It makes sense, so to speak. Yes, it would be sad to lose Lincoln’s likeness on a coin in circulation. But as a Seattle Times editorial described, the penny has become “a mosquito egg of value offered free to customers who use it to avoid carrying even more dead weight.” Save the minting costs and retire Abe.
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29 Comments
What are we going to do for transaction cost? Round up to the $.05?
What about our sales tax system and currency exchange.
If electronic, that is one thing, but many people still use cash and that includes coins.
I remember they wanted to get rid of the dollar bill and replace it with a dollar coin, but they forgot the millions it would take to convert vending machines and video game machines and the heavy pockets of waitstaff and nude dancers. Since they get tips in dollars, that is a lot of coin to carry around.
For those of us who could never quite figure out how a passenger jet could just fly into the center of the largest military power the world has ever seen comes this now:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080101300.html9/11
Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon’s initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate.
Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, according to several commission sources. Staff members and some commissioners thought that e-mails and other evidence provided enough probable cause to believe that military and aviation officials violated the law by making false statements to Congress and to the commission, hoping to hide the bungled response to the hijackings, these sources said.
In the end, the panel agreed to a compromise, turning over the allegations to the inspectors general for the Defense and Transportation departments, who can make criminal referrals if they believe they are warranted, officials said.
“We to this day don’t know why NORAD told us what they told us,” said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican governor who led the commission. “It was just so far from the truth. . . . It’s one of those loose ends that never got tied.”
*******
In other words, what they told the commission was a load of horseshit.
Well, that’s comforting, isn’t it.
And how does this relate to coinage?
I heard Finland did away with her 1- and 2-cent coins. But then again, that country is so wired, almost all transactions are done electronically. I was told that almost nobody accepts checks anymore, only certain banks with very high surcharge that leaves that birthday check from grandma virtually worthless.
I guess when you sport an “Unbelievably HUGE Handgun” you don’t have to relate to anything. Maybe Paul went out and bought a .17 cal air pistol. He can’t relate to anything either.
Might as well get rid of nickels as the same time. On cash transactions, round up or down to the nearest 10 cents. I suspect the public would get used to it.
What to do when the purchase price ends with .x5? Round up or down? On another note, it is said that the govt also loses money minting nickels.
Many convenience fast-food places and stores I go to already have ‘penny cups’ to make change with. I’d like to see what would happen if they just routinely asked “round?” and then take 1-2-6-7 down and 3-4-8-9 up. I think most us would be all in favor of it.
As prices will get rounded up not down it make every thing more expensive the 1 cent tax will really be a 5 or ten cent tax.
There is something about the wonder and excitement in a childs eye when they get a shiny penny. My 3 year old would much rather have a shiny (or not so shiny) penny than just about anything. My 12 year old would rather have a $20 bill.We get so caught up in the materialistic machine and we want more and more and more.When will it stop? When everything is rounded off to a dollar and we get rid of coins entirely?
Good post Julie!
I’d not be in favor of getting rid of the penny.
Think of all the old aphorisms that would fall out of use.
Maybe make pennies out of scrap metal or something else more economical. But keep the penny.
And as GMC rides off into the sunset.
To the tune of “Happy Trails”
Happy trails to you,
I see, your beat again.
When he he fails “screw you!”
GMC tells the blog again.
Maybe you should post about the weather!
Your posts are always lame when we’re “together”.
Happy trails to you.
Til you’re beat a gain!
Maybe I am getting old and I’m a throw-back of some kind, but getting rid of the penny just seems wrong to me.
I just don’t see how this will work. It just seems like a really stupid idea, and one that would end up costing us all more money. Frankly, I like the penny. It is unique among coins!
What? No more penny for your thoughts? Once again, inflation takes over.
so…if you’re offered a penny for your thoughts but put your 2 cents in…do you get a refund?
What percentage of our transactions involve cash of any type anymore? That is not a rhetorical question, I honestly don’t know the answer. It seems to me, with debit and credit cards and checks, only a small amount of our transactions are in cash at all.Is my question even important? If we get rid of pennies will utility bills, for example, get rounded up? Very few people pay utility bills with cash.I am wondering how society will react and I don’t know the answer.
Surprisingly, I know a LOT of people who can’t get a checking account, debit, or credit card and deal only in cash.
Talk to the poor, of which there are an overabundance of in this country. Can they get a credit, debit, or bank account? I think not. But they don’t count, do they Paul.
Doing away with pennies is probably not a problem, but what happens then to the nickle? Dump for the dime? ad infinitum?
Para D:
New CS name, same crap? Still gutless, I see. I haven’t posted here, of course, and you have nothing to add, as usual.
If you have something to add of substance, I’m sure we’ll read along. But . . . apparantly not.
“so…if you’re offered a penny for your thoughts but put your 2 cents in…do you get a refund?”
No, you get a bill in the mail for energy expended in listining to verbal spasms from someone you would rather punch in the nose:-)
JMI am VERY concerned about inflation.Interest rates are nothing more than a prediction of future inflation.Inflation is hardest on the poor and those on fixed incomes.(However, governments have been known to encourage inflation in order to pay off debts with cheaper dollars.)My concern was that rounding up would add to inflation, which is very bad for the economy.Again, how will society react? Will every item in the grocery store be rounded up, or will the rounding only occur at the cash register.Don’t assume that I don’t care.I do.The utility example was something I thought everyone could relate to, there is only one “item” and the question was therefore not complicated by the idea of multiple purchases.Conservatives are people who worry about “unintended consequences” and I am not sure that those consequences have been adequately researched.Rounding at the register might not matter, rounding on every item in the store could really hurt some people.Then again, reducing the demand for copper might be a good thing with all the theft lately. —Even so, I am thinking this idea will be brought up many times.Not until the penny is even more worthless will it pass, however.
I do a lot of transactions with cash – notably fast food etc. Not big amounts but numerous ones. That is why I would expect to see an “informal” elimination of pennies (see comments above) rather than an actual elimination of cents. Also, with more involved transactions the cents automatically become a part of the transaction (with computers)
Suppose someone’s living on the edge, using the last of their change to get that package of mac-of-cheese, and it’s now 4 cents more expensive, will the clerk shrug off the difference, and allow the sale?
Until the answer is no, the penny needs to stick around.
Until the answer is yes, uhm.
Do the Math!!!!!
According to the U.S. Mint, in 2005 8 billion pennies were minted. The population in the U.S. is 300 million give or take some illegals. That divides out to 27 pennies minted per man woman and child. The cost over run is 4 tenths of a cent. .4 times 27 cents amounts to 11 cents a year to keep the penny.
I firmly believe that I will lose much more money per year to retailers than that 11 cents. With the loyalty cards and other computer programs, don’t you think that the giant chains will figure out how to price items to screw the consumer.
Why not just make the penny out of a cheaper metal? The penny already when from copper to zinc, and in WWII is was made of steel.
Only when I can use it other than in penny slot machine would I strive to keep the coin.
I’m with you Ed Huss make it out of something cheaper. Who cares what it is made out of, but getting rid of it all together seems rediculous. Let’s just get rid of all cash money, just go with debit cards….electronic money. I rarely carry cash myself and pay all bills online.