Penny Synthesis Essay

Improved Essays
Over recent years, the lowest level of currency, the penny, has been questioned for its worth to the American people. Even before we only paid with tap or Apple pay, the penny’s value has seemed to be rather questionable, at just one hundredth of a dollar. After all, if you came across a penny heads up on the sidewalk, chances are, you’d leave it for another person to pick up, perhaps a child who believes the penny to be of any worth. Although keeping the penny in the American economy would be of use to lower-income citizens, ultimately it is in America’s best interest to abolish the penny, due to its overall lack of use and value. For one, due to the penny’s low value, they often fall out of circulation anyway, sometimes literally in between one’s …show more content…
So many pennies disappear simply because “they are literally more trouble than they are worth” (Source C). However, Source D claims that pennies disappear at the same rate as any other coin- our dimes, nickels, and quarters, according to a 2002 study on the Federal Reserve data. Although this data may counteract Source C’s point of the majority of pennies getting lost in circulation, it still does not change the fact that pennies are of very low value to us. Commonly when we see a sort of money for charity drop, we are in search of extra pennies we may have stuffed somewhere in the bottom of our wallets because they don’t hold enough value for us to keep them. In this way, we only view pennies as disposable coins that could be long lost and we wouldn’t even care to notice. Similarly, the penny’s lack of use ultimately makes it a burden when it comes to making purchases. In fact, those who still pay in cash at the store may waste “4 hours per person [clerk] per year,” just from digging in their wallets or purses for some extra pennies to facilitate their purchase (source

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Penny Synthesis Essay

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages

    One reason we should eliminate the penny, according to Source #2, is because the time that retail business clerks count pennies the business is losing seven hundred million dollars by paying the clerks. Another reason is, according to Source #1, is that the United States government (taxpayers) lost 60.2 millions dollars on the production and distribution of pennies…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Is the penny needed in the United States anymore? Some people believe the penny should be preserved because it is an important historical part of the United States. However, other people believe the menny should be eliminated because it is costs more to produce than what it is even worth. The penny should be eliminated in the U.S. currency because pennies are a waste of time, not worth a lot, too much to make, and nobody can buy something with just one penny. The penny should be eliminated because of several reasons including things will cost less and the government will not waste $100 million each year.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Abolish The Penny Summary

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Although the penny costs more to make than what it's worth, we continue to produce it. " U.S. Mint keeps churning out a billion pennies a month. Where do they go? Two-thirds of them immediately drop out of circulation, into piggy banks or …behind chair cushions or at the back of sock drawers... Quarters and dimes circulate; pennies disappear because they are literally more trouble than they are worth."…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The penny creates an inconvenience for everyone as our monetary system focuses on its use even though its value is miniscule. That time spent looking for pennies in line at the grocery store could be spent on other thing instead of wasting everyone else's time. Also, the penny in itself is a waste of time as it is valued less than its material cost and much less than its labor cost. This means that as more pennies are produced the government will continuously lose money. In doing away with the penny, many of this nation’s economic problems might actually be…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Penny Argument Analysis

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Harvard Economist Greg Mankiw one said, "It costs the mint well more than a cent to make a penny. The solution, in my view, is to get rid of the penny. " This means that the penny costs more to make than they are worth. The materials that are used in the penny are expensive and taxpayers lost millions of dollars for the production of the penny. The production of pennies should be eliminated throughout the United States.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many other countries have already dropped the coin. The penny should no longer be produced in the United States because of its high production cost and lack of use in other countries. The penny is no longer cost effective in the United States. The money that it costs to mint one penny is more than what one is worth. In 2011, “taxpayers lost $60.2 million on the production and distribution of pennies”(Source 1).…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Penny Synthesis Essay

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “The National Assembly of Convenience Stores and Walgreens drug store chain estimate that handling pennies add 2 to 2.5 seconds to each transaction… We can calculate that presence of pennies waste 20 seconds per day,” (source B). Granted, this does not sound like too much but that is four hours per person per year, costing employees $60, and the nation $15,000,000,000. If pennies were to be abolished, the US would see an increase in profit and productivity, thus a bump in GDP. But, time is wasted in the government as well as in transactions. David Early reported that, “The original penny legislation was introduced in the Senate by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and in the House be Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL), two of three co-chairs of the ALBC.…

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In other words, over half of the pennies that taxpayers spend millions on aren’t even being used. People might say they want to keep the penny but that doesn't mean they'll use them. What exactly happens to these pennies? Donn states that a recent survey in which people were asked about where they leave their extra pennies “2 percent admit to throwing pennies out.” This means that because of its decline in worth more and more people have refrained from using the penny, Americans are now turning towards new forms of currency which are less time consuming as well as more cost…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Simply saying penny has been around for many years would be a blatant understatement; it has been etched into society as a reminder of perhaps the greatest president the country has ever seen. Abolishing the penny, is a move that would attempt to erase the more than a century long legacy of Abraham Lincoln and all of his accomplishments. Not only would the expulsion cause a brash disregard of history, it would also cause major inconveniences for the American populous. A reform of the monetary system such as the one proposed would cause unnecessary grief and overhaul many standards such as prices and small business financial management. Cynicism, it is a quality that a large part of the American public is guilty of possessing when it comes…

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Penny Debate Analysis

    • 118 Words
    • 1 Pages

    In conclusion, as in 1857 when the half-cent disappeared because there was no longer needed so should the penny today, after all not even producing a penny is worth a penny.…

    • 118 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Its value, convenience, relevance, significance. The famous coin that once changed our economy and set it up for its future has now become irrelevant to our current nation and, as a result, should be abolished. Every day, millions of people travel in and out of stores, making purchases which become prolonged due to a common hassle we all face: fishing through pockets, in search of a nearly insignificant coin, the penny. This may just seem like a nuisance, but…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    First, we should stop using pennies because they are a huge hassle. They weigh you down. Imagine lugging three thousand pennies to a toy store to buy a thirty dollar toy. Then you get in line. The cashier is going to have a rough time counting all the pennies you paid with.…

    • 348 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pennies are almost useless now, with charge cards and checks and other things like that. When the penny was made, a lot of things were under a dollar, making it a very useful coin. Since then, almost everything has bumped up in charge. There is no candy, no slot machine or anything that is under 50 cents now. And if you think about it, you waste a lot of time at stores and shopping malls, digging through your wallet or purse to find the exact change.…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pennies just lay around on the floor and on dressers. They aren’t worth the time and money that go into them.…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Did you know that the average penny costs 2.41 cents to produce and distribute. That’s more than the actual value of the coin. Approximately 30 million pennies are produced each year. For what? To be thrown in a drawer or wasted in a fountain?…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays