Is it time for the US to stop minting pennies?

2015-08-09T21:18:43-04:00

Does the penny coin find use anymore? Or can things be rounded up and the penny get the axe? Other than change, do you use pennies much? Or should the US continue to mint them? Do we need to dump the penny?

Response by CH (MAJ) William Beaver made Aug 9 at 2015 9:20 PM

2015-08-09T21:20:44-04:00

Do we still need pennies?

Response by SFC Everett Oliver made Aug 9 at 2015 9:23 PM

2015-08-09T21:23:25-04:00

This comes up every so often, currently it costs 1.7 cent to make a penny....Yes we could easily do away with them.....In the late 70's they stopped shipping pennies to Europe and the PX and Commisary rounded everything off...Worked fine then..

Response by PO1 William "Chip" Nagel made Aug 9 at 2015 9:30 PM

2015-08-09T21:30:51-04:00

Yep, Been discussed many a time and I think they are well past due to be Replaced. I know that they are just Copper Cladded now but still a waste of perfectly good Copper in my book. Also if they stop minting the Buggers the value of the few that I keep will go up.

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Aug 9 at 2015 9:34 PM

2015-08-09T21:34:41-04:00

Yes. But not only pennies.

It is my personal opinion that we need to do the following.

Convert $1 bills to coins. (they already exist). Get rid of the $2, $10, $50 bill. They are the least used, and honestly superfluous bill in the inventory. They aren't necessary. Why print them? Anything you need to make change for can be done with others.

With coins, just stop minting the pennies, but do not discontinue usage until 2025 (10 years). After 2025 begin rounding "cash transactions" to the nearest 5c, however a 5c "tax" will be assessed on these transactions to ensure that they are not "scamming" the system. Wait 10 years, and do the same thing with nickels.