NPR searches to buy something for a penny

Listen to Robert Smith and Jacob Goldstein try to buy something for a penny in Manhattan.

Another Penny Rant

Here, Paul Whitefield from the L.A. Times gives us his two cents on why the US should get rid of the penny.  Sounds good to me.

Online Coin Games

The US Mint website has some online games under their "kids" section.  Some are cheesy, some are lame, some are cute, and some are fun.  All have some connection to current or past US coins.  There are quite a few games there, so there is sure to be something that appeals to everyone.

Another New Article

Last month this article was published on pbs.org.  It talks about how the removal of the Canadian penny is proceeding.  According to the article the Canadian government has only collected about 4 billion of an estimated 35 billion in circulation when the coin was discontinued.  What has happened to the other 31 billion?  Well, let me tell you.  I imagine that they might get back maybe another billion or two over the next few years.  That leaves 29 billion.  I can't imagine more than a billion being kept by collectors, but even if 5 billion are being hoarded, that means that 24 billion pennies are in landfills across Canada.  I doubt the percentages are any different here in the US.  I'll bet that at least 2/3 of the new pennies minted in the US, fall out of circulation immediately.  That means that of the 7.07 billion pennies minted in 2013, we threw away 4.7 billion of them. That's $47 million down the drain.  That means that the average american threw away 15 pennies last year.  For the life of me, I can't figure out why the pro-penny people think that getting rid of the penny will have a negative effect--in any way--to the economy.  I see a $50-70 million BOOST to the economy! Not to mention the $140 million savings to the US government.

Recent Article

Another recent article has come to my attention by Huffington Post. The poll at the end shows 67% strongly favoring getting rid of the penny, and another 14% somewhat favoring getting rid of it.  Of course this article probably did not draw an accurate cross-section of people who represent the popular opinion on the subject, but it would be so nice if it was.  That would mean that most people really do hate the penny as much as I do.