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Need a penny, leave a penny

William Safire is calling for us to abolish the outdated, almost worthless, bothersome and wasteful penny. As to why it hasn’t been abolished, he also adds:

The answer, I think, has to do with zinc, which is what pennies are mostly made of; light copper plating turns them into red cents. The powerful, outsourcing zinc lobby — financed by Canadian mines as well as Alaskan — entices front groups to whip up a frenzy of save-the-penny mail to Congress when coin reform is proposed.

I think he’s right about zinc. In my public accounting experience, I met a guy who was the former controller for a large zinc producer. They made the circular stamps that would become pennies. He confided in me that pennies cost about 1.1’ to make. Not good economics when it costs more to make the money than the money is worth.

3 Responses to “Need a penny, leave a penny”

  1. Thibodeaux Says:

    Back in school, I knew a guy from the Netherlands. He said in Holland they rounded everything to the nearest 5 cents (or whatever they used; pfennigs maybe?). He said that wouldn’t work here because Americans are too stupid to figure it out.

  2. Barry Says:

    Not to mention the powerful Lincoln Lobby must exert a lot of pressure on the government. I mean, they must walk 5 miles in the snow to get to the congressional sessions…

    I wonder if their staffers keep Lincoln Logs of the proceedings?

  3. tgirsch Says:

    I think if you’re going to get rid of the penny, you have to get rid of the nickel, too. Americans suck at fractions as it is. Expecting them to have to round to the nearest half (or five) is too much.

    Here’s an interesting question, however: Couldn’t a business price things such that the rounding always works in their favor? How much money would there be to be made in a high-volume business, just by picking up those extra couple of cents on every sale? πŸ™‚

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