Penny Should Be Eliminated Essay

The United States’ penny has been around for over 200 years, an iconic piece of the country’s history. Along with its design, the penny’s value has changed throughout these years, making the one-cent piece of less worth to this day. Since the penny’s value has declined so much, people have been inquiring whether or not the penny should still exist. The penny should be eliminated because it costs more in both money and time to make them nowadays than they’re really worth. Elimination of the penny will save money for both the government and American citizens. The penny is a costly item to make--more than its one-cent value. A letter to the editor by David R. Carroll states, “A penny currently costs the United States government 2.4 cents to mint.”

Finding lost pennies, searching through a wallet for the remaining 4 cents in a $2.96 candy bar, and even cashiers who have to count change for customers take time for these coins. It doesn’t seem like much time would be lost just from counting pennies, but an article from the National Review remarks that “each of us on average wastes 2.4 hours per year” from them. Given the average wage per hour, this adds up to losing around $50 per year, just from counting pennies. Washington Middle School has a Penny Drive for Charity annually to help those in need, but having to find all the lost pennies in one’s house is not a great use of their time. Dollar bills are much easier to keep in a safe place and find, so donating bills would be much easier and less of a waste of

However, business owners should be thinking about their consumers. If a business owner wanted more customers, they would round the prices down to the nearest nickel, not up. Money would be saved for consumers from the rounded prices, not lost. Say the prices were rounded against consumers, so that $29.96 would be rounded up to $30.00 after eliminating the penny. The customer would generally lose 2.5 cents with each newly bought item. The article from the National Review did the math, and found that “If someone engages in two such transactions per day, over a year they would lose $18.25 compared with the person given their pennies.” This amount is much less than the average amount lost from time counting pennies, which is $50. In any way, eliminating the penny would result in saving money, not losing it from rounded