Will eliminating the penny be a good or bad thing?

[Stoga]

I just saw this link where there is a proposal to eliminate the penny.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/b...ny_020723.html

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that every time there is a price increase, it will be a minimum of a 5 percent increase instead of 1 percent. Imagine gas going up 5 cents a pop instead of one.
But, I had a fellow told me that it would even out and have no effect. So whaddya all think? Read the article, and vote, post a comment. I'm afraid it will cause a 5 percent increase almost immediately, with inflationary effects after, but we have a lot of folks in transportation, education and other fields here, and I'm just a mechanic. So what do you all think, good or bad?

[ehostler]

Hmmm.... Your poll makes very little sense... Will it be good or bad with the choices of yes or no. That means yes it will be good or bad/no it will be good or bad. I choose not to vote as the poll is even worse than the chads in Florida.

This idea was proposed a few years back. They CLAIM that it will all even out in the wash and most consumers will not notice it. Like I said back then, BS.

People are trying to find ways for the government to save money, by not having to mint pennies. If they want to save money, they should stop making the dollar bill and use only one dollar coins. When they pull a coil out of circulation, it can be melted down and made into a new coin. currency has to be burnt and cannot be reused after being pulled from circulation.

Keep the Penny!

[kudah440]

yep...confusing question
But ehostler, it sure wouldn't be comfortable to have 50 dollars in you pocket in coins...lol

[goober44]

I agree that the poll makes little or no sense as worded !
The dollar coins have been dismal failures ,, so paper "ones" will be here for quite awhile.
There is an inherent problem that you may not be looking at that is very important.
All the currencies pretty much have to be able to be broken down to its lowest common value.
State sales taxes would be effected immediately because they are based on percentages of 100 ,, ie. 8% sales tax = .08 cents on the dollar valued at 100 cents.
With the nickel as the lowest coinage you couldnt make change on a dollar sale. That would mean all sales taxes would have to be either 5% or 10%.
Rolling back sales taxes would ruin state budgets and increasing them would put undo tax stress on the economy and could cause step rises in inflation.
Getting rid of the penny is a dumb idea ,,,,, I wonder what commitee got paid thousands of dollars to study that idea.

[Stoga]

Originally posted by ehostler
Hmmm.... Your poll makes very little sense... Will it be good or bad with the choices of yes or no.
Keep the Penny!

]

Agreed ehostler, kudah440 and goober44 , I screwed the POOCH!!
Ok, unofficially, cause I screwed up.
Will eliminating the penny be good?
Just remove the words, "or bad" from the question, and answer it if I had written correctly!
Hopefully Maxwedge or Abalto can get in there and edit it to read:
"Will eliminating the penny be good?"
I don't have the clearance to edit it after the fact, after folks have posted, sorry about that!
PS: I think it's a bad idea, I don't think eliminating the penny is a good idea.

[Mister Fiberglass]

brooming the penny is a BAD idea.

MAKING a LARGE dollar coin MAKES sense - from some of the input that I have seen.

[goober44]

Originally posted by kudah440
, it sure wouldn't be comfortable to have 50 dollars in you pocket in coins...lol

That was the main reason why the silver dollar was never popular as everyday currency. Too big and heavy ,, then the silver standard was dropped and it disappeared. Vending machines are a big problem with $1 coins in todays world. They are all set for paper dollars.
Keep the Penny and stop sticking billions up the tailpipes of Amtrak.

[ehostler]

Originally posted by kudah440
yep...confusing question
But ehostler, it sure wouldn't be comfortable to have 50 dollars in you pocket in coins...lol

I wouldn't carry around $50 in ones either. When I was in Germany, they didn't have 1 Mark bills, only 1 Mark coins. The 5 Mark bill was very rare, as they also had 5 Mark coins and most people prefered to carry 5 Mark coins, instead of paper money. I found it to be much more convenient to have 1 & 5 Mark coins, than having it as currency.

[Checkmate]

Well, if they did off the penny, my door handles would not get so full. On a serious note, I don't think much of what this government does is a good idea.

