I’m taking back my two cents

Thomas Jefferson said, “a penny saved is a penny earned” but in 2017, a penny melted is actually 1.5 pennies earned.  Yes, you read that right folks: melting a penny produces materials that are worth more than the one cent face value of a penny.

Every year, inflation causes the United States Dollar to be worth less and less.  According to the United Stated Department of Labor, when it first entered circulation, the Lincoln penny was worth about as much as the modern day quarter.  Now, America’s beloved one cent coin has been devalued so much it has become a purposeless drain on government resources and a vestigial symbol of a sentimental society unable to face the reality of progression.

According to an annual report published by the United States Mint, in 2016 the United States lost  46 million dollars in the production of 9 billion pennies — the majority of which are likely to fall out of currency within a year or two.  The penny doesn’t even accomplish its purpose of facilitating commerce. Have you ever tried to pay for anything using pennies? Of course not, unless you have no heart or sympathy for cashiers.

So why is there such an opposition to eliminating the penny? In my near constant public disparaging of the penny, many have voiced a statement to me somewhere along the lines of “but those pennies add up over time.”  However, recent studies have shown that these fears may be unsubstantiated. After evaluating 185,714 transactions, a Wake Forest University report concluded that eliminating the penny would actually save consumers 1/20 of a cent every transaction, and stores would only lose approximately 75.4 cents per day, making the overall effect of eliminating the penny negligible for both consumers and sellers.

The penny needs to become a rallying point for positive change and frugal legislation. Instead of hailing pennies as the epitome of national pride, skeptics can rest easy knowing Abraham Lincoln will still be immortalized in the actually useful five dollar bill.