The United States Government began minting the penny in 1787. This original penny
The United States Government began minting the penny in 1787. This original penny
In 1751 a similar measure had been passed that was limited to only the New England colonies, but the 1764 measure was to include all of North America. The British enacted the law because colonial currency had been highly inflationary, and as a result, a note issued by a colony was not equal to a note of the same denomination in Great Britain. Colonists used their own notes to pay off debts to British merchants, thereby cheating their creditors of their full due. The simplest way to avoid this problem was to prevent the colonies from printing money. From the colonists' point of view, the law was unjust. Because colonial debt increased rapidly in the years around mid-century, there was a constant drain of hard specie--that is, colonial Americans sent whatever gold and silver coin they had to Great Britain to pay their debts. It was therefore difficult to make transactions of any kind since there was so little hard currency available. Notes printed by colonies, even inflationary notes, thus had an important use in the colonial economy. Edmund and Helen M. Morgan The Stamp Act Crisis “To further complicate the situation, the currency restriction was passed at about the same time as new parliamentary taxation--the Sugar Act (1764) and the Stamp Act (1765)--which increased the demand for more hard currency.” While the Currency…
First off, the reason I think the penny should be ban is because of its cost. As of today the penny costs 1.7 cents to make.…
Pennies may have been practical several years ago; however, now they are inconvenient and obsolete. As an American citizen who pays with U.S. currency almost every day and almost every day, inconvenienced by the use of pennies. Pennies make even less sense provided the fact that the United States Government has made such a large amount of pennies that the materials used to make pennies are worth more than a penny itself. Other countries have already done this and it is working out well for them, therefore, there is not a reason that the same could happen to America. There would be no financial repercussion for the consumers or the business. The penny has become unnecessary and the government should no longer perceive them as currency.…
OLD COINS BRASS TANKA OF DELHI SULTAN MUHAMMAD III Muhammad III bin Tughluq ruled much of India from 1325 to 1351AD. He was a scholar, calligrapher and an innovative monarch. Unfortunately he did not always consider the consequences of his innovations. Vast amounts of his treasury was spent trying to expand and consolidate his realm. This only encouraged numerous revolts throughout his realm.…
The time is here for America to get rid of the penny because they’re worthless.…
The penny has served as a trademark for America since 1793 and it has helped us succeed in many ways throughout American history. The U.S. continues to draw strength from its history and honored traditions. Therefore, preserving these traditions is vital to the continued greatness of our country. The U.S. should not abolish the penny because it is valuable to the economy, significant to society, and an important tradition to continue.…
Today, it costs the U.S about 1.7 cents to make a penny. The amount of pennies minted each year varies, but it usually ranges between 3 billion and 7 billion per year. So in turn, instead of actually earning money from making these coins, the U.S can lose huge amounts of money. According to the The Washington Post In 2007, the U.S. Mint lost $31 million in making 6.6 billion new pennies. The current funding for pennies is only about 14.79 million dollars. Think about it: If there is an extra 16 million dollars being spent, where does that money come from? Out of tax payers’ pockets of course. Our hard earned money is being used to make even more money, except in a useless form. Retailers, too, incur penny-related costs of their own. More than 10 years ago, in a 1999 article, Time Magazine estimated that Walgreens lost $1.3 million each year merely counting pennies. When we are already nearly 14 trillion dollars in debt, why should we waste so much money on a coin that’s thrown into fountains at the mall?…
Image having to decide how many chickens to trade for one cow, this would be very difficult. This is one of the challenging tasks people living thousands of years ago had to endure. This was done in order to maintain trading and economic transactions. Since the earliest of times currency has grown to be widespread and highly demanded. The use currency has made significant effects on the United States economy, allowing the transition from barter to banknotes. Since the influence of currency has carried on throughout United States history, traits of these influences still remain inscribed on currency The United States still uses today. In addition to high demand for currency there has been an equally high demand for the material gold.…
Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich has been published in 2001 for the first time. This book explains and describes the condition of the working poor in United States in the 21st century. To write this book the author who is a well-known journalist at the New York Times decides to experience being a low-wage worker for a few months. She gives up her middle class life to become and live as a working poor. The author establishes a few rules at the beginning of her challenge such as not to go hungry or always having a car. But, except for those few exceptions she decides to go through the same life as her new coworkers. She starts her experience in Florida then she goes to Maine and finally to Minnesota. Therefore, Nickel and Dimed describes the experiment and the troubles Ehrenreich had to go through while she was a working poor. She particularly accentuates on how humiliated and how ashamed people are of being poor. Shame and humiliation are essential themes of this book are explained and described through different ways such as the fact that poor people are invisible or not respected in their jobs or not able to talk freely, or mistreated by their manager even if they are sick.…
One argument for eliminating the penny is the wasted time fishing for pennies on cash transactions. Jeff Gore, founder of “Citizens for Retiring the Penny” conducted a study with The National Association of Convenience Stores and Walgreens that determined handling pennies added 2 to 2.5 seconds to each cash transaction. After all of the numbers were crunched, he calculated that four hours per person were wasted each year searching for pennies. This equates to a national cost of over $15 billion dollars per year if each person’s time is worth $15/hour (Source B). How much time did he waste conducting this study? What he didn’t calculate was the extra profits these retailers received on impulse purchases while waiting on the patron to count his pennies. I believe these extra purchases greatly outweigh the “wasted time” counting pennies.…
Most machines that receive change won’t accept one cent coins anymore and the pennies will just collect in people’s wallets or pockets. Canada got rid of their pennies and it seems America may do the same at some point. It costs almost double one cent to make a penny, and this is not cost efficient. There is a lot of controversy over the matter. People have been discussing whether removing the penny would hurt or help the economy for some time now. In the Time Josh Sanburn claimed, “Pennies would likely be melted down and sold for their zinc and copper, which could yield millions of dollars for federal coffers” (Sanburn 1). Pennies may end up being a rare collectable in the far future, but as of now they remain a neglected form of currency with the increased use of digital transactions. Pennies will remain a staple in history no matter what their future…
Between 2001 and 2006, there has been an increase of .6 cents for the reproduction of the penny. This increase displays economic problems that may lead to fatal ones. The penny is composed of 2% copper and 98% zinc. These elements are exponentially in demand causing the price of these materials to skyrocket. Many Americans think the penny is putting our country in jeopardy with financial losses. This meaningless coin is losing money for the mint, and should be abolished.…
Pennies were the first coin minted in the U.S ,the first U.S penny is 223 years old. In recent years, there has been a heated debate about money in the United States. Surprisingly, it is about the pros and cons of producing and using pennies. In my opinion the penny should no longer be used and produced in America today. Here are some reasons why, pennies cost more than it's worth, they are not big money, and are so close to worthless.…
According to, “Penny Anti,” the U.S Treasury loses $100,000,000 dollars annually just from making pennies. Now think about it, your annual paycheck might be $100,000 dollars but the cost from pennies would be 1000X your annual paycheck. This is one of the reasons why we should get rid of the penny, yet the government still wants to lose money from making pennies.…
Do you remember how in Spongbob his friend was a penny? If we don’t have the penny then Spongbob will no longer have a friend. The United States should continue the production of the penny. The reason that we should continue the production of pennies is because the citizens of the United States do not deserve more change than is needed. It will be a lot easier just to keep the penny because then we don’t have to tell everyone to change. Also the penny is a big part of our history.…