Take a Penny, Leave all the Pennies? Essay taking the position that the penny should be taken out of circulation in the United States

Essay by mollypatienceCollege, UndergraduateA+, August 2013

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Take a Penny, Leave all the Pennies?

Think of the last time you were in a hurry at the convenience or grocery store. Doesn't it always seem that when you need to get in and get out someone is taking their time at the checkout by counting exact change or digging for pennies, and then you remember the times you've done it yourself to relieve your own pocket full of change. Or perhaps you never carry change around with you at all. You tuck it away in a jar at home as soon as you acquire it and dig it out once a year to pay a machine to convert it to paper currency. Even if none of these scenarios applies directly to you, ask yourself this question. If you see a penny lying on the ground, do you even bother to pick it up? If you do, is it out of superstition or do you consider it a financial gain? The fact of the matter is that the act of picking up a penny off the ground pays less than the federal minimum wage if it takes more than 4.9

seconds (Owen). The value of a penny is lower than it has ever been. As Americans, we have to honestly ask ourselves if it is worth keeping a unit of currency around that has such little value that we routinely refuse it as change or leave it at the cash register for the next customer. It is my contention that it not viable to keep producing it and that a plan should be put in place to stop minting the penny and to ease it out of circulation.

When deciding whether or not it would be best to discontinue the penny, you must consider both sides of the coin.