APR 25

Here in the Czech Republic we have "hellers" instead of pennies. These are 1/100 of Czech koruna (CZK). We had 10, 20 and 50 heller coins. 20 hellers is slightly more than a penny. Here, too, it was not economical to use these coins so five years ago they were abandoned. Since then all payments are rounded to the nearest 50 hellers. Nobody complains about that any more (except for card players who used them for betting :)) and it surely didn't cause some significant price raisings. Overall it seems like a good move.

I have to interject and say New Zealand got rid of its 1 and 2 cent pieces in the mid 90's and we got rid of 5 cent pieces 2 years ago.

It's really not a big deal and if you honestly care about those few cents you can pay for it electronically. Sometimes the system even works in your favour making things cheaper.

Not sure where you got the numbers regarding how much a zinc penny is worth. With todays zinc prices they are worth about a little more than half a cent. Reference: coinflation.com

I've been behind the phase out of the penny ever since they brought it up on the West Wing almost a decade ago. Not only has Australia eliminated their 1 and 2 cent pieces, but so has New Zealand, and Sweden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_rounding). I would say it's about time for the US to follow.

Coin collectors start collected those pennies!

Yeah, but we Americans are proud of our inefficiency and stubbornness! First you try to take our preciously unintuitive inches and pounds, and we fought you off! Now you're after our useless pennies? Terrorism!

(my house is a little bastion of metric measures... maybe if I do it... others might?)

I find it funny that there is no mention as to why the penny is worth so little. Perhaps you haven't noticed, but the US Dollar has lost 96% in 94 years, since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913. Maybe thats why the penny is so worthless that its no longer needed. In effect its not the actual value of the metal that has increased, but the abundance of currency in the marketplace has squandered its value. So, is that eco-friendly, or just economic stupidity?

We had the same argument in Australia. People were worried they would lose out. Rounding works both ways. You may lose 1-2c every 2nd transaction, but you gain 1-2c in the other transaction. And don't forget the most important part: IT'S ONLY 2 CENTS!!! (worst case scenario)

As an Australian resident temporarily living in Canada and making frequent business trips to the US, I find the pennies so damn annoying. They accumulate everywhere and are pretty much worthless. It is much better on you're change pocket back in Australia.

I say get rid of all coins below the quarter. Hand the teller your cash and debit card. What ever change that isn't paper, gets credited to your debit account. Keep the quarter around for friendly games of poker and those very small purchases.

The dollar has lost 96%? I assume you are talking about the dollars Purchasing Power Parity, until recently the dollar had decades of strong performance. Get rid of the Pennies, they are a nuisance. Why cant we round up or DOWN to the nearest five, so sometimes we Save and sometimes we take a minor hit, that we about even out in the end. So if I owe 1.41 1.42 its 1.40 and if i owe 1.43 or 1.44 its 1.45. That would only be a 1 or 2 cent difference in most cases!

Don't worry Abraham Lincoln will live on on those fancy new five dollar bills that have every color in the rainbow.

At one time in the US we had coins worth fractions of pennies - "mils". One thousandth of a dollar.

(I've got a couple in my coin collection - small red plastic pieces.)

Back when we used mils a wage of a dollar an hour was good pay. (My grandfather had jobs that paid $0.50 a day.) But inflation happens.

I think the only reason we hang on to the penny is because our most loved president's picture is on it.

Introducing a one dollar coin with Abe front and center might go a long way to getting the public to let go of the penny.

At one time in the US we had coins worth fractions of pennies - "mils". One thousandth of a dollar.

(I've got a couple in my coin collection - small red plastic pieces.)

Back when we used mils a wage of a dollar an hour was good pay. (My grandfather had jobs that paid $0.50 a day.) But inflation happens.

I think the only reason we hang on to the penny is because our most loved president's picture is on it.

Introducing a one dollar coin with Abe front and center might go a long way to getting the public to let go of the penny.

The "Check your facts" post got me curious.
Per the US Mint (usmint.gov)
Cost to mint a US penny
FY2005 $0.0097 per penny
FY2006 $0.0123 per penny
FY2007 $0.0140 per penny (mid point of estimate)
FY2008 $? - the numbers given for FY2007 (ended March) are based on the costs associated with metal purchases on April 28th, 2006 - $1.49/lb for zinc, $3.23/lb for copper, and $8.69/lb for nickel.
Current costs for the base metals are $0.9964/lb for zinc, $3.91/lb for copper and $13.01 for nickel. The reduction in the cost of zinc over the past 2 years has to have brought the cost to the US mint to produce a penny back closer to parity.

