This is essentially correct but you also have to factor in the value of the time of the people waiting in line for the cashier to count the coins. Then there is the cost to the store of lugging around boxes of pennies and keeping the cash registers supplied with them. These things make a one way trip from the register to peoples' change jars so the store has to have a steady supply meaning the Brinks truck has to haul all this extra weight. Then people haul their pennies into the banks in coffeee cans and wait from the teller to count them. Most banks ship these straight back to Brinks to be recounted and reboxed for use by the stores. More weight and more work is required for them to complete the round trip. Every time a penny is used we're all a little poorer. And if this weren't bad enough by itself the existence of the penny fills up the cash registers and is one of the largest obstacles to the circulation of the dollar coin. If we had a dollar coin people would get in the habit of using coins again and this would significantly cut back on the spread of disease because paper is one of the worst vectors for disease. The next time you get the flu everyone should ask themselves if the waste of pennies is such a good idea.
Oh Man! You are SOOOO right! :cheers: I got my ears slapped back by GD a while back for bringing this up:so-sad:, but it's true! Paper money is made of cotten and linen...it's like carrying around everyone's used hanky in your pocket...ewww! :dismay: Silver is a natural anti-viral bactericide. If we had coins of value with "some" silver content to replace common paper notes ($5, $10, and $20), infectous disease would go WAY down. :dead-horse:
Yep...that why rich folks have eaten off silver for thousands of years. I'll bet your Grandmother (or Mother) still has a set of sterling silver flatware for special occasions.
Um, no, I'm pretty sure they've eaten off silver for thousands of years because it's shiny and nice. Unless you're proposing that "rich folks" have known about bacteria for thousands of years and kept it secret from us until the 1800's...
Hmmm... seems like they knew that there was more to it than it being shiny and nice: http://www.silver-colloids.com/Pubs/history-silver.html
That's a good read. :thumb: I recently read where fabric is being made with embedded silver micro-threads. Socks made of this fabric can be worn indefinately...valuable for combat troops, astronauts, and most anyone from West Virginia.
Several years ago before the ban on melting cents came about, they were being melted by the ton. It created such a shortage that all the banks had a bowl of wrapped mints. Customers were required to take mints in lieu of cents when necessary. Some banks were paying as much as 2c for cents brought in by customers. Even then a penny wasn't worth much. gary
While I agree that continuing to manufacture the cent is rather pointless due to cost and that fact that its simply not needed any more, I totally disagree with the comparison of "labor handling" with it's continued use as the cashier gets paid the same amount regardless of what change he/she dispenses or what type of transaction is occuring. In other words, stating that "labor dollars" can be saved at the cashier level by eliminating the cent is just plain silly.
Sorry guys, but we eat off GOLD flatware...............for Xmas dinner and other very special occassions. A gift from many moons ago. lol
Yes the cashier gets paid the same... but they can be more efficient if they don't have to bother with pennies when making change. Over the course of the day that can add up to a significant amount of time.
Not only does it cost more at the retail level to process Cents, the counting, rolling, and redistribution to retailers and Banks is labor intensive. I mean just as a roll searcher, I get to look at a lot more cents for $25 than I do any other coinage. If it were NOT more labor intensive, why do many retailers and government offices refuse to take them for payment ? Bet you don't get to pay a traffic violation fine in Cents where you live ? I know for a fact they refuse them here. lol
