When Will USA Scrap The Penny Like Canada Did?

Why not reintroduce the dollar coin but put Lincoln on it for good. That will keep some people happy.

The idea of ending the cent is most often bolstered by inflation issues.
Instead of taking a defeatist attitude and slowly removing denominations
one at a time from the bottom, why not fight for a sustainable currency
that is backed by tangible value, and keep the cent? FIAT currency is
the problem, not denominations of coin/currency. Why not jump up and
down demanding the PROBLEM get fixed, instead of insisting on an action
that caters to the problem? Give in on this, and it just gives eternal
(and intentional) inflation credibility. (Google the term "Inflation Tax")

Your supposition that average receipts would total the same tomorrow, after pricing structures
are manipulated to round up more often than round down, as average receipts would total today,
is a major flaw in your "challenge". Fact is that you cannot compare receipts from a profit
neutral point in time to receipts produced in a time with a profit motive in place to encourage
those receipts to read differently. If the argument against the cent is so solid, and if we are
doomed to FIAT currency H-E-Double hockey-sticks, rather than fixing the real problem, then the
argument is just as strong against ALL denominations below one Dollar. Let's use all this energy
that is going into attacking the cent, nickel, dime, half, one Dollar bill, and two Dollar bill,
to call out the real problem... I mean, since , we are here wasting our numismatic time and bandwidth
talking about politics anyway. Let's push to get Statists and Keynsians out of our government,
and preferably put LOTS of them in prison for their crimes against the people! Certainly a more
worthwhile endeavor than several small groups squabbling over the merits of each specific denomination.

ratio411,

I like the way you THINK! Unfortunately, thinking is becoming a lost art.

Heck, it hasn't come to the point yet where when I get exactly 0.01 back in change, that they don't give it to me.

Once it starts happening, er, well, maybe that's a sign.

Yes, especially if you keep all the real copper pennies like I do.

To me this discussion is a lot like the minimum wage discussion. People want a minimum wage increase to say $15/hr. I like to ask them why not make it $50/hr. This allows them to think through the problems of doing so. For instance, most employers couldn't afford to pay their employees $50/hr. If they did pay their employees this much, prices would rise. If prices rise and everyone has more money (since everyone is making $50/hr), this just further devalues the dollar.

You could do the same. Why not eliminate everything below $1? Everything would be rounded to the nearest (or more likely higher whole dollar). That $.79 taco, now $1. Those $2.64 dozen eggs now $3. Of course, some businesses may 'cut you a deal' and round down. But they will not cut into their profits to do so.

To be clear, I do not hate the cent. I most certainly will miss seeing it in change, but it is a sacrifice for the greater good.

When the cent is eliminated from circulation I hope that the mint maintains them like the Kennedy half dollar now. Would be extra nice if the NIFC cents were bronze.