What can you buy for a penny? Nowadays you can’t even buy a piece of gum for a penny. So why do we even make pennies anymore?
Why We Should Keep Pennies
Prices will most likely increase if we completely eliminate pennies because then every thing will get rounded to a nickel. Stores most likely won’t round the prices down so everything will end up being a few cents more expensive.
This might not seem like a lot, but for people who are a bit tight on money every penny saved is worth it. Homeless people who usually only buy cheaper things more frequently will get affected more than others. The pennies will also add up here just like they did with the penny production.
Charities also need them to raise money. Ever heard of penny drives, well they raise lots of money every year for all types of charities. People feel a lot more comfortable giving pennies to people since they don’t have a great value. Taking away them will mean that there could be a decrease in money raised in loose change drives.
Pennies are pretty sentimental to the American culture, and losing the penny will be like losing a part of our country’s culture. Some people even argue that Abraham Lincon will be forgotten if we stop making pennies. But as long as we have him in our hearts we’ll be alright.
Why We Should Get Rid Of Pennies
Have you ever been at the store stuck in line behind someone who takes a while to count their change, especially pennies? Well, if you haven’t it’s a real waste of time. If some thing costs 2.39 it could take someone a while to pay for without a credit or debit card.
Studies show that an average American wastes 2.4 hours a year either handling pennies or waiting for someone else. Since these are so small it’s much harder to fish them out of your purse and pockets. 
There is average 30 second period of time that people spend to find that last cent they need to pay for something.
As I said before you can’t buy anything for just one penny actually you can’t buy something for anything less than 5 pennies. 5 pennies is equivalent in worth to one nickel. But 5 pennies (12.5 grams) weigh more than one nickel (5 grams). So if you have a lot of pennies in your pocket they can literally weigh you down.
Not only is a penny almost worthless, it can’t keep up with the inflation. In other words, it costs more than a penny to produce a penny. It costs 1.26 pennies to create one penny, that might not seem like much but it adds up.
Statistics showed that in 2009 there were 1.65 trillion (1,650,000,000,000) pennies circulating in the United States. That means that the United States lost about 20.79 billion dollars ($20,790,000,000) in total by the year 2009. Now that’s a lot of money wasted due to a small coin.
