# Do you use pennies (USA one cent coin)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 26, 2025, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421 "2025-01-26T08:11:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/161 "2025-02-10T04:48:13Z")
Huh. DJT makes a decision that is actually a _good idea_. You could knock me over with a feather. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/162 "2025-02-10T05:05:02Z")
It didn’t entirely occur to me that this could be done by executive order. But the Mint is an executive department, so why not? It isn’t banning the penny or anything. They’ll just stop producing it and everything will sort itself out over time. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/163 "2025-02-10T05:09:35Z")
There are people who have been collecting older pennies with scrap value over a couple cents for years in anticipation of the day the government makes it legal to melt them down. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/164 "2025-02-10T05:16:14Z")
It is an idea that is well past due. I am sick to my stomach this guy will get credit for it. A large part of the reason it hasn’t been done is because of lobbying by a group called Americans for Common Cents that is funded largely by the zinc industry. All pennies made since 1982 have been composed of zinc slugs plated with copper. Even doing that and the damn things STILL cost more to produce than the value of the coin. By a lot. They currently cost 2.72 cents to manufacture. It’s time for the penny to go. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/165 "2025-02-10T05:17:49Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > DJT makes a decision that is actually a _good idea_. Ha, that’s exactly what I was going to say! Even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? But then it explodes and the firestorm takes out your house and a good part of the neighborhood. Oh well, at least we’ll save the cost of minting pennies in the meantime. Please do nickels next! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/166 "2025-02-10T05:22:42Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > funded largely by the zinc industry Come back, zinc, come back! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/U1iCZpFMYd0/hqdefault.jpg "The Simpsons - A World Without Zinc") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1iCZpFMYd0) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/167 "2025-02-10T05:23:30Z")
FWIW, The US mint produced half as many pennies in Biden’s last year in office (3.2 billion) than it did in Trump’s last year (7.5 billion). ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/168 "2025-02-10T05:43:11Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > Even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? I was thinking of blind pigs finding acorns myself. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/169 "2025-02-10T05:47:32Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > FWIW, The US mint produced half as many pennies in Biden’s last year in office (3.2 billion) than it did in Trump’s last year (7.5 billion). Heh… I found a mistake in this US Mint report when trying to look up these figures. I’m looking here: [https://www.usmint.gov/content/dam/usmint/reports/2024-annual-report.pdf](https://www.usmint.gov/content/dam/usmint/reports/2024-annual-report.pdf) According to their production table, total seigniorage (face value of coins minus production cost) of the penny was -$85M and -$18M for the nickel in 2024. But this chart shows the opposite: [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/backcVT.png "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/backcVT) It looks like the penny and the nickel on the chart are reversed. Anyway, even though Biden produced fewer pennies in 2024 than Trump did in 2020, they lost more money–$85M vs. $62M. The cost of a penny is now actually 3.7 cents! And over 3 cents even if you exclude admin costs. Both the penny and nickel have had negative seigniorage for the past decade. Delete them both. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/170 "2025-02-10T14:17:23Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > Huh. DJT makes a decision that is actually a _good idea_. While it’s a good idea to get rid of pennies; it’s not a good idea to get rid of them by simply stop manufacturing them. How do you expect businesses to deal with this? For example simply pricing products in nickel increments doesn’t solve the problem because of sales taxes–which are in penny increments. (While California allows rounding to the nearest nickel it is an exception.). So you need legislation to deal with this issue. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/171 "2025-02-10T14:33:41Z")
By pricing things appropriately there won’t be so much need for pennies - with a 6% tax rate, if I price my product at 94¢ it comes out to $1 with tax; no pennies needed. If people get a lot less pennies in their change then there are a lot less pennies going into a jar at their homes at night when they empty their pockets & a lot less pennies out of circulation; therefore, the existing ones should remain in circulation longer because they aren’t really circulating. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/172 "2025-02-10T15:02:17Z")
Leave it to the USA to solve a currency denomination issue by letting millions of merchants figure out a coin shortage. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/173 "2025-02-10T15:22:51Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > It didn’t entirely occur to me that this could be done by executive order. But the Mint is an executive department, so why not? It isn’t banning the penny or anything. They’ll just stop producing it and everything will sort itself out over time. FYI, Congress passes [laws](https://www.usmint.gov/learn/coins-and-medals/legislation#circulating) that mandate the production of coins, so no, he can’t do this unilaterally. And the cost of producing and distributing pennies is 3.69 cents per, so substantially more than face value. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/174 "2025-02-10T15:49:46Z")
I wonder about merchants re-pricing things to account for the absence of pennies. I doubt the resulting prices would be lower. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/175 "2025-02-10T15:53:40Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > By pricing things appropriately there won’t be so much need for pennies - with a 6% tax rate, if I price my product at 94¢ it comes out to $1 with tax; no pennies needed. People buy more than one item at a time. $0.94 with 6% tax is actually 99.64 cents. So, if I buy ten, the total will come to $9.96. Unless the store prices things in increments of 94.339622642 cents (or equivalent at another sales tax rate), at some point someone is going to owe someone a penny. It’s easy enough to abolish pennies (no one here has any regrets about doing it), but it does need to be permissible to round final prices to match available currency. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/176 "2025-02-10T16:00:51Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > By pricing things appropriately there won’t be so much need for pennies - with a 6% tax rate Good luck finding a combined sales tax rate with a whole number or one that doesn’t fluctuate at least annually. The easiest solution is to allow venders to build the estimated tax into their advertised price and let the bookkeepers deal with it. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/177 "2025-02-10T16:27:01Z")
ETTTTTS: Every Thing Trump Touches Turns To Shit. Even when he tries to implement an idea that lots of people think is good, he naturally does it in a way that is illegal and, if it actually happens at all, will cause chaos and unnecessary trouble that would have been avoided if it had been done the right way. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/178 "2025-02-10T16:28:02Z")
A perfect summation. It even fits on a personalized license plate in most states. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/179 "2025-02-10T16:35:32Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > It’s easy enough to abolish pennies (no one here has any regrets about doing it), but it does need to be permissible to round final prices to match available currency. As I said upthread, I believe retailers will round individual items **up** as opposed to keeping prices the same & rounding your total to the nearest nickel. Think how many items a grocery store sells in a day; 2¢ more profit per item would be a windfall to their bottom line. > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Good luck finding a combined sales tax rate with a whole number or one that doesn’t fluctuate at least annually. Huh? I don’t remember my state changing the sales tax rate at least in my purchasing lifetime. Even the big city that now has a _extra_ 2% sales tax went to 1% somewhere around 1990 (definitely by '91) & then an additional 1% somewhere after that, so 2 changes in roughly 35 years. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/180 "2025-02-10T16:43:54Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Huh? I don’t remember my state changing the sales tax rate at least in my purchasing lifetime. Even the big city that now has a _extra_ 2% sales tax went to 1% somewhere around 1990 (definitely by '91) & then an additional 1% somewhere after that, so 2 changes in roughly 35 years. I pay sales tax in 34 states and tens of thousands of tax districts. The applicable (combined) sales tax rate in any given locale rarely has just a zero after the decimal point. Tax hikes of a whole percent are hard to get passed, but .025% or .0333% to pay for a new park or upgraded traffic lights? Easy peasy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421.md?page=10)