How weird is the fact that making money costs money? Not only that, but in some cases, coins cost more to make than they’re economically worth! Due to this, many believe the penny should be out of production, as should the nickel, potentially. Others believe that the coin’s historical value, with it being similar to a heirloom in terms of age and personal value, should be enough to keep it in production. However, when considering how expensive manufacturing can get and how often the penny is used, it’s obvious getting rid of the penny is the best choice. It’s a strange thought; how money costs money, or how the amount needed to make a few coins could greatly outweigh how much they’re worth. This is only one of many reasons why the Canadian government is debating whether or not to get rid of the penny. Stated by, “Penny Wise, or 2.4 cents Foolish?”, “each zinc and copper coin costs 2.41 cents to make,” and”..’from the standpoint of economics, that’s just a total waste of money,’ Mr. Velde says.”(Sommer). Due to the imbalance, getting rid of the penny is thought the do more good than bad, especially seeing as how insignificant the coin is in purchases in today’s economy; …show more content…
Some still have faith in the penny’s worth- after all, power in numbers. Their argument is, according to “Give a Penny-Save The Day!”, “..because they are worth so little, people don’t mind donating them to charity.”(Waterhouse). As true as this is, this argument only really works for advertised charities that are likely popularized by schools. What about the casual ones one would see on a sidewalk or at a park? If pennies are so useless, would that passerby that happened to be there are the right time just have a jars’ worth of pennies or nickels on hand? Would it be worth it to go back home, get any change they may have, and return? More importantly, would there be enough people passing by to make that big of a
To begin with, pennies aren't the only coins that cost too much to make. According to Jeff Sommer, who wrote the article “Penny Wise,or 2.4 Cents foolish?” he states “Each
If the United States gets rid of the penny charities and fundraisers would have a harder time raising money. Charities and fundraisers usually raise hundreds of dollars from pennies. People usually give pennies
"The Penny Debate " by Brad Andrew is an article written to inform Americans about an ongoing conflict. Both sides are supported with good reasons; However, I think It would be beneficial to keep the penny. Based on the article, which implies that fellow Americas would lose much more than we're gaining. Things such as; Getting rid of the penny, Charities ran on coins will lose profits, putting U.S. Mint further in debt, and prices would rise. Many may think that eliminating the penny will be a plus, but aren't looking at both pros and cons in-depth for future references. Rather than getting rid of the penny altogether we could use a cheaper metal to produce
The penny must be eliminated as quickly as possible. The United States is in massive debt and instead of cutting programs which are vital to the economy and to citizens of the United States, the United States must find ways to cut expenses in parts that are often over looked. One great way to cut down on unnecessary spending is the penny. Believe it or not, the penny, the smallest denomination of currency in the United States is a huge waste of money. The one cent denomination has no use. You can no longer “buy anything with a penny” anymore. (William) The only use the penny has is to pay for the taxes, which, can be rounded off to the nearest nickel thus obliterating the need for a penny.
The U.S. penny has been a standard in our currency system for almost as long as our country has existed as a sovereign nation, but due to inflation, production costs, and the changing times we live in, it is no longer a sustainable unit of currency and only serves to increase our national deficit and waste our time. When the penny was produced for the first time in 1792 by the U.S. Mint, it was made of pure copper, featured a woman with flowing hair, and was inscribed with the words “Liberty”. Since then, the design and composition have changed numerous times to reflect our changing nation. Despite its fading glory, the penny has been kept alive by numerous false lobbying fronts and a stubborn ideology, but
In America, there is still a debate if the penny should be eliminated. If it was to be eliminated it would still be used, but in a minimal way. In Canada, the Canadian penny was eliminated due to cost, time, and the country believed it was a waste of money, “inflation reduced its purchasing power by 95% since it was first minted domestically in 1908: back then the cent could buy goods of the cost of $0.20, today in other words.”(The Economist). Once a small coin can no longer be used to buy individual items at that price, but it is only used to make change, it becomes more trouble than it is worth. Canadian pennies cost “1.6 Canadian cents to manufacture, and the government expected to save $11 million a year by eliminating them”(The Economist). But that sum equivalent to 0.0006% of GDP is small change. Canadians feel that eliminating pennies is that their feeble purchasing power means dealing with coins,
Finally a fourth reason why the penny should be abolished is because its production cost exceeds its face value. The U.S. Mint is losing money, as it costs 1.5 cents to manufacture a one cent penny. This results in the U.S. Mint losing millions of dollars per year. For example, in 2016, the U.S. Mint lost $46 million dollars by producing pennies. This makes no sense logically. Why would you manufacture a product that you can not make a profit
The pennies production cost is worth more than the penny itself, It would cost less to just eliminate the penny completely. Pennies cost everybody money, including taxpayers. Even though production costs are slightly lower today, the penny still costs the United States over 1.8 cents to produce and costs 60.2 million in the year of 2011 (source 1). The 60.2 million dollars that's used for a coin a year can be used for better things in the world, like charities. Pennies are worth so little, but costs so much. We would be saving a lot of money by not producing pennies at all. Pennies will still be around, but no longer minted. The production cost of a penny adds up to a lot of money a year basically wasted.
