Penny Arcade - Comic - DirectionalityVideogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary. Offa, an Anglo-Saxon king, introduced the first English coin known as the penny around 790 A.D.; it was made entirely of silver. Today's British pennies (called 'pence' when referring to a quantity. Oct 29, 2010 'The Penny' is a drama/thriller that follows a series of seemingly insignificant events in a number of people's lives. Hidden amidst their 'bigger' problems, these disconnected pieces of their lives go unnoticed until they begin to fit together in a totally unexpected way.
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The Penny Hoarder is one of the largest personal finance websites in America, receiving millions of visitors each month looking to make and save extra money.
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The Penny List
Canada is dropping the use of its penny today. And some economists believe the United States should be following its neighbor's example.
The U.S. Mint spent 2 cents to produce and ship each of the 5.8 billion pennies sent to banks last year. But in addition to being a money loser for the Treasury, there are arguments that the penny has simply outlived its usefulness.
Greg Mankiw, Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers under President Bush, said American consumers have shown they don't value the penny, even if most polls show opposition to getting rid of the coin.
The Penny Debate
'When people start leaving a monetary unit at the cash register for the next customer, the unit is too small to be useful,' he said.
Penny Arcade - Comic - DirectionalityVideogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary. Offa, an Anglo-Saxon king, introduced the first English coin known as the penny around 790 A.D.; it was made entirely of silver. Today's British pennies (called 'pence' when referring to a quantity. Oct 29, 2010 'The Penny' is a drama/thriller that follows a series of seemingly insignificant events in a number of people's lives. Hidden amidst their 'bigger' problems, these disconnected pieces of their lives go unnoticed until they begin to fit together in a totally unexpected way.
NPR's sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, 'cookies') to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR's sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR's traffic. This information is shared with social media, sponsorship, analytics, and other vendors or service providers. See details.
The Penny Hoarder is one of the largest personal finance websites in America, receiving millions of visitors each month looking to make and save extra money.
You may click on 'Your Choices' below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR's sites. You can adjust your cookie choices in those tools at any time. If you click 'Agree and Continue' below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR's sites.
The Penny List
Canada is dropping the use of its penny today. And some economists believe the United States should be following its neighbor's example.
The U.S. Mint spent 2 cents to produce and ship each of the 5.8 billion pennies sent to banks last year. But in addition to being a money loser for the Treasury, there are arguments that the penny has simply outlived its usefulness.
Greg Mankiw, Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers under President Bush, said American consumers have shown they don't value the penny, even if most polls show opposition to getting rid of the coin.
The Penny Debate
'When people start leaving a monetary unit at the cash register for the next customer, the unit is too small to be useful,' he said.
10 casino dice. Businesses say rounding to the nearest nickel would save time for both their cashiers and their customers. But they're reluctant to push for a change that could spark a backlash. That's exactly what happened last summer when Mexican food chain Chipotle(CMG) started rounding at some of its high volume stores.
'Yes it would speed up transactions, and yes that is good,' said Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores. 'But if it's a convenience that the customer doesn't want, we're not going to question the consumers' decision.'
Advocates for keeping the penny include Americans for Common Cents, a trade group supported by Jarden(JAH), which has a subsidiary which makes the zinc and copper blanks turned into pennies by the Mint. The group commissioned a poll last year showing that two-thirds of Americans want to keep the penny. It often cites a study by Penn State economics professor Raymond Lombra that estimates that consumers would end up paying a 'rounding tax' of $2 billion to $4 billion over the course of two years if the penny is eliminated.
Fast fortune slots. But Robert Whaples, an economics professor at Wake Forest, has done his own study looking at thousands of convenience store purchases. That study shows consumers as a group would break even if stores rounded to the nearest nickel. He said so many pennies fall out of circulation each year because consumers don't see them as valuable, raising both the costs to the Mint as well as the economy as a whole.
The Pennyrilers Band
'The main argument against the penny is that it wastes our time,' he said. 'We're clearly losing money on the penny.'
Besides Canada's example, other countries have dropped their lowest denomination coins without problem.
But Whaples conceded that killing the penny is unlikely since the public isn't eager to give up the coin.
The Penny List
'The vast majority want to keep a penny, regardless of all the good arguments against it,' he said. 'It's a sentimental attachment.'