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I 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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