Compelling Reasons to Hang on to the Penny

The penny lovers have a friend down in sunny Florida.  An article from April 2012 in the Sunshine State News pleads for the US to not follow in the footsteps of Canada.  And though she mentions that there have been several attempts in the last 10 years to get rid of it, the debate has been going much longer than that.  In the late 70's and early 80's we were having the same problems as we are now, with the penny costing too much to make.  That's why in 1982 they stopped making a mostly-copper penny and switched to a mostly-zinc penny, drastically reducing the material cost for the one cent coin.  The debate started decades before that, but this was the point that it began to gain momentum.  As we move forward though, if they do change the material content of the penny, what will they use instead?  Steel? Canada's penny was made of steel and it cost too much for them.  Aluminum? I put aluminum in my recycle bin, I don't spend it.  Plastic? I can already get plastic money at the toy store.  Seriously, the material options for the penny are dwindling rapidly, but the loss on minting the penny needs to stop, I believe.

She does bring up the UK's decimalization 40+ years ago.  Now I realize there was some inflationary situations back then, but it wasn't due to the decimalization.  It was because the Pound lost its status as the world's reserve currency and was replaced by the all powerful US Dollar. After 20 plus years of adjusting to the new economic status, their inflation has been under control. If the US were to remove the penny, there would be no change, conversion or adjustment needed at all.  Retailers wouldn't change just because there is no more penny. Retailers adjust prices for one reason: to stay in business.  Overall, I think the article produced the desired effect.

As a bonus, have a laugh here.