New Penny Designs Out

For those of you interested: four new designs for the back of the penny were just announced.

How about just getting rid of the penny?

Comments

[Noah]

Getting rid of the penny would be very wise. Its time has definitely come.

[Krazy Eyes]

I'm 100% for getting rid of the penny for physical transactions. What is the penny worth today in relation to it's worth when it was first introduced?

I'm also 100% for getting rid of the paper $1 dollar bill and switching to a $1 coin that actually works.

[Morydd]

I disagree. While it's totally opinion, and I don't have any data to back it up, I think that declaring the penny obsolete would lead to a small but real inflationary trend. As long as the penny is still in use, one cent still has value. If we eliminate the penny, all of a sudden, our "least valuable" denomination is 5 times greater.

[Ban Pennies]

I agree 100%! There is absolutely no need to produce pennies, to keep pennies or, most importantly, to use them as currency. It costs more to make a single penny than it is worth and, in today's economy-driven society, it is simply irresponsible for merchants to accept them as valid currency.

Whenever I receive pennies in change at a store, I simply discard them in the nearest trash can, on my way back to my car. Sometimes, just for fun, I will toss a handful into a bathroom urinal and come back a few hours later, just to check if someone was foolish and desperate enough to retrieve them. Losers.

It simply costs me too much time and hassle to do bother with pennies. They should be permanently eliminated from our commerce system.

[Andy]

"It costs more to make a single penny than it is worth"

I don't think the cost of producing a penny is an accurate measure of its value as currency (which I think is the inference when that fact is brought up). It's only worth 1 cent, but it's worth 1 cent for every transaction. The longer it lasts, the more we, as a country, get our money's worth out of it. In other words, there's a cost to produce any currency, and there's a value in having currency, but you can't really use that same currency to measure it. By the same token, you can't just go out and buy a 100 dollar bill for the cost of producing it.

Despite that, I still don't know if we need a penny anymore or not. I think that kind of economics is probably more complex than it sounds.

[thomas]

The $.01 has lost it's purpose in our scoiety.

[AnEngineeredLife]

If they are going to re-design the penny why not re-denominate it as well as a 2-cent coin and call it something else and just let the current supply of pennies run its course.

[dan]

Dear "Ban Pennies"-
Well, until our idotic goverment declares the penny officially null-and-void, all merchants must recognize pennies as valid currency.
To not recognize them as valid currency most likely would result in felony.
Or should result in felony; to my amazement, many merchants choose to not deal in US currency at all and somehow get away with it.
That used to be a crime.

[leslie back]

Hmmm, if we get rid of the penny then costs for items will go up, not likely down. Why, because we will not be able to have anything "rung up" that does not come out in a a minimum of a 5 cent ending. So seems to me that it would cost us more to "lose the penny".