A Penny Saved...

...is worth nothing?


We have all heard the quotes. "A penny saved is a penny earned." "Why, if I had a penny for every time..." But what if all of a sudden a penny was worthless? It might just happen! According to the U.S. Mint, for the first time a penny is costing more to make than what it's worth, meaning it is costing more than a penny or a cent to make a penny. This is due to higher metal prices, and any good businessman or economist might tell you that if production costs are higher for a commodity than its value, it will lead to the termination of that item's production. On CNN's website, a poll asking, "Does it make sense to do away with the penny?" had the following results: 56% (3577 votes) said Yes while 44% (2866 votes) said No. CNN also has an article titled Anti-penny push provokes passions. Did anyone notice the string of Ps in that title? What is the literary term for that? Alliteration! Here is another articel at New York Times. So folks, hunt down those pennies, gather them, and cash them in while you still can!

Well, maybe not. Without a penny, the lowest denomination would be .05. For consumers this means that if gas is at $2.96, the gas station might just put it at $3.00. So if the metal prices keep rising, another solution might be to change the design (to allow lesser metal) or change the combination of metals altogether. I would like to keep the .01 denomination, if for nothing else, then simply for the sake of mathematical purity! And that is why I voted No on CNN's poll.