Get Rid Of The Penny?

Well.... they can always make it out of cheaper metals.

Anyways, they can keep the penny, but the people could choose not to use it. This is the same in Mexico, where they are still minting the 5c and 10c coins, even though everyone uses the 20c as the main coin.

Also as a note, the Swiss didn't use the 1r coin for I think 30 years before the mint stopped production in 2002. Up to then, the 1r coins were not used in commerce, but in bank transactions and at the post office.

Get rid of the Penny?

Why do I care?
I don't live in England.

With all the other problems on the table for USA, I think the penny will continue for awhile. Unless someone determines the cent is contributing to Global warming, then it's doomed.

Terrell

Mint it only for collectors, and for mint sets, as a sort of legacy. Stop minting it for circulation.

If the metal it's made from is worth more than the coin, then it's time to rethink why you even have it anymore.

I believe I read somewhere that the biggest problem with the penny or cent or most low denomination coins is that people simply do not circulate them.
Think about it , any given house in any given country has the obligatory penny jar.
Millions of pennys all doing nothing.So they need to keep minting more and of course the price goes up over time , nothing remains the same.
Empty half the piggy banks and penny jars and use them is the only way to save them...ironic eh ?

this is true but they would still mint and we would still pay

As a coin collector, I'd like to keep minting the cent. However, as a taxpayer, I say stop unless a method of production that doesn't lose money can be developed (which seems pretty unlikely).

Argument against the "CON". You round your prices up and I'll round mine down My prices will be lower and I'll pick up more business and I will make more money than you do. The "I'll make a little less but make it up in volume" argument.

As for the idea about reducing the mintages so as to encourage the cents to come back out of the penny jars. It won't work. It would create a shortage of cents for change. There have been cent shortages before and it didn't get the coins to come back out. Even when banks offered a premium over face to try and get the coins it was pretty much a failure. So what happens? One of three things. You wind up either having to take pieces of candy as change, or the business goes ahead and rounds all their prices just as they would if there were no cents available, or they charge what the register says and if you have the cents you pay exact change but if you don't you get short changed. The first and third options aren't much different from your "Everyone just rounds UP" scenario but with an extra layer of headaches added. The second is the same result as if you just stop coinage. So scaling back mintages has no advantage, and merely causes a lot of annoyance.