The penny is important to many because it can help with charity , sentimental and historic value.
In 2011, it cost 2.4 cents to produce the penny. The penny was first minted in 1857. It cost 2.4 cents to make the penny. Also the United States loses 1.8 cents for every penny being made. In conclusion we should get rid of the penny. The United States should get rid of the penny because it is people are not using them, cost to much, and other countries have already dropped the penny.
Money is the crux of society. Without it, anarchy would break out. Bargaining would fail as people would claim the trade wasn’t fair, thievery would explode across the globe, lazy people would do nothing, and people wouldn’t have motivation to do anything but help their own family and selves. Yet, while everyone knows money is important, is ALL money important? For centuries, the penny has been part of American currency. And back in the day, it served a great purpose. Pennies could buy candies, breads, and many other things all on their own. But as time has changed, so has the value of the penny. As costs went up, the value of the penny went down. And with its lesser value, some people wonder if it’s even worth it to keep the penny around. But the answer to that little puzzle is as easily seen as a jigsaw meant for four years olds is put together. The penny must be kept.
Between 2001 and 2006, there has been an increase of .6 cents for the reproduction of the penny. This increase displays economic problems that may lead to fatal ones. The penny is composed of 2% copper and 98% zinc. These elements are exponentially in demand causing the price of these materials to skyrocket. Many Americans think the penny is putting our country in jeopardy with financial losses. This meaningless coin is losing money for the mint, and should be abolished.
When walking through the streets, have you noticed penny coins on the ground? If you did, did you wonder why? People today don’t find value in pennies, so when dropped, they don’t bother to pick them up. They degrade penny coins and want to eliminate the coins. Penny coins shouldn’t be eliminated because it has history and is valuable.
If we just get rid of the penny, the mint would only have to do half the work! And we’re not even counting all the time, fuel, expense, and hassle of carting all those pennies around to the banks,merchants, etc. If we stop making pennies in the first place, we save all this associated time and trouble, too” (Headley). If we just got rid of the penny we wouldn't have to pay the price for making therm, and for getting them everywhere, which could cost nearly as much as making all the pennies. On the flip side, some might say that if we got rid of the penny then we would have to round everything to the nickel, because of this we would have to make more nickels, which are even less economically efficient then the penny. What these people don't realize is that most goods, and services will round up to the nearest dollar, so we won't have to make nearly as many nickels as we would pennies.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “A penny saved is a penny earned." Unfortunately, that idea no longer applies to modern society. There isn 't really much saving or earning with today 's penny. This is to do with the rising high melt value that is branded with the currency. Essentially, producing the penny costs more than what the penny is actually worth. The copper and zinc that are used to make the coin are more valuable than its value as currency. The one-cent coin doesn’t have the purchasing power it once held. Americans still can’t seem fathom the idea of life without the penny. A You.Gov poll conducted in January of 2014 recently discovered that only 34 percent of U.S. citizens are in favor of eliminating the penny. The other 51 percent of citizens are opposed to its retirement.(YouGov.com) This becomes alarming when considering that the United States has already minted nearly 92 billion pennies since the start of the millennium. With the production of 7 billion pennies for 2013. “According to the U.S. mint, a penny costs 2.41 cents to produce. Given the pervious figures, that means the government has spent roughly $169 million just to produce $70 million of currency into circulation.” (huffingtonpost.com). When the government is spending more money to make the coin than it worth to the citizens, that creates an apparent problem for the economic progress for America. This low value therefore gives the penny a perception as a waste of time. The average wage for