Goodbye Penny ?

[kuranes]

It currently costs $1.23 to manufacture a penny in the USA. Certain lawmakers have proposed eliminating the penny.

What do you think ?

Pennies ? Or "no pennies" ?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060728/cm_usatoday/americaneedsthepenny;_ylt=AgIgL3bdq2ToyDSWSi.nVpr8B2YD;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWFzYnA2BHNlYwM3NDI-

Edit - cost of mfg. a penny is inaccurate, upon re-check. The other article ( not the one in the link ) confused me with the decimal point representation on a different scale.

[panda]

I hate pennies. Let's fucking get rid of them.

[headfonez]

We should get rid of all coins since we're losing money making them

[cryingmime]

i think they should just embed chips in our necks that have our bank accounts linked them.


r

[Dr. Haight]

There has been an effort to discontinue the making of pennies for a very long time. Unfortunately, logic and efficacy are disregarded for political reasons with regards to this issue - and many others.

In other words, it ain't gonna happen.

[panda]

Let's get rid of nickels and dimes, too.

[Dr. Haight]

I am for getting rid of money all together.

Don't get me started.

[panda]

I am for getting rid of money all together.

Don't get me started.
Tell me more, doctor.

*pulls up a seat*

[Dr. Haight]

No thanks.

I don't want to be forced to split a thread that I have provided excellent content for.

Or,

I probably could not explain it to anyones satisfaction.

You choose.

[panda]

No thanks.
You tease.

[ben from below]

do you mean $0.0123 instead of $1.23? If it costs one dollar and 23 cents to make a penny...

[kuranes]

IIRC it did say $1.23, and not the fraction you suggested.

Edit - I did not recall correctly

[aklight]

Naturally curious, I'm going to look this up.

*looks it up*

-------------------------------
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/22/business/22charts.html?ex=1303358400&en=a4046a4dea6fa38e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

According to that, it costs about 1.5 cents to make a penny, so it would be wiser to just melt the pennies because metals are getting to be outragously priced these days.

This reminds of a few years ago when hogs weren't worth shit. It was cheaper for farmers to shoot their pigs than to raise them. It sucks when stuff like this happens, but we'll get through it eventually.

I wouldn't mind getting rid of pennies if I knew it was going to make things better. Like that article says, nobody uses the pennies they have. They just sit around in jars, so we have been forced to make way more than we need.

--------
EDIT: It only costs a penny and half to make a penny. It's not $1.5, it's $.015...

Take the dollar sign away and you can say 1.5 cents.

[kuranes]

You guys are right. I went and looked up the original article and they confused me by saying 1.23 "pennies" and the figure was all I remembered. It did seem high, :) but when you hear about toilet seat covers that go for hundreds of dollars, it didn't seem that surprising, being a government project.

[aklight]

LOL yeah. I was just thinking -- "if pennies cost over a dollar to make, then I should collect them and sell them back to the government for like 50 cents." And I knew that was too good to be true.

[Dr. Haight]

Well, the cost of producing a penny is multiples beyond one-cent, so your argument is still valid. Moreover, my reasoning - and the arguments that I have read over the years - are more opposed to the impractical nature of a penny and the simple resolution for discontinuing its uselessness.

For instance, I found two pennies in the bottom of my washer while changing over a load a half-hour ago, and I promptly through them in the trash. Taking into account that I am, by no means, a wealthy man... there is something lacking in its true value if I would rather due that, then simply shove it into my pocket. Although, my lazy demeanor could be a contributor to that reaction.

[aklight]

I hate it when people try to pay with pennies. Like "Oh, you don't mind if I lighten my load, do you?"

And they give me about 60 cents worht of pennies. It's like, WTF? If you like to get rid of your pennies so much, then how the hell did you get so many of them? So many seniors carry a shit load of change on them, so they can give the exact change every time. But, if they do that, where did all the change come from in the first place?

Maybe they only do it to do me, because I look so friendly or something....

I just throw all of my change in a cup. I hate carrying it around, but I don't use it when I buy stuff. Maybe quarters...

When my cup is filled, it's about $60 bucks. It doesn't take long, since all of my change goes in there.

I don't think it would be that hard to round things to the nearest 5 cents. Besides, if you stop making them now, people will still be using for a very long time anyway. You can't expect everybody to turn them in right away.

[kuranes]

LOL yeah. I was just thinking -- "if pennies cost over a dollar to make, then I should collect them and sell them back to the government for like 50 cents." And I knew that was too good to be true.

You'd have to collect only the most recently made ones that were still shiny etc.
:)

Bring out your dead. And your pennies too

[Melody]

i think i saw this tom green where hes buying a car and he tries to hand the dealer this massive bag of coins

[kuranes]

I was once a bank teller that used to get people bringing jars of coins to be counted occasionally. They would often be fancy jars with narrow necks so that you really had to shake for quite a while to get the coins out. It would happen more often than I liked when a line had built up behind this person. If I had noticed what they wanted done ahead of time ( seeing the jar full of pennies ) I could have put up a "This line closed" sign to alert people not to get caught up in the hassle.

