Should The US Keep The Penny?

I wondered if anyone was going to mention the unbiased poll question, construction.

º YES!

º no



From a collecting point of view: If there are no more useless Zincolns then everyone could invest in making their existing collections even better, by updating and upgrading? There would be a forever limited supply, nothing new made, values would go up?

From the number I find laying on the ground outside stores, people don't even care enough to bend over and pick up a cent, when they drop one.

All those pennies do nothing but wear holes in my pockets. Oh wait, that's the argument against dollar coins, isn't it?

RCM made the most beautiful pennies or cents. I dumped a whole bunch last year, sad, but I like having them in U.S. circulation for everyone. We will go the same way when we stop using the penny to disguise inflation, people just throw to much change away is the problem, google that number up.

Take a penny leave a penny. Now, I noticed some people just keep a running count in their head how many pennies their till is up or down. But, with retail being slower now, and more automated, it just rolls the pennies out, hey it's the penny, you have to count that thing out, it's keeping people employed somehow, we need stuff to do.

I voted no, but say keep it in mint sets like the half dollar. They could let it go for retail transactions but technology has the penny coded into it forever as in the banking process or whatever.

So, the penny is here to stay that way.

Obviously the only solution is to make a copper coin exactly the price of the copper...just like they used too

so if it needs to be 5 cents make it 5 cents...the denomination and material are all changeable...keep the same size and Lincoln and boom whatever 3 grams of copper is worth...that wont fluctuate horribly at that weight, but it's kind of fundamental to how money should be thought of

I'd love to have a new coin based on weight and it sure isn't going to be gold or silver any time soon

Collectors will be satisfied and traditionalists will have something tangential...the mint can print a new denomination

Sounds logical to me

Coins in general take a one-way trip home to my change bowls. I literally am unable to remember the last time I consciously and purposely left home with any coins in my pocket. Since tolls are electronic and since I've owned my own washer & dryer for decades, I never use coinage. My bills are paid online and 99% of my purchases are electronic. You could eliminate all coins as far as I'm concerned. I'm also old school as far as seeing a lost penny on the ground and picking it up. My allowance as a kid was 10 cents a week and my brothers and I collected soda bottles to support our candy addiction, so I've never passed up a stray penny. Oh, and by the way, I voted Yes.

Thanks @jbuck

Would be interesting to hear from the private retail/entertainment sector on this--free of any numismatic bias (if that's possible). Pull together a cross section of owners/managers for a half day and have them discuss the matter--offer a free lunch catered for the group before they leave for the day. A couple convenience stores, a nursery, a couple arcades, a mid-scale amusement park, ice cream shop, etc., etc. Would be great fun to learn what the vending machine-based industry and makers of vending machines have to say as well.

No keeping the coin is pure financial folly , drop the nickel while you are at it .