The Penny Arguments

Did you know the first penney the u.S. has ever seen was created and produced in the year 1857? The penny we know of has been in the states for 161 years. In the year 2012 there was a proposal that the United States get rid of the penny, the least valuable coin in the money system. The penny has so little value, but cost too much to make. Although the U.S. loses millions of dollars a year to the production of pennies, American pennies should not be ceased minting because of the risk of economic changes,the piece of culture they each possess and their “ power in numbers”.

The penny debate has been going on for many years. Many people want to get rid of the penny, but others want to keep the penny. We should keep the penny. The penny is a benefit in our society.

"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,

“A penny saved is a penny earned,” to quote Benjamin Franklin. Unfortunately a penny saved is not worth a whole lot anymore. Like many other once useful things the penny has become obsolete. The production and use of the penny in the United States monetary system should be abolished.

The penny is important to many because it can help with charity , sentimental and historic value.

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.

The penny has a lot of history, through the 200 years the penny changed design and value. Based on the article “The Ever-Changing Penny.” The first pennies were minted in 1857, they were very large, larger than a modern day quarter and had different images of the statue of liberty on the front(4). With this example, one can see,there were several visions for the penny before the final product of the Abraham Lincoln penny in 1909. The history of the penny reveals more than just a coin, it exposes a piece of american culture. The penny has influenced our language, giving us a number of idioms, such as “A penny for your thoughts” And “Not one red cent”(4). Despite its cultural influences the penny is under attack currently, the reason? Because making the penny also costs money, more than its worth,in 2011, it costs the U.S. more than 2.4 cents to produce the penny. The History of the One-Cent piece is a curious one. How long it will remain a part of your spending currency is yet

The penny is practically worthless to many people in our country. In a Gallup Poll of 1,002 adults conducted from June 11 of this year displayed shocking results. Nearly 75% of those adults would stop and pick a penny that is present on the ground. About 40% of men and 35% of women would walk passed a penny that is on any type of surface. This poll also found that 58 percent of Americans stash their pennies in piggy banks, jars and drawers. Some Americans redeem their cents at banks or coin-counting machines, but 2 percent admitted they toss them into the trash. They consider the penny a nuisance to many fellow Americans. This sentiment has been growing through recent years. The penny is basically obsolete and should be removed from American currency.

To begin, nickels cost more than pennies. An article on The Spruce says this: “[The] Mint can make 5 pennies and still lose less money than making 1 nickel” (Headley). This quoted information is basically saying that it would cost less for five pennies to be made compared to just one nickel. The cost difference is actually about 1.4 cents, which doesn’t seem like much, but it may become a larger problem when the money amount adds up in the end. Furthermore, if the penny were abolished and the nation would be stuck using nickels, then the Mint would lose even more money. A popular argument for the abolishment of the penny is that it wastes the money for the Mint. This is partly true, but if the pennies were entirely eliminated, more nickels would be in demand, which would cost the Mint more. Twenty nickels, which equals a dollar, costs about $1.54 to make, compared to a dollar amount of pennies, which costs $1.26 to make. With all the pennies abolished, the number of nickels made would have to double, which would subtract more money from the Mint, leaving them with even money savings less than before

These people also argue that because the penny bears the face of President Lincoln, the man who abolished slavery in the United States, it should be kept alive forever (Murphy). While these points are definitely patriotic, it is important to note that patriotism alone will not help the economy. Each penny costs about a penny and a half to make and doing without it could save taxpayers millions of dollars (Whaples) and if saving taxpayer money is not patriotic, then what is? If need be, Congress can decide to make a new one dollar coin (replacing the dollar bill with a coin might save the U.S. government an additional $500 per year)(Whaples) with Lincoln’s face, and he will always be immortalized on the face of the five dollar bill. Also, as sad as it may be, no matter how many times one throws a penny into a fountain, ones wish will not be granted. This is just another reason to eliminate the penny due to people’s wastefulness

Is a penny saved really a penny earned? Well not much longer it isn't, people think that we should discontinue the penny from our current day system. In my eyes i see the penny as a waste of time and a waste of money.There has been talk lately about discontinuing the minting of the us penny,and after reading all four articles it's hard to say that we should keep the penny: “Penny Wise, or 2.4 Cents Foolish?” (Source 1), “Is the Penny Worth It?” (Source 2), “Give a penny-Save the day!” (Source 3) “The Ever-Changing penny” (Souce 4). In my opinion we should discontinue the U.S. penny because it is costing us too much to produce pennies and the cost to produce it is actually more than it's worth, many countries have already dropped the pennies and it's going just fine for them, there is already a plan for when we are going to discontinue the pennies, so we are prepared.

The penny is way too established into the american lifestyle to eliminate it from the american society. The removal of the penny would attract too much unnecessary effort that won't benefit, but harm the economy and the people. Source E shows a majority of 2,136 people surveyed voting to keep the penny. 59% vote in opposition of abolishing the penny. Abolishing it is basically impractical. “Up until 1982, pennies were made mostly of copper; since then they have been 97.5% zinc” (Lewis). Since the recreation of penny to primarily be composed of Zinc, The price for production has dropped significantly. In 2011 the price to produce a cent was 2.41 cents and dropped to 1.67 cents as of 2014 (Wikipedia). Though completely eliminating the penny