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 The Penny: That’s Just Our $.02Posted on Aug 15, 2007
Now that U.S. pennies are more of a nuisance than a useful form of currency, given their ever-so-rapidly evaporating value (no offense, Honest Abe), and now that it costs the government nearly two cents to make each penny, why don’t we just toss them altogether? (Hint: It has to do with lobbyists.)
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By Frank, August 16, 2007 at 2:29 pm #
Who care how if it costs two cents to manufacture a penny? One value has nothing to do with the other. If a penny could only be used once and that had to be tossed away, that might be a valid talking point. In reality, the penny’s utility in commerce is worth immeasurably more than it’s face value. Think of all the thousands of times a typical penny will change hands during it’s service life, each time facilitating a transaction which supports the economy.
Report thisBy DennisD, August 16, 2007 at 11:36 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
“It costs the government nearly two cents to make each penny, why dont we just toss them altogether? (Hint: It has to do with lobbyists.)”
When you have a decision made in D.C. that doesn’t involve the lobbyists let me know. That would truly be news.
Report thisBy Novista, August 16, 2007 at 11:14 am #
I read somewhere that $60 of pennies and nickels cost $100 to manufacture. And somewhere else, now a restriction against sending them out of country. Scrap metal recycling apparently paid a premium of that core currency.
The land of oz ditched pennies and two-cent coins (gasp!) quite some time ago.
A 1912 dollar is now , well as of 2006, worth $0.05 using adjusted CPI and $0.01 using nominal CDP per capital. LOL.
When the ‘asset securitization’ house of cards collapses, the current dollar will probably have a value of about three current cents. Yeah. So why did I choose 1912? Year before the Federal Reserve scam initiated.
Report thisBy Doug, August 16, 2007 at 10:11 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
“...why dont we just toss them altogether? (Hint: It has to do with lobbyists.)”.
To be fair, it may also be due to fears the marketeers may round the remaining difference up rather than down.
Report thisBy jhm, August 16, 2007 at 8:18 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
When this idea was raised before, one of the rationales given for keeping the penny was that many of the Several States, and even localities within them, had established sales taxes the levying of which would be compromised by the penny’s absence. For example, if I wanted to levy an 8% sales tax on somebody’s $1.00 purchase, but had to round to a nickel, who would pay the difference? would the purchaser pay an extra 2¢ or the purchasee eat a 3¢ differential? This would only matter for cash purchases, but having a bias toward non-cash purchases itself leads to problems.
Report thisBy C.P.T.L., August 15, 2007 at 11:57 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
It’s important to not lose the Penny just as it’s important to NOT allow a dollar coin; both would engender an immense symbolic devaluation of our money that will be played out to our disadvantage. Two cents for every one is a healthy price to pay to keep the concept of the Penny alive. Cancel a missile system if you’re worried about money, it’s just going to kill someone. Cancel five missile systems, there’s tons of them.
The problem with the Penny is solved by figuring out how to revive its value, same with the dollar - that is fixing a problem. Dropping the Penny altogether is rolling over and dying.
As soon as the Penny is gone watch how fast the nickel becomes worthless, and so on with an ugly knock-on effect taken full advantage of by Suits of Prey. Same with the dollar once it becomes a coin, fives will be next.
Europe has a long tradition of coinage that America does not have; and Americans, frankly, just plain aren’t up to the complexity of the change and standing up for themselves. This age of cheating, gouging, inside deals, price fixing and trickery, these times when Americans cannot seem to keep their basic concepts straight (spy on me to keep me safe!) are NOT the times to be making core changes to our money.
When we have government that we can half-way trust and can investigate, to our satisfaction, the hidden half, then let’s consider possible changes.
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