10 reasons why we should keep the penny

[28] Harvard economist Greg Mankiw says that this wasted time costs the US economy around $1 billion annually. For example, the mint made the first dime in 1796 that weighed 2.7 g and had 89.24% silver. Get tips on managing costs, finding financial assistance & more! According to CNN, the Mint has researched the possibility of making pennies from cheaper materials, but it could not find a way to bring the cost of producing them below their face value. Most Americans want to keep the penny. Illustration: The Spruce /Danie Drankwalter. But one point that these advocates often overlook is the value of honoring Abraham Lincoln, the revered president depicted on the penny's face. PDF The Penny Debate - Should We Keep the Penny or Get Rid of It? The elimination of a $58 million dollar annual cost on a federal government running trillion dollar annual deficits each and every year isnt going to move the needle one micrometer back towards fiscal sanity in this country. These arguments arent based on logic which, ironically, makes them much harder to counter. All of this numismatic change took place without any significant problems. The U.S. One Cent coin, or penny, has almost no purchasing power today. Opinion | Abolish the Penny - The New York Times . And in 2010, the Mint introduced a permanent new reverse depicting a Civil War-era Union shield. Any action you take based on the information found on cgaa.org is strictly at your discretion. Furthermore, since crypto coins are divisible into smaller amounts than fiat currency, it would be easier for people to pay for items in exact amounts rather than rounding up or down to the nearest full denomination. 3. For one thing, consumers benefit from having the penny. Argumentative Essay: Keep The Penny | ipl.org - Internet Public Library 4. 10 Things You Can Do With Pennies | Mental Floss Four decades ago, the Mint made more than 1.5 million prototype aluminum cents during a similar crisis, with every expectation they would soon see use in circulation. "Open an IRA in 15 minutes." For instance, penny supporters claim that eliminating the coin could harm the economy or hamper charities in their fundraising efforts. One 2012 survey found that more than two-thirds of the respondents wanted Uncle Sam to keep making them. The $2 bill, however, might be making a comeback. Should We Get Rid of the Penny? - 8 Reasons to Keep It vs Eliminate It First of all, if the U.S. Mint stops producing pennies, they wont simply lose their value overnight. Although originally made of pure copper, pennies today are composed of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper. The US Mint shipped 8.4 billionpenniesfor circulation in 2017, more than all nickels (1.3 billion), dimes (2.4 billion), and quarters (1.9 billion) combined. Whats less clear is why Americans are so committed to a coin with so little monetary value. Perhaps the main issue is that some of the major opponents to getting rid of the penny are the producers of coin blanks and the U.S. zinc lobby -- the groups that profit from the production of the penny. [1] Aaron Klein, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department, estimates that the United States could see $1.78 billion in losses over the next 30 years if the penny remains in production. Top 3 Pros and Cons. Thats what happened in Canada, where the Salvation Army and numerous other charities held drives to collect discontinued pennies in 2013. The people who make less than $35,000 dollars a year need pennies. (4) Considering that the penny has virtually no purchasing power, it does nothing except add unnecessary weight to our pockets and purses. The first penny, known as the Fugio cent, was reportedly designed by Benjamin Franklin in 1787. This argument pointing to honoring Lincoln has been enough to stave off elimination for years, with few anti-penny advocates willing to make this penny point in their arguments against it. The penny is an essential part of our nation's monetary system, and it helps to keep commerce flowing smoothly. Dont get rid of it! A second reason this should happen is that it is bad for the environment. The C.O.I.N.S. His mission is to use his platform as an author to bring awareness and perspective on important issues affecting everyday life. However, once stores stop accepting pennies, consumers will have even more incentive to donate the coins to charity because they wont be able to use them anywhere else. March 10, 2016 Should we keep the penny or not? The current cost for manufacturing a nickel is 7.29 cents per coin. Should We Get Rid of the Penny? | Jay Zagorsky's Research & Blog - U.OSU Pennies are worth so little now that by taking five seconds to pick one up, youre earning just $7.20 an hour less than the federal minimum wage. MAKE JEWELRY. Instead, the coins will be gradually pulled out of circulation. A Dozen Money Facts You Should Know | Cheapism.com Last year, almost 60% of the coins that the U.S. Mint churned out were . [22], At a total per unit cost of 1.82 cents, it costs nearly two pennies to make one penny. 25, 2019, Jenny Gross, "Will the Penny Survive Coronavirus? In theory, a single penny could be used for hundreds or thousands of transactions before it drops out of circulation. Or should the U.S. keep it's smallest coin? Americans were wary of underweight coins at that time, so the government decreed that all U.S. coins even copper coins must contain enough metal to be worth very nearly as much intrinsically as their monetary face value. Remember, pennies cost 2 more than how much their worth, while nickels cost 5 more than the nickel is worth. A dollar coin can last up to forty years. [37], 7. A pro-penny group backed by economist Raymond Lombra testified before the Senate Banking Committee in 2006 that his careful statistical analysis of store prices showed that rounding cash sales to the nearest nickel would cost consumers billions in extra costs. Yes, the penny should stay in circulation as it is a reminder of our country's history and serves to keep the cost of goods low. But, by the 1850s, the government faced much the same dilemma as today: The price of copper had risen, making cents too costly to produce. i think we should keep the penny so when our kids our older they will know what a penny is yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. 