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Farewell to the Penny
Columns | 12 weeks 6 days ago | Comments 21
Farewell to the Penny
They’re sitting at cash registers free for the taker. You find them left behind on restaurant tables along with the scraps. Sidewalks hide them in their cracks. They cover fountain floors. Surely, the penny with Honest Abe’s face embedded on it deserves better treatment than this? But the real question: why are they still being produced and circulated?
Think of the comedy of this. If you want to buy a cup of coffee at Wawa, you have to plunk down at least 123 of them. An afternoon snack bar requires 75 of them but don’t use a vending machine because they don’t accept the copper toned beauties. A pack of Wrigley’s entails patiently counting out 25. And if you’re paying a toll on the Parkway, better have 70 of them ready to aim and toss in – a flick of the wrist works great for me.
The organization, Citizens for Retiring the Penny, gives two main reasons for kissing this annoying coinage goodbye: waste of time and money. They and the National Association of Convenience Stores, estimate that dealing with pennies at the cash register wastes 12 seconds per day or 1.2 hours per person per year. We all have seen this as those in front of you dig and count them out with the hope of getting back even change and of course, fewer pennies. The comedy continues, because we have to do something with them when we get home.
What isn’t comical is that continuing to produce the penny is a misuse of our money, costing $100 million per year for the U. S. Mint to manufacture seven billion of them annually.
What isn’t comical is that continuing to produce the penny is a misuse of our money, costing $100 million per year for the US Mint to manufacture seven billion of them annually. This is half of their coin production! Since 1982, zinc has made up 97.5 percent of the coin and the metal’s price has continued to rise. The other 2.5 percent is the copper plating, which also isn’t cheap these days. Since 2005, the cost of producing each penny has been over a cent, now at around 1.5 cents
The penny’s ancestor, the half-penny, was retired 151 years ago. At the time, it was worth about 1/18th of the average hourly wage of a common laborer. Then, at the turn of the century, your pennies could have bought you enough food to fill up your belly. Sliced cucumbers for 10 cents (neither my keyboard nor Word even has the cent symbol), roast pork with applesauce for 20 cents, mashed potatoes for five, and raspberries and ice cream for just another 10 cents; an entire meal for 45 pennies. A penny was really worth something, with the average wage at 22 cents an hour, or about $2 a day.
An alternative to spending them would be to save our pennies in our piggy banks like Edmond Knowles of Flomaton, Ala. did for 38 years. After collecting them almost four decades, he cashed them in for $13,084.59.
Let’s see how long we have to keep laughing at this, as we continue find Abe’s face littered about on sidewalks and cash registers. I hope the comedy ends soon.
ART HALL, publisher
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Comments (21)
We welcome your thoughts, stories and information related to this article.
Mon, 07/14/2008 - 6:41am
Instead of retiring the penny why don't they retire the *** that inflated it into
nothing.
Sun, 07/13/2008 - 7:39pm
How will we check the tread wear of our tires?
Sun, 07/13/2008 - 7:15pm
Good article ... and quite right that the penny soon will disappear. But not a word is breathed about the reason: namely, that the Federal Reserve has destroyed 96% of the dollar's purchasing power since it opened its doors in 1913.
Steady loss of purchasing power is not an unavoidable, natural event like a storm or an earthquake. It is entirely manmade, and the press can identify the names and addresses of the culprits. This is not rocket science. It's just plain old counterfeiting by officially-licensed larcenists, selling our birthright for a mess of pottage.
Sun, 07/13/2008 - 12:28pm
Right on!
Pennies, who needs them? Just like nickels and silver coins.
We should go all electronic. Cumbersome metal and paper will be the end of us.
You wouldn’t see Abe in a crack or gutter if we did. And you surely wouldn’t see a passed pres honoring your wall or swiped crack wise.
Yes, what we use as money today is similar to a baby’s diaper, kind of like politicians who need to be changed frequently for the same reason. Thanks Mark.
Don’t find yourself squeezed betwixt a diaper and a printing press.
If only most would flip the switch and see!
Sun, 07/13/2008 - 8:13am
To the guy who wants all the pre-1982 "Copper" pennies....Were you buying them at 2.5cents per penny or did you actually want people to send them to you free? LOL If people send you some, let me know, I will want some of them too.....some people, lol.
I on the otherhand, have spotted several silver coins overlooked by people. I just cashed in nearly $200 worth of silver quarters (near 3.00 each) and several 50cent pieces (1963s at 6.50 a coin). Dimes at 1.25. I work as a manager and have access to lots of change. I even have had some freedom and morgan dollars in the registers before.
While cooper may be easier to find, it takes a few to make it worth it. I have roughly 100 pounds in a large mason jar (substracting the jars weight) and they are all pre-1982. You see, I look them over and toss those in there. The value is around $300+....maybe it will be worth more later so I can use it for a nice gift....lol
Sun, 07/13/2008 - 1:10am
I wonder who privately benefits from facilitating Government's minting of the cent coin.
