Do you think the penny should be kept in circulation as U.S. currency?

Some people argue that the penny has become obsolete and should be taken out of circulation. Do you agree? According to CNN, lobbyists opposed to the penny argue that rounding purchases to the nearest nickel makes a better alternative (you'd pay a dollar for 99-cent paper towels, and so on.)

What do you think?

Keep the pennies. I think that rounding up shit is for the birds. Why pay more when you don't have to?

NYStyle makes a point. Over time the rounding out of prices would add up.

But there's another issue here. I can also see more nickles in our pockets, and those are considerably heavier than pennies.

Keep the pennies. I, myself, do not waste them like most people do.

I don't care for pennies, but I wouldn't faze them out.

It's one thing to round it up to $1 an item instead of 99 cents, HOWEVER, that would also mean sales tax would have to either go down to 5 cents on a dollar, which they wouldn't, or go UP to 10 cents on the dollar, so we'd be paying more anyway.

Supernova wrote:It's one thing to round it up to $1 an item instead of 99 cents, HOWEVER, that would also mean sales tax would have to either go down to 5 cents on a dollar, which they wouldn't, or go UP to 10 cents on the dollar, so we'd be paying more anyway.

Smart girl.

Given the many pennies being held onto by people who haven't gotten around to cashing them in, taking them out of circulation might do more harm than good. At the very least there would be a rush on banks and machines such as Coin Star to cash them in before they were taken out of circulation. If the government decides to do this, they should give plenty of warning (at least a year) to avoid problems.

Totally, they're a pain to roll up but within a year's time they do add up.

Pennies are fun when you get an asshole clerk at Starbucks and you want to make their day even more special by paying for your $4.25 latte all in coins. . . .

Hyacinth Girl wrote:Pennies are fun when you get an asshole clerk at Starbucks and you want to make their day even more special by paying for your $4.25 latte all in coins. . . .

Sounds like something Larry the Cable Guy said about having fun with the people who work at Denny's, something about order two of something and it'll be like $6.25, and you give them a $10 bill and a penny, and watch the fun begin.

Yes