BAN PENNIES

get rid of them

I don't think you should use the word ban; people will still want to use pennies, the best thing to do is to stop production of pennies and do what Canada did: have businesses send the pennies to the mint for them to be melted.

ban pennies! pennies don't work with meters nor any other costs!

pennies are jank

Pennies cost more to produce than they are worth. Yet because of inflation, they are worth so little that many Canadians don’t bother to use them at all. It’s not very different in New York City. In January, when Starbucks raised the price of a 12-ounce cup of coffee in Manhattan to $2.01, with taxes, many coffee drinkers were appalled — not so much by the cost as by the indignity of needing to fish for pennies. In the intervening weeks, I’ve given up on coins at Starbucks and begun paying for my morning joe electronically.

Very well said, thank you.

Is it really that hard to deal with pennies? First, Chipotle outlets couldn't bother to count out cents because the chain claimed doing so slowed down customer interactions. Now, a store in Vermont has stopped dispensing pennies for change altogether. Power Play Sports in Morrisville, Vt., put the new policy in place earlier this month. The sporting goods shop will still take customers' “outdated, outmoded, overpriced nuisance of coinage” owner Caleb Magoon told ABC News. However, the store is no longer “actively using them,” he said. Unlike Chipotle -- which was caught rounding change down, cheating customers out of their pennies -- the Vermont store will round customers' change up to the nearest nickel. That means the store could lose a maximum of four cents on any cash transaction, Magoon tells NBC. No big, he implies.

Many foreign nations have completely eliminated their most minor denominations with almost no impact on commerce or consumer confidence in the monetary system. New Zealand got rid of its penny and two-penny coins without incident back in 1989, and in 1991 replaced their two lowest paper denominations with coins. In 2006, New Zealand eliminated the nickel, and while they were at it, they significantly shrunk down the rest of the coins. All of this numismatic change took place without any major problems. History has shown us that updating the monetary supply in countries where the currency is very stable has had little, if any, negative effect on the economy, or on people's acceptance of the coinage.

The United States has eliminated a small denomination coin in the past with relatively little trouble. In 1857, the Mint stopped making the Half-Cent coin, partly because the cost of making it had exceeded its face value, and partly because it was considered to be so small a denomination that it was no longer needed.

Most Americans don’t want to get rid of the penny simply because it affects them emotionally. Everyone has had a time where they would stock up on coins to save up for a few bucks. Don’t fuss over if Lincoln is gone; he still has his spot on the five dollar bill. Subsequently, I don’t think he would his face on something that is worthless. In addition, it’s not a political issue. You and the people in Congress probably discussed more about political issues rather than this small dilemma. Despite it being a small issue, I think they may drastically impact American’s economy. The penny isn’t as efficient anymore due to inflation. We’re just spending money making them when it’s worthless and no one is using them. Most vending machines, parking meters, or anything that requires coins don’t accept pennies simply because they’re worthless. By and large, getting rid of pennies can help save time, resources, and essentially, millions to billions of dollars per year! Please consider this idea and notify Congress.

Meanwhile, Kolbe’s bill molders in some congressional cubbyhole. The ban-the-penny movement lives on (it was featured on one of last season’s episodes of The West Wing), but the pennies keep mounting up.

The Mint never stopped producing pennies, however, recession or no recession. Last year it stamped out 10.3 billion of them, and through the first five months of this year it put another 2.5 billion shiny new pennies into circulation.

Kolbe also favors replacing paper dollar bills with longer-lasting $1 coins–and as it happens, the Sacagawea “golden dollar” introduced two years ago is made mostly of copper.

Alex, that would render the penny unnecessary. I highly agree with Samuel. I have read that it costs a lot more to make a penny than what it is worse. They should be banned, and the pennies that are already currently made and produced would be used before they lose all of their worth, as they already have.

Hello James. Jim Kolbe is doing his best, although his proposed Legal Tender Modernization Act is languishing in a subcommittee.

Almost a year has passed now since U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe Jim Kolbe made headlines by introducing his anti-penny bill, yet these pesky one-cent coins continue to jingle uselessly in people’s pockets. Can nobody rid America of this copper-coated scourge?

The bill would not ban pennies, but only discourage their use. Either way, they should be banned, to increase our economy. Hopefully, the government sees this.

Be that as it may, Kolbe’s proposals are only logical. Several other nations have eliminated their small-denomination coins without going to wrack and ruin in the process, and Canada managed to replace its dollar bills with dollar coins.

Firstly, I'd like to begin with costs. The US penny costs roughly over 2 cents to make-that's double the amount the coin is worth. If you were to couple that with the lack of pennies in circulation (thus causing more manufacturing), that can lead to a large worth of taxpayers' money being spent. Money that can be used to pay other causes, like jobs, or restorations. Secondly, I'd like to address some objecting arguments. "Charities will suffer if the penny is removed!" Now first of all, people donate their pennies not usually because they care-it's because they don't want it in their lives anymore. When it comes to charity, you think of people who care for the cause donate. If that were to be applied, then people would have no problem putting in a ten-dollar bill rather than a jar of pennies. "If the coin were to be removed, prices will go up." This annoys me in a large way, this just shows how people can't think things through sometimes. Other than that, prices can also be rounded down. Of course, there are some businesses that will round up-but who would buy from that? It's a dumb business move, especially if there's a rival business in hand. "The penny is an American symbol." This is a worthy argument to battle, as it really is an important symbol. ...If you think that way, of course. This argument is going to be put forward as opinion-as-fact if I tread forward, so I'll stop here for this one. "People will lose money if the penny is removed." If the businesses were to be constantly rounding up, the average American will lose $18.25 annually against the other timeline keeping their pennies. That's minuscule compared to the $100 million lost to the US treasury.