School Coins

1. At the beginning of Nickel and Dimed, The author sets three rules of herself; “I could not, in my search for jobs, fall back on any skills derived from my education or usual work.” , “I had to take the highest-paying job that was offered to me and do my best to hold it.”, and “I had to take the cheapest accommodations I could find, at least the cheapest that offered an acceptable level of safety and privacy.”. She sets these rules to keep herself on the right track and not make what she thinks are bad decisions. 2.

It has come to my attention of how we use our money and noticed that pennies aren't being taken seriously. I realized while standing in the checking line, people would rather use dollar bills instead of the piggy bank of pennies in their possession, not only because of limited utility, for instance, pennies are generally not accepted in vending and bulk machines, but also because the act of producing the penny cost more than the actual penny itself. So I ask myself, "Why use pennies? Should they be eliminated?" The growing debate of whether or not the penny should be eliminated from all cash transaction is, personally, futile, when they, themselves, doesn't bother to use them.

In source number 1 it says, “ We often throw them away in water fountains, throw them in jars, or refuse them as change.” This quote means why make a coin if all we do is throw them in jars, or refuse them as change, and just throw them in water fountains. Also, “We have penny drives to get rid of them sense people don’t want to get rid of quarters and dimes.” This quote says why make something if all we are doing with it is using them as loose change or just giving them away.

Though some parties may claim that the penny holds value to the United States, majority of the arguments presented are invalid or out of date. Examples such as the man who has saved “90 pennies a day” (Source B) are an extreme case that cannot be used to argue for continuation of the penny. In the average lifespan of an American denizen, it is improbable that one will have the time to collect this many pennies. In addition, on order for this man to reach his grand total of $13,084.59 took about forty years, making this argument illogical as the process is time consuming and one can save even more by simply collecting larger denomination coins. In addition, arguments made those countries such as the “EU … and Canada” that have kept their “penny”

Recently, there has been news regarding the debate of the penny. The U.S. and Canadian government believe that the penny is a nuisance and takes up space in cabinets and dressers. They believe that the penny should be taken out of the system. However the penny is a great influence on American culture, yet it causes a fortune to manufacture a single one.

In recent times the U.S. penny has become a heated topic for debate. The issue people debate is whether the U.S. mint should discontinue the penny. Most Americans seem to have a definite opinion about this topic. Both sides of the argument have increasing support and a numerous amount of legitimate reasons to support their argument. In my opinion pennies are a nuisance and do not really offer enough value, therefore the U.S. Mint should discontinue the production of the penny.

In Forbes magazine, Neena Moorjani said “It’s practically useless in everyday life” (Lewis). Most people today fling their pennies into the trash, they drop out of circulation, or in couch cushions where you won’t see them again. In the 1900’s there was a thing called penny candy. You could go to a local store and buy one piece, or a few pieces of your favorite candy with just one penny. Today, candy bars from a gas station can cost up to two dollars. Adding to this, vending machines cause problems with coins. The vending machines used to take all types of coins, nickels, dimes and even pennies. If you try to put a penny in a machine now it will just spit it back out or an alarm will sound. In stores when someone says “one second I think I have some pennies” is very annoying. It uses about “...40 wasted seconds per day per person.

At this point in the American economic system, there is no good use for the penny. As U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe’s press secretary, Neena Moorjani, said, “‘It’s practically useless in everyday life’” (Lewis). People can’t purchase anything with it, it creates unnecessary loose change, and it has a time consuming effect. The penny is not regarded by charge cards, it is trashed by those who find it meaningless, and is even “Hijacked by cashiers who assume you’re among the 27 percent of Americans who don’t even keep track of their loose change” (Kahn). The New York Times’s John Tierney recognized that “Two-thirds of them immediately drop out of circulation, into piggy banks or behind chair cushions or at the back of sock drawers…” (Safire). Pennies vanish because no one cares about their worth. People do not have a high regard for them or their value, so they are always misplaced. Every time a penny is lost, which happens quite frequently as Tierney points out, governmental manufacturers’ time and money is being wasted. The penny is a time-consuming coin, and without it, people involved in its use would have better places to put their time. Those government manufacturers could be tracking counterfeiters if they did not have to worry about creating the penny. Pennies cost more employee hours than the cost would be to totally eliminate them (Safire). By using pennies in stores, there is a huge amount of time wasted in both the cashier’s and the buyer’s lives. There was an estimation done by the National Association of Convenience Stores and Walgreens drug store chains that the use of pennies takes about 2 to 2.5 seconds. After multiple calculations and equations, they arrived at the conclusion “that each person is losing $60 per year, at a cost to the nation of over $15 billion per year” (Kahn). Time is a valuable thing in America, and losing $60 per year due to a loss of time is not

After that, there's the fact that pennies are quite useless. Most of the time they only get their use if you buy an item that ends in .99 or .98, if you got rid of the penny most prices would be in denominations of .05, so it’s easier to add, and in turn less confusing, the downside is that it costs a cent more, but it doesn’t add up to much. Another problem is that they take up too much space, since they are

As someone who grew up from another country, I personally find American coins infuriating. The fact that these silver colored coins have no numbers on them bother me, and I suppose a great number of tourists, very much. It remains a mystery to me how anyone can quickly differentiate between the dime, the nickel, and the quarter so easily. However, the copper-colored penny is special because it’s the tiniest one and also the easiest one to pick out among Uncle Sam’s coins. These days, this tiny coin has become a hot topic of debate on whether America should keep the penny or not.

Source 4: Isidore, Chris. “Should the U.S. Kill the Penny?” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, 10 May 2018,

On December 28, 2015, I attended the funeral for Dean Williamson, a long-time machinist at Dell Rapids East. During the service, the minister mentioned that Dean always carried a brass coin he received from L.G. Everist, Inc. (The coin is actually a token that we all carry as our commitment to each other’s safety.)

Mary Landrieu once said “ A penny saved is not a penny earned if at the end of the day you still owe a quarter.” That’s telling us that a penny is worth very little, so why even have them. A penny is just one cent. I repeat one single cent! Mine as well get rid of them they take away bronze, wallet space, or even house space. Pennies should no longer be produced.

Over the next two weeks during lunch periods there will be collection cans available to drop off loose change to benefit the efforts of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Students across the country are collecting pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters during the Pennies for Patients campaign. Please consider donating to this wonderful cause!

"What do you do as you are walking along a sidewalk or across a parking lot and detect a penny on the ground?" Will I use to ignore it! Most of us just leave the penny, we notice that penny are everywhere. If it was a dollar bill I would take it. As I was walking along the sidewalk, I saw a penny lying on the ground. I ask myself "if people saw me picking up a penny what will they imagined: she must be desperate for cash if she has to pick up pennies from the ground." And that must be the reason most of us don't stop to pick up