I have some reservations. Our economy is fairly large, it could be disruptive to a lot of the smaller companies, that make things like candy, toothpicks, sell postage, and similar things. Even a small fraction of a multi-trillion dollar economy will have a big impact. If we have a $3 trillion dollar economy, the penny still represents billions of dollars.

The problem is that the substitute materials which they tried are becoming more expensive, zinc originally replaced copper, now zinc is becoming expsive. I don't know if they could make a penny out of a non-metallic substance like a resin.

At one time in the US we had coins worth fractions of pennies - "mils". One thousandth of a dollar.

(I've got a couple in my coin collection - small red plastic pieces.)

Back when we used mils a wage of a dollar an hour was good pay. (My grandfather had jobs that paid $0.50 a day.) But inflation happens.

I think the only reason we hang on to the penny is because our most loved president's picture is on it.

Introducing a one dollar coin with Abe front and center might go a long way to getting the public to let go of the penny.

doesn't the US treasury spend more printing dollar bills every few months than they would on minting the dollar coin with a lifespan of several decades?

I just did a persuasive speechon on this for my speech class.

The production of pennies account for more than half of all Mint coin production and 7 million of them get thrown into the trash every year. There is an estimated $10 million worth of them just sitting in peoples homes. They waste resourses.

Not only is the metal expensive but there is also packaging, handling, and distribution to deal with. There was a time(around WWII) that coins were made mostly from steele. I dont know what the prices are for that but I have a feeling it would be cheaper.

In Finland we use the Euro like a lot of other European countries, except we do not use the two smallest coins worth 1 and 2 cents. Each purchase is rounded down or up to the nearest 5 cents.

Cash money is not used that much here anymore (people mostly use debit and credit cards), but I dare say that losing the two smallest coins has been a blessing (well, actually they were never in use in the first place). No-one likes to carry around a bunch of quasi-worthless metal anyway.

Coincidentally, since the Euro came into use in 2002, there are actually more coins in everyday circulation here since one Euro equals around 6 of our old Marks. This problem would only be worse if there two more kinds of coins in use.

Just to add to my comment above:

1 and 2 cent euro coins from other countries are, of course, valid tender in Finland. They are just not minted here except for collectors and I guess the ones that flow to Finland from abroad are just shipped back to their respective origin countries :)

I don't know if any other countries in the Euro zone have this same arrangement in place. I, for one, would recommend it.

umm we (Australia) got rid of the 1 and 2 cent coin in 1992 not 2002

Great. My point was that such coins were never in use here in the first place, and were not brought into circulation even though our currency was changed in 2002 to one that purported to use such coins.

But you're right - this is a competition.

@Book Calendar: Do you often buy a single toothpick? Can you actually buy a single toothpick? Everything comes in packets these days. Often the cost of marketing is more than the actual cost of the contents.

Rounding up and down doesn't affect the purchase of these items. If you buy one item with cash priced at 3cents it gets rounded to 5cents. If you buy two it costs you 6cents and gets rounded to 5cents.

Think it through, your reservations are probably baseless. Look at all the other countries that have done this with no problem.

Canada currently has a bill being put forward to eliminate their penny as well.

I just wanted to thank Hank Green for writing
a more balanced article. After your questionable Coinstar article I was starting to think you were getting paid off by the Rockefellers, or the WWF organization.I appreciate you emphasizing the dollars declining value as a reason to kill the penny. The only problem I envision is the old retail scam of keeping the illusion that an item is $1.99 instead of just rounding up to increase sales, I don't know who that fools, but the retailers still do it. I would also like if the
retailers would just add the sales tax to the
sticker prices.

@Gulag2008: When the Australian Government introduced the retail level Goods and Services Tax (GST) they also legislated that all prices must include tax at point of sale.

Maybe someone can explain this to me. Why doesn't the mint do an ad campaign and ask people to turn in their spare change? With all the pennies in peoples houses, wouldn't that deal with any shortage problem and then allow the mint to reduce the minting? And for the coin collectors the mint could produce a few hundred thousand or a million and be done with it.