10 reasons why we should keep the penny - elzanproperties.com Currently there's no action being taken on the elimination of the penny. Eliminating the penny would mean taking away a significant part of his legacy, which many people consider unacceptable. With more consumers moving toward contactless payment methods, news sources from Fortune to NPR began asking: Is the penny finally on its way out? First, consumers benefit with a low denomination coin. However, the penny is a very sentimental coin to most Americans, and many people fear that eliminating the penny would raise prices because things would need to be rounded up to thenearest nickel. In the rare case you have never heard of or used a penny, it is the one cent coin in U.S. [11] In 2009, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society announced that school children had collected over 15 billion pennies in support of its charitable work thats $150 million dollars for blood cancer research and treatment. In 1965 the U.S. Mint stopped making 90% silver dimes, quarters, and half-dollars and changed them over to base metalcladversions. However, new initiatives are being proposed to make the penny more efficient - read more to find out how! Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation. The penny no longer serves that purpose. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. As the U.S. Mint explains, the copper surface of a penny accounts for only 2.5% of its metal content. Consumers using credit wouldnt be affected by this because their transactions could still be counted out to the cent. Overall, continuing the use and manufacturing of pennies . [1] Thats a bargain for how many times it gets used. This could potentially have a big impact on charitable organizations that rely heavily on donations from their supporters. Eliminating the penny, they argue, would be disrespectful to his memory. For example, the zinc metals lobby, and the Coinstar company (who make those change-counting machines in the grocery store) will both fight hard to keep the penny in production. It's a Money Loser for You. Eliminating the Penny Reflect: Freewrite Now that you've had a chance to read, review, and reflect on "The Penny Debate," record your thoughts and feelings about whether to keep or eliminate the penny. Copyright 2023 AMAC, Inc. / AMAC Senior Resources Network. 9. Danielle DeLee began writing in 2010. Here are both re. Charities rely on penny drives as an easy way to raise funds, and pro-penny groups argue that the elimination of the coin would have a negative impact on charitable donations. The Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Penny | ipl.org Even so, according to the US Mint, it costs about 2.4 cents to make one penny. This makes sense. You don't want to lose it. Many wont even bend to pick them up, as Andy Rooney noted on a 60 Minutes segment some years ago. http://www.moneycrashers.com/get-rid-penny-reasons/Are you in favor of getting rid of the penny? Act is still in committee. According to CNBC, adults who make less than $30,000 per year are about four times as likely to make most of their purchases with cash as those who earn $75,000 or more. Cash transactions there are now rounded up or down to the nearest $0.05. ", ProCon.org. The penny should be abolished because it costs more to produce than it is worth . Citizens to Retire the U.S. Penny cites a study done by Walgreens and the National Association of Convenience Stores showing that handling pennies adds an average of two seconds to each cash transaction. They dropped the penny and rounding happens just the way you learned in like 2nd grade. Chipotle restaurants have already taken this initiative by simply rounding bills off to the nearest nickel, but when management decided to do this some customers complained about paying extra cents added on their bills. The penny was first minted in 1857. Should we keep the penny Rating: 4,5/10 932 reviews The United States penny, or one-cent coin, has been in circulation for over two centuries and is a longstanding symbol of American currency. Some are opposed to change, and others are attached to the penny for sentimental reasons. We're Moving Away from Currency. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? The coin shortage could be a rallying cry for a long-running movement that has lost steam in recent years: Kill the penny! ], [Editors Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. The 2020 annual report also states that the mint shipped 8 billion coins last year, most of which were nickels and quarters; dimes still put into circulation cost only 6 cents each to make. I think it human nature to maintain status quo until it becomes a crisis. There will be no sanity in D.C., fiscal or otherwise, until a electoral majority recognizes there is a crisis and places people in office wholl effect a cure. Nickels also cost more to make than their face value about $0.07 apiece so the Mint loses even more money on each nickel it produces than it does on each penny. Economist Robert Shapiro estimated in a 2017 paper that it costs 55 times more to make pennies than the value of each coin itself. Managing Editor Whatever the rationale, 58 percent of men and 73 percent of women wanted to keep the penny in 2006, according to a Coinstar poll. But the price of copper receded, and plans for the change were dropped. Let's take a look at the issues involved in the pro-penny and the anti-penny debate so that you can make up your mind about where you stand on this critical matter. A graduate of NYU, he has an MA in English literature and loves literature from all ages.

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