[Frank]

I can't think of a reason that would make getting rid of the penny a good idea.

[Meep972]

Very bad idea... What's the point in getting rid of it? If it ain't broke don't fix it.

[plumbcrazy69]

Here's my take on this....

A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned. wouldn't mean squat any more...

Forums like this one would cease to exist because none of us could post Our Two Cents....

If we were in trouble, nobody would help us anymore as they could no longer offer A Penny For Our Thoughts.....

What kind of loafers could preppies wear.....

To Summerize, keep the penny and dump the stew-nod who thought of this!

[plumbcrazy69]

The stew-nod comment was aimed at U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe and not you, Stoga.

[Stoga]

Originally posted by plumbcrazy69
The stew-nod comment was aimed at U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe and not you, Stoga.

That's ok, after the way I screwed up the poll in the first place, it's not like it wouldn't be deserved!

Still kind of curious what a stew-nod is....

[plumbcrazy69]

stew-nod AKA stunod;

an Italian/New York slang term for a dummy. You'll hear it alot in mafia movies and shows like the Sopranos.

[SUN RA KAT]

Keep da penny!

My daughter has bought hundreds of $'s worth of CDs by counting & rolling up the pennies I give her. Many other reasons, too - some already posted here by peeps much wiser than what's in Washington...

[76Duster]

Being Canadian we already did away with Dollar bills in the 80's for a dollar coin. No complaints here. We even tossed our two dollar bill for a coin as well. Its makes for more change in the pocket but it saves millions of dollars. The federal government did a life expectency of one and two dollar paper bills. They don't last in circulation. And as far as the penny goes its been proposed here as well. The main reason being is it cost more then 1 cent to make the things but at this point it would be pretty tough to suddenly take them out of circulation

[John Tozer]

Yes, the same thing happened down here in Australia during the 80s. We lost both our one and two cent coins not too long after the one and two dollar notes were replaced by coins. As the situation stands you still seem to end up with a heavy pocket full of coins even though the lowest denomination is now the five cent coin.
On top of that over the last ten years all Australian notes have been redesigned and become plastic instead of paper!
I still have fond memories however, as a child I would have a roll of one and two dollar notes and I would feel rich as I went down the shops to get some junk food. Now days you just end up with a pocket full of shrapnel.

I'd say on the issue of if the government would be ripping people off by having the round off to five cents in their favour, I would say it does even out in the end. After all our government are usually allready ripping us off through other means such as unfair taxes and all the new bloody taxes their inventing all the time!

Just my five cents worth.

[61fury]

Two things:
Richard Pryor's character in one of the Superman movies made his fortune skimming pennies.
Those change cashing machines in Supermarkets aren't there for just your convience.

[custom880]

Paper money (one, five, and ten dollar notes) was brought into circulation for a few reasons. Partially because of size. Paper money can be folded and is very lightweight.
The one dollar (silver coin) the five dollar gold piece and the ten dollar gold piece were all heavy and the precious metal in them was becoming to precious. Also when the paper dollar appeared it was at the end of WWl when silver and gold were desperated needed in the federal reserve to back up the American currency. There has been paper money in circulation for over a century and a half off and on, in various forms.
Americans do not like large coins (size dimension) or dollar value, of any kind in the last half of this century. The Susan B Anthony coin was a terrible failure, along with the Sakagewea <---spelling coin. Americans just don't want to use them. When was the last time you got a Kennedy half dollar in change? I remember when it was normal to get a .50 piece or even an Eisenhower silver dollar as change. The penny is always used as a scapegoat by the government when they want to change the minting of money. They have been threatening to drop the penny for years. The reasons for keeping the penny that have been explained by previous posters are correct. You cannot use the 100% scale to value appraise currency anymore, unless you go by fives. As long as there is a number one in our numerical system there has to be a penny in our currency. Besides you have to be able to claim that someone is so tight that they can squeeze a penny so hard they make Abe Lincoln cry.