LET’S BAN THE PENNY!

I want to start a movement to ban the United States penny.  When I was a kid, oh so many years ago, you could actually go to the five and dime store in downtown Spring Valley, Mn. and buy items for a penny.  I can't think of a thing you can buy for a penny today.  What a waste.  Bazooka bubble gum used to be one of my favorites and there was always a little comic strip in with the gum.  If you remember that you are probably ancient in the eyes of a 35 year old.  The latest statistics from the U.S. Mint I could find are from 2011.  These numbers alone should be the sufficient evidence we need to get the insanity of producing pennies out of our nation's system.  In 2011 it cost 2.41 cents to make a penny.  That's the U.S. Mint number, not mine.  And we wonder why our nation is in debt?  The insanity doesn't stop there.  We should probably lobby to end production of the nickel too, because it cost 11.18 cents to produce a nickel in 2011.  Because I know you are as curious as I was I will give you the rest of the U.S. Mint production costs for currency in 2011.  A dime cost 5.65 cents, a quarter 11.14 cents and the dollar coin 18.03 cents.  The penny, or one cent coin has been in existence in this country since 1793.  There was a half cent from 1793 to 1857 and our ancestors were smart enough to get rid of it.  A two cent piece was minted from 1864-1873.  There were three cent coins from 1851 to 1889 and again wisdom won out.  So why do we insist today to still have the penny?  I ALWAYS leave my penny in any penny dish near a cash register (if there is one).  My Dad was with me once when I did this and said to me when we got back into the car to continue on our travels if I did that all the time.  I said "yes" and he replied "do you realize how much money you are just giving away every year?"  My answer simply was "yes, probably three or four dollars."        What will it take to get rid of the penny?  The nickel could be trashed too as far as I'm concerned if we are losing money making it.  It's been around since 1866.  The dime since 1796, quarter since 1796, half dollar since 1794 and dollar coin since 1794.  If we have a dollar coin doesn't it seem ridiculous to have the dollar bill?  The coin costs more to produce but lasts a lot longer.  A paper dollar on average lasts 22 months and according to the government a coin on average lasts 30 years. (how they figured this out I do not know)  Just in case you are interested I copied this table on other currency costs according to the Federal Reserve.

Note                                                      Cost Of Production

• $1 and $2                                                  5.4 cents per note
• $5                                                              9.8 cents per note
• $10                                                            9.0 cents per note
• $20 and $50 notes                                    9.8 cents per note
• $100                                                        12.7 cents per note

The Federal Reserve says they've tried numerous times to get Americans to use dollar coins, but it just doesn't catch on.  ELIMINATE the paper option and then believe me it would take! Economically  it makes so much sense.  Getting back to the penny, I heard the arguement Lincoln's on the penny and that's a reason we don't get rid of it.  Really?  We keep something that costs twice as much to make because of an image?  I suppose we can't eliminate the nickel for fear of losing the image of Thomas Jefferson.  It's just so ridiculous.  Don't you agree ?  I'd love to hear your thoughts and see if we can get some momentum going to BAN THE PENNY !