Argumentative Essay: The Elimination Of The Penny

Imagine a world without the penny. No more happy children who think good luck will come their way when they find a penny heads up on the ground. No pennies around to make that old tin cup clink and brighten the day of some desperate homeless man. Charities, instead of thriving, would suffer due to penniless penny drives. Jobs would be lost due to the lower demand for zinc that could be mined and produced into American money. Most importantly, a significant part of history would be thrown away and lost. Elimination of the penny would be hard to deal with and could cause problems left and right with society. America needs to keep the penny because it has a great deal of social and cultural value, it holds a significant amount of history,
currency. The U.S authorized the penny the first currency so this means the penny has worth in regards to U.S. history (Kahn). Benjamin Franklin took a huge rule in making and developing the design of the penny in 1787 which gives it even more historical value (Guidone). But most importantly, Abe Lincoln is represented on the face of the penny. Even the president Barrack Obama himself wanted to eliminate the penny but the fact that Abraham Lincoln is represented on it ruled that decision out of mind (“A Penny”). People argue to keep the penny simply because of who is shown on the face; the most beloved leader and the countries 16th president (O’Neill). Michael Bishop states, “The penny is perhaps the most visible and tangible reminder of Lincoln’s significant in American history” (“President”). It can be agreed that the penny is a very strong tangible and valuable visual reminder and representation that all Americans need to remember. It visually shows designs that represent stages in Abe’s life time. The new design of the penny, created by President Bush, shows four different important stages of Lincoln’s life. The stages include birth and childhood, years in Indiana, professional life in Illinois, and Presidency in Washington (“President”). The new design of the penny emphasizes the fact that Americans need to remember Lincoln as a president as well as everything he went through in his lifetime. In 1909, Abe Lincoln was first placed on the face of the penny coin in honor of that year marking his one-hundredth birthday (Guidone). These tiny little pennies in America hold such an important historic remembrance for America that needs to be kept within our