Sat, 07/12/2008 - 9:34pm
Ironic how the same convenience stores, which are also the gas stations, want to charge based on 1/10 of a penny, but don't want to deal with the existence of a penny. Ironic, also, how my last post on this topic doesn't show up, which proves that the writer if the article is simply an agent of those businesses.
Sat, 07/12/2008 - 9:30pm
If the government still thinks its legitimate to sell gasoline in tenths of cents, how can they, get rid of a penny. except as an outright endorsement of electronic currency (which is worth even less - nothing - than the base metals they put in circulating money? Funny how the convenience stores that want to get rid of the penny are also the gas stations.
Fri, 07/11/2008 - 4:14pm
Although i don't personally have anything against the penny, and have lived in N. Ireland where we also use "pence" (the 1 cent equivalent in British Pound Sterling currency) I did want to let Mr. Hall know that if you press the ALT key and hold it down whilst typing 155 you can type a "¢" sign (see - it works!) Just a little FYI nugget for everyone's trivia files :o) I suppose I'm still of the same opinion as Mr. B. Franklin was "A penny saved, is a penny earned"...they always add up!
Thu, 07/10/2008 - 10:27pm
I LOVE PENNIES! I WILL TAKE ALL THE PRE-1982 PENNIES YOU WILL SEND ME!!! Some of my friends bring me copper pennies, every cashier I know laughs when I ask for old copper pennies. Please send your pre-1982 copper pennies too:
Rick Fitzgerald
4806 E. 37th Place
Tulsa, OK 74135
Thank you!!!
Thu, 07/10/2008 - 7:19pm
I noticed my 5 year old nephew didn't want a few pennies when I asked him the other day. Even kids don't want pennies?! I guess their time is nigh. Expect Steel pennies in the near future, the mint can still make money on that.
Thu, 07/10/2008 - 11:46am
So what's the other side to the story. What do people who want to keep pennies in circulation say? What kind of jouranlist only presents one side - not the type I can take seriously.
Thu, 07/10/2008 - 9:24am
Art, you don't seem to have a clue. What is it you want, a two cent piece? That went out with the half penny. You used the analagy that that the average counter person uses 1.2 hours per year counting pennies. Is that time totally wasted or should the simply convert it into calculating rounding the price off, well if you've been in a store lately and encountered some of the counter perple I have it will take them 1.2 hours a DAY to figure rounding out the cost to five cents.
The penny is a valuable asset to a much larger community, the numistmatic community. These folks range in age from young children to the elderly. The products that are made for collecting pennies keep alot of americans in work and eating. To do away with the penny would be Treason for the current con-disgress of the United states. Let them do something really important like tackle the energy problem rather than worry about where there next CENT or in their case "SENSE" is coming from.
If the penny is too costly to make currently, find a cheaper method of Production!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HAVE IT MADE IN MEXICO
Thu, 07/10/2008 - 6:34am
If the convenience stores would change their pricing so that once the sales tax is added the total comes out to a nickel, pennies wouldn't be needed at all. They are only minted because the banks order them from the Fed and the stores order them from the banks!!!! The solution is really simple, actually!!!!!
Thu, 07/10/2008 - 2:09am
If one of those pennies was the 1969-s doubled die obverse, they just threw away at least $15,000!!! Think I'm joking?
www.findthiscoin.com has nice info on pennies that are worth a lot of cash!!
Wed, 07/09/2008 - 9:55pm
WOW $13,084.59 in pennies !!!! Congratulations are in order to Ed Knowles for that kind of perseverence for thats $13,084.59 Ed wouldn,t have had ,had he just thrown them all on the Ground !!!!!!!!!! Hmm I guess if just 1% of Americans throw away that many pennies in a lifetime how much money will be thrown away in those 34 years !!! Hmmm lets do the math !!! 300 million / 100 = 3 million x $13,000 =49,000,000,000 !!!! HMMM thats right folks if just 1% of Amerians throw away all those pennies 49 Billion dollars will be thrown away in a lifetime !!! Now if the % is higher than that just think how many billions of dollars will be thrown away in the course of a lifetime !!!! Ben was right a "Penny saved is still a Penny Earned !!!!" I
Wed, 07/09/2008 - 9:03pm
its called inflation, in the form of government debasement of our currency.
Wed, 07/09/2008 - 4:38pm
Wow! The Gov't spends $100 million a year on pennies.
What does it spend on the illegal war per DAY?
Wed, 07/09/2008 - 1:22pm
I'm sure Word has the ¢ symbol in Insert Symbols. Also, at least on a Mac, simply press option+4 to get ¢. Fairly easy.
(ED. NOTE: We adhere to Associated Press style, and thus, the cent symbol is not used.)
Wed, 07/09/2008 - 12:58pm
I still say a penny saved is a penny earned. And god knows we need every penny we can get now to pay for gas! And you rarely hear about the fact that gas is charged down to the 10th of a cent.
Wed, 07/09/2008 - 12:41pm
Retire the cent ("penny" is actually a 1p British coin) at the end of 2009.