No More Penny/Cent ?

US ain't got no pennies--just cents.

 

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On Feb. 20, 1777, congress proposed a half-ounce standard for an American "PENNY"; giving it a weight of 218.75 grains, which, interestingly, approximates the 224 grains, weight of brass specimens of the Continental Dollar. It is possible that the continental dollars, which bear no mark of value, were patterns for both a United States silver dollar and the only "PENNY" ever authorized by the United States government...

 

I suggest the govt:
A. stop making 1 cent coins for circulation, continue making a few for collectors. The zillions of them in jars and boxes will come into use if people really want to use them.

B. get serious about making dollar coins, which means making a lot of them, and cease printing dollar bills.

C. remove all presidents and buildings from our coins, revive some of the classic liberty style designs.

....I am not expecting any of these things to ever happen; it's just my wish list.

 

There is no need to demonetize small bills. Just stop making them. If we come to this, a $2 coin would be nice.

 

And it has gone smoothly in every other country that has done it as well. Yes, there is some griping for a couple months but then everything goes smoothly.

The prices will be totaled, the sales tax applied and THEN the total will be rounded. As for the retailers always rounding up, the rounding will be handled by the software in the cash register. If it is 1,2,6, or 7 cents the MACHINE will round it down, and if it is 3,4,8, or 9 cents the MACHINE will round up. Roughly half the time it will round up and half it will round down. (Or do you think the people who write the software would write it to always round up? Why they would not benefit from it?) Net result averages out even. Even if a retailer did manage to always round up, he would find some of his competitors rounding down and then crowing about their lower prices and taking the business away. Always rounding up could result in LESS money for the business.

Once you stop making the cents they will most likely disappear from circulation almost completely within a years time. As a rule people do not recirculate their cents. If the mint was not constantly providing a fresh supply the amount on hand in the banks and the Fed will quickly drop to the point where the businesses will be unable to acquire the supply they need. At first there will be some offers to pay a premium for cents,and some business may try handing out substitutes, but fair quickly they will decide it is not worth the bother and they start rounding to the nearest 5 cents on their own and the cents will no longer be requested from the banks.

I'm speaking from experience here. I have seen several cent shortages that have gone through these stages and in every case the only thing that stopped them was a greatly increased output of cents from the mint. Once businesses were assured a plentiful supply they stopped the rounding and the cents continued going from the mint to the businesses to the customers to the hoard jars. The only thing that keps the cent in circulation is the mints constant replenishing of the supply.