Should we get rid of the penny?

[lorraineb]

I came home last night with a pocket full of change. I usually put this in a jar that I'll take to my local credit union and deposit every few months. I don't hate coins, but the more I think about it, the more I think the penny really is pretty useless. Especially since it costs the government more to make them than they are worth. What's your opinion? Is there a good reason to keep the penny, or is it time for it to go?

[Bob B.]

I think we should, and it seems as if the majority of economists do, too.

If transactions were rounded to the nearest nickel, it seems to me that they would round down as often as they would round up.

I read an article about this in Time magazine a couple years ago. I think it was published around the time that Canada dropped its penny. If I'm remembering correctly, the chief lobbyist for keeping the penny in circulation is the sole provider to the US mint of zinc for the manufacture of pennies.

[BuckyBadger]

Just to play devil's advocate - and because I don't really care about the penny one way or the other because I use a credit card for 99.9% of all my transactions (just charged a 47 cent cup of tea in the cafeteria, thank you very much!) - the penny isn't really losing money. If it were single use, yes, but a penny is used thousands and thousands of times before it falls out of circulation.

But honestly I couldn't care less if the penny disappeared.

By the way, apparently the nickle also costs more to make than it's face value is.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

I came home last night with a pocket full of change. I usually put this in a jar that I'll take to my local credit union and deposit every few months. I don't hate coins, but the more I think about it, the more I think the penny really is pretty useless. Especially since it costs the government more to make them than they are worth. What's your opinion? Is there a good reason to keep the penny, or is it time for it to go?

I'd rather they stopped the systematic inflation that led the penny to be completely worthless.

[Goldy]

I think they should end the penny and I would take it a step further that they should end the one dollar bill and maybe the 5. I have spent a fair bit of time in different countries over the past few years and I am always impressed how well coin dollars seem to work.

On the flip side, paper money is much harder to counterfit than coins so there would be some risk in installing a $5 coin.

[disneysteve]

I am always impressed how well coin dollars seem to work.

I've spent some time in Canada and experienced having a coin for $1 and $2 instead of paper. What a pain in the butt. Paper money is thin and light, easy to tuck into my wallet. Coins, however, are heavy and have to be in my pocket. I'll take paper over metal any day.

[Tabs]

I read once that it costs the US Mint millions each year just to mint pennies. I'm all for cost savings, including on the national level, so why not?

Snopes has an article on this as well.

[snafu]

Canada stopped circulating their pennies February 4, 2013 and I don't know anyone has noticed the difference. I agree the Loonie [dollar coin with engraved Loon] and Twonie [$ 2. coin] is a pain, rips pockets and altogether too heavy but convenient for exact change needed for public transportation. It's a handy savings tool, we dump cons into a big jar at the end of the day. They were terrific for parking lots but those now use Pay in advance cards on our cell phones.