Pennies are useless and wasteful.
"Why does the United States still use pennies?"
https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-United-States-still-use-pennies
"16 Answers"
Jay WackerQuora Ontology Architect
Originally Answered: Why do pennies still exist in the US?
"Legacy is the dominant reason that pennies still exist. Removing the smallest denomination of currency for circulation has precedent in the US. The US Mint stopped minting the half penny coin in 1857.
The cost to retailers of decommissioning the penny would be minor and eventually a net positive. There is an initial cost in converting cash registers (programming them to round to the nearest nickel). Most cash registers/point of sale devices are fairly sophisticated these days (having to deal with changing sales taxes) so this will not require a hardware change. Eventually, removing the penny from circulation would reduce labor costs by increasing throughput at cash registers. Since labor is the dominant cost (after merchandise) for most retailers, decommissioning would be positive."
The COST of a penny . . .
"It's worth mentioning that while it costs around 1.8c to mint each penny in the US, it actually costs around 9.4c to mint each nickel too. So from a purely cost basis, you should really do away with both, as the only advantage nickels have over pennies is that you can use them in vending machines."
The zinc lobby wants America to use pennies.
"To the vast majority of Americans, pennies are hardly worth thinking about. There's no concrete reason to keep them around considering they cost more to make than what they're worth, but they don't have a noticeably negative impact on anyone's lives. So very few people are motivated to petition their Representatives to make changes."
". . . the zinc industry makes millions every year providing the zinc used in making pennies. Pennies are 97.5% zinc with some copper plating."
"Legacy and tradition; also the public's stubbornness. People accept pennies as a fact of life because it's easy to overlook the personal costs associated with handling them."
Bottom line: keeping and using pennies is stupid.
"Should We Get Rid of the Penny? – 8 Reasons to Keep It vs Eliminate It"
By Amy Livingston
Posted in: Economic Policy
https://www.moneycrashers.com/get-rid-penny-reasons/
We keep them because it keeps prices low? Dumb!
We keep them because charities rely on them? Dumber!
We keep them to honor Lincoln! More like DIS-honor Lincoln. It's embarrassing to say a PENNY honors Lincoln compared to other currencies honoring past presidents.
We have a huge statue honoring Lincoln in Wash DC! Finally, Americans like them? No we don't!