1. It's not worth the environmental cost of the mining.
2. On the rare occasion when someone actually uses pennies, it needlessly slows down the line for other customers.

Just one minor political comment: someone above said that one reason we're reluctant to give up pennies is that our "most beloved" President is on them. Well, Lincoln sure as hell is NOT my most beloved President. Along with FDR, LBJ, and George W. Bush, he vastly increased the size, power, and cost of the federal government -- at the expense of our property rights and other liberties.

Like most Americans, I pay for almost all my transactions (including groceries, gasoline, restaurants, event tickets, and household bills) with a credit card.

On the rare occasion when I use cash -- say, to buy a lottery ticket or tip the guy at the car wash -- I use single dollar bills, not coins.

How often do we really use pennies, nickels and dimes?

I don't use pennies that much, but I do use nickels and dimes a lot
I think a steel penny would be a good idea

While I agree that most people don't use pennies in a monitary transaction, we still need a coin to be worth the smallest amount in our economy based on the dollar. It doesn't have to be made with zinc or copper. Make it out of steel. Who cares if the steel is not actually worth 1 cent. A coin is worth it's face value no matter what it's made of. Is the paper in a $100 bill worth more than in a $5 dollar bill? Does it cost more to make the $100 bill? no, but it's worth more because it says so on the front.
And as for rounding DOWN to the nearest 5 cents, yeah right. That won't happen. The consumer isn't going to be cut any breaks. If the Government can squeeze an extra two or three cents out of you, they will.
Getting rid of the penny would open up a big can of worms that would only end up screwing the consumer. WE NEED THE PENNY!

I long ago looked arround and saw all the change sitting arround my house and decided to get my money back! I rolled what I could and took it to the bank. I vowed never to allow coinage to accumalate again, I spend every coin I get. I agree the penny should be elininated but until it is I intend to continue to use it. I still use mostly cash to purchase with. My sister and I once paid an entire resturant bill of over 17 dollars with all coins we gathered from everyone at the table. Great places to unload coins are ate resturants My tips almost always include coins, I love those self checkout devices they have now. I will start inserting all my pennies then proceed to the nickles until I have an whole dollar amount and if I have 5 dollars of coins in my pocket that goes first.

If only the vending machines would take pennies!

Not using your coins is like not taking the bottles back to the store to get the deposit after all you paid that nickle or dime in the first place don't you want it back!

I am doing a persausive speech against eliminating the penny for my public speaking class. After several weeks of research I thought I'd leave the online community with some strong points for keeping the penny around.

Lower cost metals are always an alternative to solve the issue of cost production if that's the big issue. Apparently the cost of zinc dropped 50% in the past year as well. Metals flucutate in value just like stocks and house prices.

My pro penny main points are:
A. People use pennies as a form of savings
1. Children are taught to save with pennies
2. Used as an emergency savings by some

B. Charities and other non profit organizations would suffer losses.
1. Many people make charitable contributions in the form of pennies. The existence of pennies promotes philanthropy.
2. People give church offerings in the form of small change. People with little to give would miss out on being able to give what little they might have.

C. Eliminating the penny would cause an unnecessary disruption to life as we know it.
1. Pricing systems would have to be adjusted.
2. Eliminating the penny would pose challenges to accounting methodologies, systems, and applications.

America already has it's hands full with tall orders to fill. The penny is also being updated in 2009 - four new variations depicting Lincoln at various stages in his life.

So if nothing else, pennies increase both self worth and net worth if we allow them to.

Check out this website to see another side of the debate on the elimination of the penny. http://www.commoncents.org/go/...t/outcomes

To see the collective results of communities gathering pennies to help better the world gives the penny a sound purpose that should not be disregarded. The production costs are not that large of an issue compared to the benefits gained by non profit organizations that could see a decrease in charitable gifts. Organizations such as UNICEF, the Salvation Army, The Ronald McDonald House, the AIDs Foundation, schools, as well as the homeless, children learning to save, the average person intentionally or uninteniaonlly building up an emergency savings comprised of coins (mostly pennies).

Find a penny pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck. :)

Seriously people never throw pennies away!!!! Get a piggy bank or jar then get off your butt and go to Coinstar after while. Give them away to someplace that can put them to good use if you won't.