Sometimes the coins had jam and other goop on them so that they stuck together and "jammed" the counting machine temporarily, too. Then the person would sometimes want the exchange to be in "new" currency, which was another a pain in the ass, since it also stuck together unless you were careful.

[CoHo]

Jenny made her mind up when she was three
She herself was going to trim the Christmas tree
Christmas Eve she lit the candles, tossed the tapers away
Little Jenny was an orphan on Christmas day

Poor Jenny, bright as a penny
Her equal would be hard to find
She lost one dad and mother, a sister and a brother,
But she would make up her mind

Jenny made her mind up when she was twelve
That into foreign languages she would delve
But at seventeen to Vassar, it was quite a blow
That in twenty-seven languages she couldn't say no
Poor Jenny, bright as a penny
Her equal would be hard to find
To Jenny I'm beholden, her heart was big and golden
But she would make up her mind

Jenny made her mind up at twenty-two
To get herself a husband was the thing to do
She got herself all dolled up in her satins and furs
And she got herself a husband--but he wasn't hers

Poor Jenny, bright as a penny
Her equal would be hard to find
Deserved a bed of roses, but history discloses
That she would make up her mind

Jenny made her mind up at fifty-one
She would write her memoirs before she was done
The very day her book was published, history relates,
There were wives who shot their husbands in some thirty-three states

Jenny made her mind up at seventy-five
She would live to be the oldest woman alive
But gin and rum and destiny play funny tricks,
And poor Jenny kicked the bucket at seventy-six
Jenny points a moral with which you cannot quarrel,
Makes a lot of common sense--
Jenny and her saga prove that you're gaga
If you don't keep sitting on the fence

Jenny and her story point the way to glory
To all man and womankind
Anyone with vision comes to this decision--
Don't make up your mind

[Dr. Haight]

Is it just me, or does everything remind you of a song lately?

Did you buy a new stereo or something?

[CoHo]

Is it just me, or does everything remind you of a song lately?

Did you buy a new stereo or something?


And baby
Remember
It's my life and I'll do what I want
It's my mind and I'll think like I want
Show me I'm wrong, hurt me sometime
But some day I'll treat you real fine

[Dr. Haight]

:rofl:


Okay, I will take that as a "yes."

[kuranes]

And the banker never wears a Mac
in the pouring rain
very strange

[LongSilence]

It's a matter of 'economic' pride isn't it? To ditch the penny would be to say: ok, its reached the point where inflation has changed things. In the end, its just foolish: the Aussies with their similar dollar round cents down to multiples of 5.

Does anyone think that the US will wait until the UK makes the same move before it starts the process?

[fripping]

i don't understand why we don't just use a cheaper metal or paper currency which is smaller and differently colored than dollar bills

if the issue is not expense but just convenience then phasing out the penny is a waste of time and a silly, proud thing to do considering it will cost billions of dollars over the long run and inconvenience the poor, not poor like a lazy intp poor but POOR like working at denny's to support 4 children poor

[Gruffy Bear]

just make a 2 cent coin to replace the penny

[SensEye]

Canada plans to kill the damned thing.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/30/canada-penny-federal-budget-one-cent-coin/

[skip]

My friend used to work in an arcade back when a penny would do something in an arcade. People would ask her for $10 worth of pennies and her response would be, "You do not want $10 worth of pennies."

I was rather hoping this thread would be about Penny but I couldn't figure out what that would have to do with news, politics or history.

http://seat42f.com/images/stories/tvshows/TheBigBangTheory/Season3/S0320/Sheldon-Penny-Big-Bang-Theory.jpg

[Roger Mexico]

For the record, 5 cents is more than I would pay for any of your thoughts.

[Madrigal]

Canada plans to kill the damned thing.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/30/canada-penny-federal-budget-one-cent-coin/

But then how are they gonna make things that cost $99.99?! :o

[jyng1]

Meanwhile... while the States is debating getting rid of a coin that costs more to make than it's worth (and it's basically worthless).

The rest of the world is moving on... (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57399610/sweden-moving-towards-cashless-economy/)


In most Swedish cities, public buses don't accept cash; tickets are prepaid or purchased with a cell phone text message. A small but growing number of businesses only take cards, and some bank offices — which make money on electronic transactions — have stopped handling cash altogether.

"There are towns where it isn't at all possible anymore to enter a bank and use cash," complains Curt Persson, chairman of Sweden's National Pensioners' Organization.

The decline of cash is noticeable even in houses of worship, like the Carl Gustaf Church in Karlshamn, southern Sweden, where Vicar Johan Tyrberg recently installed a card reader to make it easier for worshippers to make offerings.

You never know, it might be a decade of change... first the penny, then the metric system, maybe even universal health care.

[Cam'ron]

penny can go but fuck the metric system

[jyng1]

Yeah, I have a certain fondness for Imperial measures even though they are a bit of a museum piece.