Lj Idol Week 4: Citizens to Retire the Penny

[zaichikarky]

I came back from a family trip to Vietnam and Cambodia just a couple weeks ago. The very last thing I did on my trip was scamper around a crowded market in Siem Reap, looking for Cambodian coins. See, Vietnam and Cambodia are two of many countries throughout the world to completely phase out all coins. It's generally the poorer countries who see eliminating coin currency as a necessary means to achieve some sort of economic stability.

"If I knew you were a coin collector, I would have just given you some of my old coins laying around!" My tour guide exclaimed. "It's somewhat difficult to find coins these days, and you will have to bargain with them. They will be angry if I do the talking."

The first market shop we ran into, the sellers wanted 18 dollars for a packet of souvenir coins. Mind you, all the coins together would have probably been worth about two dollars at most. I asked for 5 dollars and they were insulted saying "No more coins! This rare."

We left that shop and managed to find another merchant who sold the same large set of coins. I begged and pleaded and even used some Khemer phrases to ask him to cut off a portion of the set and just sell that to me for 5 dollars. He finally agreed and I was very happy my coin collection could grow.

In the US, there is a movement to eliminate my favorite coin, the penny. No matter the anti-penny government "propaganda" I read, I will never support it. Somehow, citizen opinion still hovers at around 50/50 both ways. It currently costs 1.7 cents to produce one penny (a statistic that keeps going down over the years). Likewise, it costs 8 cents to produce a nickel. This is the main reason the government wishes to phase out pennies. Our government likes to find any reasonable method of cutting down government spending, and this is why the penny frequently tries to make it onto the chopping block. Citizens to Retire the U.S. Penny would like to remind us that quite a few countries, including our friends to the north, have retired their lowest denomination.

It's obvious what my opinion on the matter is. I'm not a rare coin collector, I just like to collect coins from all over the world, and different U.S. coins too. I still am very angry that my dad not only tossed out my collection of greeting cards I've had since before I was a teenager, but also my 50 states coin collection which I completed a few years back during a move. I never bothered to recollect them. The penny is the most unique and prettiest coin. We only have four coins being minted on a regular basis (I don't really count dollar coins, which the government also has a problem with). The government tells us that we should get rid of our prettiest coin, the one with one of America's greatest leaders on the front. The shiny reddish one with a copper finish. I support about 90 percent or more of President Obama's policies, but this one I'm going to have to oppose because I'm a stubborn little coin collector who loves pennies. Practically, pennies have one use, and that is evening out change in cash transactions. If they were eliminated, shops would have to resort to nickels doing that job. It would be easier, yes, but no matter what the government says, it will MINORLY impact consumers because we all know that shops will just end up rounding up.

It took many, MANY years for the government to add some color to our paper currency, but they did. Some citizens complained a little, but they dealt with the change. I wish our government would try to find cost-cutting measures (like not fighting in foreign conflicts) that don't involve trying to eliminate coin currency. I fear that some day we will be the same as Vietnam and Cambodia and there will be no more coins minted at all. In the mean time, I will go line up as many pennies as I can and admire their prettiness and tenacity. Some are shiny and bright, some are dull and older, I have one or two that have the old backside to them that says "ONE CENT". They've remained a part of our history for hundreds of years. It would be a shame to let them fade from our mints and from our wallets too.

Comments

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

Exactly! They are a part of US history! I bet the expense issue, it its tradition and history! AW

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

The angle the government likes to throw at us is that it's not only a waste of their money, but it's a waste of our time because we spend extra time using pennies in cash transactions.

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

That's right - I agree with you so much there.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

thanks for reading!

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

I almost wrote on the penny this week too and my conclusion was the same: I will miss them when they go! I was going to compare it to Spain losing the one peseta piece a before I travelled there, too. I enjoyed reading this!

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Yeah I think they'll go eventually, but maybe not for quite a while. For some reason our government makes decisions regarding improving cash currency at a snail's pace.

