# When will the US mint stop making pennies? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 5, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685 "2011-10-05T14:35:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/41 "2011-10-06T01:01:44Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I’d also like to see a larger high-value bill, like maybe a $500 or a $1000 paper bill. A large amount of money in one-hundred dollar bills is so bulky to carry. That’s not going to happen until inflation makes such a bill necessary in routine commerce. The $100 being taken out of circulation because of concerns about money laundering is more likely. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/42 "2011-10-06T03:41:12Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Only if all prices drop the last place _and_ there’s no sales tax. If there’s a sales tax, there will almost always be rounding, just as there is with a penny. > > Getting rid of the nickel would probably also necessitate getting rid of the quarter or replacing it with a 20 cent coin or something else, too. Dropping the penny and the nickel simplify rounding for humans that are used to rounding to a decimal place. Cash registers and computers wouldn’t have a problem with any system (rounding to 5’s is actually easier). Not sure I follow your concern about sales tax. There would always be sales tax and it would round to the appropriate place. This is no different than sales taxes now that are specified in fractions of a percent. You make a good point about the quarter. You couldn’t really have dimes and quarters without nickels. In any case, there are logical reasons for changing our coins and bills, but I do not think they provide enough benefit over the cost. Especially since physical money is quickly becoming obsolete. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/43 "2011-10-06T08:54:12Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > I’ll tell you this - I count the daily bank deposit for the c-store at which I work, and can tell you that daily, we deposit a minimum of 150 one-dollar bills. I have deposited over four hundred on more than a handful of occasions. This is part of a usually $7500+ deposit. If the dollar bill is eliminated, we’ll just be depositing heavy-ass coins instead of bills. Even if the customers were forced to use coins instead of bills, the one dollar unit of currency will still be used to the same extent as it is now. Depositing what is essentially sixteen rolls of 25 one-dollar coins, along with all the rest of the hundreds of larger bills, into a night deposit box will be a major pain… > > Joe 1. Presumably the $2 bill would become more popular. So if you pay for a one dollar item with a fiver, you get 2 bills back. One dollar coin might change hands in half of all transactions. Contrast that with the status quo where perhaps the average number of singles that changes hands is (0+1+2+3+4)/5 =2 2. The weight issue is a real one for dollar coins. [Retailers prefer bills](http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/stan-collender/2381/tea-partiers-want-new-dollar-coin-and-refuse-listen-free-market-process) because they don’t want to pay Brinks to haul around that extra weight. In terms of the preceding calculation, one half of a coin still weighs a lot more than 2 bills. Indeed, in the past [banks even refused the one-time charge of shipping back Susan B Anthonies](http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/stan-collender/2382/more-extreme-folly-new-dollar-coin) in exchange for the far more user-friendly Sackie-coins. And if the banks and retailers won’t cooperate, public preferences are irrelevant. 3. None of this applies to the penny issue of course. 4. American business can be pretty obstinate. The vending machine lobby mau-maued for a one dollar coin. Then when it was introduced they refused to shell out the $50 per machine necessary to convert them to the new coinage. They thought the mint would pay for that! These were the same clowns who pressured big guv to make the Susan B effectively indistinguishable from the quarter – it would be easier to convert the machines, you see. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/44 "2011-10-06T09:20:18Z")
Every few months Americans gather here to argue this same question, over and over again. Every time, people from other countries (such as Australia) where the smallest coins have been removed from circulation come in to offer _actual observations_ about _what actually happens_ when a country does the very thing that Americans are arguing about. Every time, the dirty furriners are ignored and the Americans continue to argue the same stupid shit back and forth endlessly. Here’s what happens: nothing. Prices are rounded, you gain about the same amount you lose, and the net benefit of no-one having to mess around with practically worthless coins is considered a profit by everyone. Life goes on, much the same as before, and even the people who argued most for keeping the 1 and 2 cent coins got over it and moved on with their lives and nowadays no-one wants them back. But, of course, since that didn’t happen to _Americans_, it didn’t really happen _at all_. OK, continue your arguments. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/45 "2011-10-06T09:35:00Z")
