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| Yes | 39% | 262 votes | Total: 680 votes | |
| No | 61% | 418 votes |
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Add to FavoritesI am currently a manager of a retail store and have a very strong opinion of pennies and why they should no longer be used as currency. My first experience with a culture that no longer uses pennies was when I lived in SWEDEN in 1986. I was quite surprised to find that everything was rounded to the nearest nickel. This was different, but after awhile I found it nice to not have pennies weighing me down all the time. This experience also showed me how little pennies were missed in that culture. Ultimately, with the rounding up and down coming out pretty much even over time, I never noticed much of an effect on my personal finances.
Since that time I have had many different jobs including bank teller; corporate business manager; and retail business cashier, bookkeeper, and manager. The one thing that continues to rear its ugly head is the penny.
My reasons for wanting to eliminate the penny as legal currency are as follows:
1. Pennies take much more time to count than any other U.S. currency.
2. Inaccuracies are much higher due to the difficulty of trying to handle pennies as fast as possible.
3. A lot of extra time is spent by both customers and cashiers looking for, sorting, or counting pennies to make payment.
4. Even establishments that have penny pots usually don't have them full when a penny is needed.
5. Many people either throw pennies away or do not reuse them as they do not like to have too much change in their pocket/purse.
6. Anyone who has been cashiering when an adult customer comes in and dumps $5.00 worth of pennies on the counter to buy cigarettes or beer will understand my position with no further discussion.
7. As many articles already written show, pennies cost almost as much to manufacture as they are worth. How can this make any sense?
8. Pennies are the perfect size choking hazard for small children and are probably easier to find laying around than almost anything else.
9. More vacuum cleaner heads have been ruined by accidentally picking up pennies and jamming them than with any other coin. (The color blends in with many different carpet colors).
10. Eventually a decision will have to be made driven by the high cost of manufacturing pennies. Why not deal with it now by being proactive rather than reactive, which could result in more problems during a changeover to a penniless system?
I probably could come up with several more valid reasons, but I feel that they would all relate to at least one of the above. In closing, I respect the right of people to want to collect these coins, but do not feel this should be a good reason to continue with a currency that contributes so much to the extra cost of doing business in today's fast-paced world.
Learn more about this author, Dave Kemp.
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No
Eliminate the penny? Who would suggest such a thing? Americans should go right on pinching Lincoln, and considering today's economy, they should pinch him just as hard as they can. If the penny were eliminated, a penny saved would no longer be a penny earned. Lucky penny's would cease to work, and penny pinchers would have to start pinching other things. Who knows what that might lead to? A penny for your thoughts? Not if pennies ceased to exist. Without a penny, or even two of them, you couldn't buy a thought from another living soul to save your own nor throw your own two into the ring to save someone else's. There too, the penny's value extends far beyond its monetary worth. The sound of it jingling in one's pockets makes life a bit happier, giving the working person a tangible reminder that their labors are valued. Not to mention, , and a penny buys smiles for the faces of children who, with enough pennies collected together, can acquire a lollipop or a piece of chewing gum for themselves.
Should we get rid of the penny? Is sentimentality enough of a reason to keep it, or for that matter are environmental and economic concerns enough reason to eliminate it? Even when it is worn beyond all further use as a coin, it can be melted and remade into something else, perhaps a coffee pot, a candle holder, or other useful objects. Pennies stay in circulation for decades, even centuries, and even when lost they can be found and become of use to another who may be short a penny or have no penny at all. Not so virtual money. Abolish the penny and all other forms of tangible coins and currency will follow. Working men and women would be susceptible to the capriciousness of a virtual economy where a poor typist or inattentive clerk can cause a person's lifetime financial achievement to have the life expectancy of a lighting bolt. The advancing virtual economy has not proven itself consistently reliable and accessible enough to warrant the eradication of coin and paper currency. The required hardware and software infrastructure necessary to effect virtual economies on a world-wide scale aren't financially attainable by every business, particularly small businesses that are the backbone of our own nation, nor even by developing nations. Consider the rapidly ever-changing nature of these technologies. What is new and impressive today will be outmoded tomorrow, even before man has had time to save up his pennies to buy them.
The penny, like other currency, helps man to quantify his time and budget his wages wisely for the profit of himself and the betterment of his family. The virtual economy, or rather the technology that girds it, is too vulnerable to attack and manipulation by the unscrupulous. With the right combination of keystrokes a wealthy man can be made a pauper and the poor victimized beyond their means to recover. Not so with the penny. Its electronic infrastructure cannot be hacked because it has none to hack. Though it does not boast to be so, the penny is, in reality, the great economic leveler by which a product's worth is established and by which both rich and poor may have equal access, if they work hard enough. The penny has shown it can withstand the fickle changes of technology and has earned the right to continue its existence. The penny, as well as other coins and paper currency, is mankind's tangible reward for their efforts and it should not be looked down on in favor of emerging electronic technologies. Pennies even declare the protector of our nation, "In God We Trust." What fools we would be to eliminate the penny and undermine our own stronghold.
Learn more about this author, Susan Cronk.
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