The US Penny: Will it last?

Maybe the penny will be around "at heart" but I just can't see the government continuing to produce coinage that people are using less and less
Everything these days is electronic, why should the government even fool with making the penny?
I'm not saying I'm against them making coins, in fact, I'm a coin collector so I love it (although I get pretty annoyed at all the DD's we see) . My thing is, why isn't the government against it? It is costing them money...money they don't have.

 

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The one cent piece will go the way of the half cent. And two-piece cent. I think this is good a time as any to do it ...

we'll always have credit cards & bank statements operating to the nearest cent. It'll just be the rounding at stores for those paying cash.

 

Aw, c'mon - you guys know better than that.

The US Mint is the branch of the Treasury Department which makes coins and medals, while the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is the branch that makes paper currency

 

...ummm, smokes not very good for coins. :kewl:

 

I agree that we will eventually become all electronic, but the penny (cent) will stay as long as there are coins minted for circulation. TC

 

They do not use 1 cent coins in Australia, and businesses round up/down.

 

If we tried the round it up here in the USA,I think it would cause to many delays at the cash register.
That why I think the cent will be around 10-20 years more.
:cryinglus my Dansco has a full page left

 

Not so long as sales tax is added after the fact.

 

If we got rid of the penny, wouldnt that technically get rid of thoose $4.99 and $9.99 stuff, except for checks or credit cards.

 

If copper is 3.00 a lb and they can make over 300 cents with it, then the government actually makes money once the coins are monetized. I'm sure that situation can be manipulated to the max so saying it costs more to make one than it is worth is a bold statement one should only make if they are privy to the govs books. Regardless, I cant see loosing it as the base of the mathmatical system is 1. Think of a way to take the 1 out of adding and we can lose the cent. Or until the dollar is reduced to being worth a cent, then the entire structure can be moved forward. JMO

 

I understand what you're saying. The correct term, though, is that our number system is Base-10 (or decimal or denary). That is why increments of 1 remain essential when rounding doesn't occur.

 

Once again, if that were going to happen, it would have done so already. Credit cards have been around longer than the computer, in fact, pre WW2. A cashless society simply couldn't work. Without writing a book on it here, I suppose I could never explain why.
Guy~

 

I must say that i disagree with that statement. Its true that people are using cards more and more, but there is still plenty of cash-flow out there. I work at a small grocery store and probably see five grand worth of cash a day. Sometimes more. And ever since this economic crisis got going (the recession) I have seen a big pick-up in the amount of pennies in circulation. People will come in with bags of the things to spend (I enjoy counting/searching those ). And I don't think everything will ever be totally electronic. Even the most simple of tasks in any business is still documented on paper somewhere to keep up with it. I think paper currency/coins will always be around in circulation, even if their numbers do drop dramatically.
Also, its the government. In my opinion, they have no concept of a decent budget.

 

I think they should make a penny out of a paper currency lol

 

Agreed! My thoughts exactly.

But I love paying with cash.. I actually don't own any of the devil's plastic; although I understand that it might be necessary on a few occasions as I get older.

I just feel like I don't deserve to receive the goods if I don't supply the person with something (meaning an object.. not a swipe and smile). It just doesn't feel right swiping plastic and walking off... I'm not jumping on that boat just yet.

I say the penny/cent stays.. in the argument for getting rid of the cent; are they wanting people to just simply not accept it? I'd always attempt to spend 5 if it was rounded that way.

 

Actually, I'm a retired accountant. All you mention could easily be adapted (this ain't rocket science).

Doesn’t the copper industry lobby to keep the cent going, much like the paper industry does to continue producing the dollar bill?

 

Nope it won't last anymore then the 1/2 cent did.
Actually I'll say it will last as well as Garmin, Compact Discs and Land Lines will.

It's inevitable.

 

Just a quick combo-reply since this is basically about US money, not euro cash. That kind of rounding is done in only 2 of the currently 16 euro countries. I do hope that more will follow suit, but so far the others do not have such rounding rules.

Well, in the EU we do not add taxes afterwards; the price you see on the shelf is the price you pay. But when it comes to rounding, this does not make any difference anyway: The cashier would, at the end, tell you the grand total, all taxes included. If you then pay cash, a total of e.g. $29.72 would be rounded to 29.70 while 29.73 would become 29.75 ...

Christian

 

In my opinion this is primarily a psychological issue. Sure, the penny is not "worthless" - but it buys you considerably less than what it bought you, say, 50 years ago. Did you have, say, a "quarter cent" coin in 1960? I don't think so. And yet, since prices are in multiples of 1 cent (leave gas stations aside ) and cash totals often end in odd figures, we are used to getting pennies back. Take them away, and people will "feel inflation".

I think it is pretty much the same thing as in the UK or in the euro area: 1p or 1 ct is not worth much, but doing away with the denomination would, in the minds of quite a few, translate to "our money is suddenly worth less". In places where the smallest coin denomination is >1 anyway (see the Nordic countries of Europe for example), it is much easier to phase the next coin out, since people are used to rounding ...

Christian

 

That's a different argument than I was making, but equally valid. I was thinking like Zaneman, having seen how infrequently the 1 cent and 2 cent pieces circulate in Europe, and comparing that to the necessity of keeping cents around here for no other reason than to make change for sales tax.

Essentially, what we have in the States is a system where prices are expressed in odd numbers, where tax is added after the fact to make the numbers even odder, and no rounding system exists. I've seen rounding in action; it works. I've seen tax-inclusive prices in action (even here on occasion, but it's unusual in most contexts); it works.

Implementing these would be painless, unless you're just paranoid about rounding. I think it would take the public about two weeks to get used to it.