Should The U.S. Ditch The Penny?
b'With\\xa0Philip Diehl, Former Director at the U.S. Mint
Should the U.S. government get rid of that little copper colored coin that none of ever seem to really use \\u2013 the penny? Philip Diehl, former Director of the United States Mint under the Clinton administration, says we should\\u2019ve ditched the penny 20 years ago \\u2013 because it has outlived its usefulness. There are now over 200 billion pennies in circulation \\u2013 that have a collective nominal value of $2 billion. With inflation on the rise, the penny has near-zero purchasing power.
Even so, the penny is still around. Partly because there is a strong emotional attachment to it, but more importantly because production of penny blanks has been outsourced and those vested interests have no desire to see their production go to zero. In addition, the Illinois Congressional Delegation doesn\\u2019t want to see the penny go\\u2026 because their native son, Abraham Lincoln, is on the penny. And no one on Capitol Hill cares enough to fight those interests.
Interestingly, it also costs about two cents to produce each penny \\u2013 so it\\u2019s a loss-maker for the U.S. Mint. Moreover, without the penny, the $0.99 prices will have to get rounded-up. But with 75% of all commercial transactions done in electronic form, dropping the penny would have no impact on pricing.
Similar logic can also be extended to the nickel \\u2013 the five cent coin \\u2013 which isn\\u2019t a money loser as yet but has limited use. And as Philip Diehl says, one coin at a time, let\\u2019s deal with eliminating the penny before we think of getting rid of the nickel.'