Do you think the US should do away with pennies?

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Do you think that the United States should stop minting pennies?

It costs more to produce a penny that what a penny is worth.

You mean they haven't yet? Canada got rid of the penny years ago.

Yes, they should just get rid of their pennies. You can't buy anything for a penny anymore. You can't even buy anything for a nickel. Or a dime. Unless you save enough of them, but it takes ages.

I feel like sooner or later we are going to become a cashless society anyways...

Just a way to keep the homeless and the poor poorer.

I'm against the US doing away with pennies because it would increase inflation. Companies would have an excuse to raise their prices to the nearest nickel ammount.

I like pennies as objects, though I think they were nicer back when they were all copper. But in a practical sense they are nothing but a headache. When I get pennies as change I turn them down if I can. I just don't want to have to deal with them. Same with nickels.

Honestly, I think we could easily get rid of cash altogether - not just pennies

I hate cash transactions when you get a pile of coins and bills that have seen better days.

Cash has a number of positive aspects, so I wouldn't want to do away with cash. Every time we use a credit card, the merchant has to pay a small percentage to the bank, so using credit cards enriches the banks, which is not good because they already have too much influence on society. By using cash, the money keeps moving through the community instead of enriching banks. Also, cash transactions aren't easily traced, so you get to keep more of your privacy. And if you don't pay off your credit cards every month, you are paying interest, which both impoverishes you and enriches the bank. In addition, not everyone is able to get a credit card for a number of reasons, and it's important for everyone to be able to buy things and pay for things.

I like the meanings behind pennies in hoodoo culture. My great grandmother believed she could cure warts by "buying them" with pennies. Also the really old Indian Head pennies can be placed on four railroad spikes nailed around four corners of your property with the pennies placed face up on each spike, to serve as lookouts and protect your home from burgalers and law enforcement.

1. That assumes prices are the same everywhere. They're not. Prices vary by store as well as by Province/State as there are different sales taxes in each region.

2. It's not a problem At All. If you're paying cash, prices are simply rounded up or down to the nearest nickel depending on wha the final amount is. It all evens out in the end. If you're paying by card then it's still to the penny.

3. I can't think of any instances where companies changed their prices to align with a slightly higher to the nickel amount. Not one. It didn't happen and is highly unlikely to happen anywhere else.

^^^ I'd immagine that when rounding occures the store or buisness would round whichever way is more profitable for them. I'd much rather do away with cryptocurrency than cash since cryptocurrency is not an official currency, it's unregulated, & it's value keeps changing back & forth.

A penny for your thoughts? well...not anymore...

What? It seems dumb to get rid of the pennies now that we're spared of getting Canadian pennies in our change.

Getting rid of pennies is dumb as things like sales tax and percentage discounts lead to the total requiring pennies. That and enough people use plastic that you'd effectively have two pricing policies if we got rid of them.

Or you just do Swedish rounding.

It surprises me that the US hasn't done away with pennies.

Absolutely, the penny is pointless.

If you're paying with cash, the price can just be rounded up or rounded down to the nearest 5 cent increment and there'd be no difference paying via non-cash methods.

Other countries have managed to get rid of the penny (or an otherwise low-value denomination of coin) just fine, I don't see how it'd be hard for the US to do it.