[blue-eye.livejournal.com]

I love the pennies with the wheat backs.

I had one from 1916 and I lost it. I'm so pissed. I still hoard wheat pennies.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Oh that's quite an old one, I think my oldest is from the late 20s!

[kehlen.livejournal.com]

Don't have the same history with coins (naturally), so I will say this (half-jokingly): there is always a chance inflation will grow the sums so much that that a denomination will be necessary. That's what has happened here. The tsar's kopeiki were replaced with Soviet kopeiki were replaced with Russian kopeiki were then nuked when they started costing too little (but because they had been in used less than 20 years then, I think most people were only relieved).

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Ugh lol that's the first time I've ever heard of something like that XD. Russia is an... amusing place : ).

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

Nice that you found a personal take on a topic many would have considered dry.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

thanks! Glad it seemed to work well for me this week.

[aresrising05.livejournal.com]

There are several issues with US currency, the penny being one of them. You don't need to make a profit on minting coinage for it to have value. The value comes from the currency turnover in the economy. However due to the low value of the penny it doesn't provide much value to the economy, and many pennies are lost before they do any good.

However aesthetics is a legitimate reason to keep the currency. The question becomes what could the money spent printing pennies, be spent on instead? Is nostalgia worth teachers/medicaid?

Like all things you can have it, but you have to give up something else instead.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

yeah, which is why I did mention we should give up starting/funding wars. It's not like most people think that we should make further cuts to education and medicaid just to save the penny. There are plenty of things I think SHOULD be cut, but won't be, at least not enough to make much of a dent.

[rayaso.livejournal.com]

I agree completely! Keep the penny!

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Well, I think it'll stay around at least in circulation for another few years!

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

I guess the better question might not be how much it costs to make a penny, but how long it lasts instead? Some from decades ago are still in circulation, because they can be. So, it's not like we have to generate a gazillion more.

I don't want to get rid of them, and if we did, what would happen to sales tax? Round it up to 10% (hey, rounding down to 5% is unlikely)? No thank you!

It's sad to think of Vietnam and Cambodia no longer having coins, somehow. While we still have physical currency, we should have coins!

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if anything will happen to sales tax. That's decided by the state and I think the only thing it will force shops to do is to make cash transactions rounded up or down. Somehow every cash transaction will have to be divisible by 5, it's not really too hard to do in practice.

[dmousey.livejournal.com]

Pennies are also good for Penny Bingo! Coins aren't the only thing falling by the wayside, soon we'll all be using debit cards of some sort instead of cash! All paychecks and other monies automatically upload...hmm could be a story here! (wink)

Thanks for writing team buddy! Peace!~~~D

[favoritebean.livejournal.com]

I was shocked to find out that we used to have half pennies. The sentimental part of me hopes there is some way to keep the penny.

I hope you'll post pics of some of the coins you have collected over the years.

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

Right now they're sitting waiting for me in Florida. I won't be back in Florida until at least April, so not for this Idol season D:. I have been meaning to find a way to organize them better though.

[prog-schlock.livejournal.com]

Our money has changed a lot in the US over the centuries. I think its inevitable that it will change again - for example, reading muchtooarrogant's entry made me realize how awful our paper money is for the vision impaired. Unless there can be some way to revalue the penny, at some point its going to inevitably be phased out, which I agree is a shame.

Thinking about how our currency has changed made me think of the gold standard, which in turn led to this song, which isn't "Let's Dance."

[majesticzaichik.livejournal.com]

hah gold standard, don't get me started on that! Maybe for another Idol post. Neat song, though!

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Hang on to your pennies for as long as you can--they are pretty and they are important.

Good read.

[watching-ships.livejournal.com]

I love coins. They remind me of my uncle who would bring them back from different ports when he was in the navy. My mom has a big box of them and when I was little I loved going through that thing.

Thanks for sparking that memory :) Nice work.