Oh, my previous comment also covers changing the $1 and $2 bills into coins, which we also did years ago. No big difference, nothing dramatic happened. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/46 "2011-10-06T14:46:36Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > How could one buy a 44 cent stamp at the Post Office without pennies? Which will go first, the penny or the USPS? ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/47 "2011-10-06T17:57:35Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > But, of course, since that didn’t happen to _Americans_, it didn’t really happen _at all_. People live in other countries? 😕 Weird. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/48 "2011-10-06T18:22:26Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > I agree, we should have coinage that means something. Dollar coins should be used and dollar bill eliminated. Why? Just because you like coins? Coins are evil, and they should be eliminated completely. Bills down to the 1 cent level. That’s the ticket! ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/49 "2011-10-06T18:36:27Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > People live in other countries? 😕 > > Weird. This seems true on the surface, but if you look a little deeper there is an American inside everyone, everywhere, just struggling to get out. I did not initially believe in other countries until I ventured far afield from my native Oregon into British Columbia. A vast and exotic land that looked just like home. Only the price and quality of beer were different. Slightly. This must all be the result of some treaty mistake carried over from the past. The rest of the countries and continents that I can’t drive to must be inventions of Google Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/50 "2011-10-06T19:27:17Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I spent six months in Switzerland in 1967 and they had largely stopped using their smallest coin (called the Rappen). Even if the items were labeled in amounts not divisible by 5 the totals were automatically rounded up or down. With the exception of one dept. store that had automatic change machines. So if your bill was 13Fr47 and you gave the cashier a 20Fr bill, she pressed a button and out came a 5Fr coin, a 1Fr coin, a 50Rp coin a 2Rp coin and a 1Rp coin. > > In 1970-71, I lived there again for over a year and the 1 and 2 Rappen coins were (literally) history. The Fr was worth about 23¢ in those days probably twice what a dollar is worth today. The Frank is now worth 84¢. One US penny is now worth less than a fifth of the smallest Swiss coin (5 centimes). With trillions of dollars in debt, the government seems to have other fish to fry. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/51 "2011-10-06T20:34:22Z")
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - The way to get rid of the One Dollar bill and replace it with a One Dollar coin is put Reagan’s face on the coin. The political will would be insurmountable, every Republican would make it ISSUE # 1. And a sizable portion of the public would be enthusiastic adopters. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/52 "2011-10-06T20:52:42Z")
**Hermitian** , unfortunately you left out the most likely option. Option 3: Unable to find a cheap enough alloy as zinc, copper, and nickel prices rise, the Mint introduces the first pennies and nickels made of plastic. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/53 "2011-10-06T21:05:54Z")
You heathens clamoring for eliminating the one dollar bill are overlooking one crucial thing: it’s extremely difficult to tuck a dollar coin into a stripper’s g-string. Is she going to have to strap a coin purse to her thigh?? Huh?? ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/54 "2011-10-06T21:16:57Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > You heathens clamoring for eliminating the one dollar bill are overlooking one crucial thing: it’s extremely difficult to tuck a dollar coin into a stripper’s g-string. Is she going to have to strap a coin purse to her thigh?? Huh?? This is another benefit of eliminating the dollar the exotic dancers will get fives in their g strings. Stimulus all around. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/55 "2011-10-06T21:44:05Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > The Frank is now worth 84¢. > > One US penny is now worth less than a fifth of the smallest Swiss coin (5 centimes). No, it’s [worse than that](http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert/?Amount=1&From=CHF&To=USD&image.x=48&image.y=15/). A franc is worth $1.08 at today’s rate, and the 5c coin _weighs_ less than a U.S. cent. Our stubborn adhesion to outdated and bizarrely oversize and over-heavy coins gets even better. The largest denomination of Swiss coin is 5CHF, and this coin weighs 13g. By comparison, our closest coin in size, the half dollar, weighs almost the same but is worth less than a tenth of that. Those Swiss! They don’t need heavy chump change like we do, and they have a banknote for 1000CHF. They must be rich. While we clutch our pennies and nickels like a poor miser, unable to comprehend that the numbers would come out even in the end, and our lives could be a great deal more convenient if all the coins were eliminated and/or redesigned to take inflation into consideration (and a couple of new coins added as well). We haven’t really changed our coins in more than 100 years, except to make them out of cheaper metals. And there’s hardly a single damned thing you can buy with one coin, or even several. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/56 "2011-10-06T21:46:26Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Eventually, a loaf of bread will cost $35 billion, if you extend the rate of inflation out however many centuries. You mean $34,999,999,999.99. (And you have to pay with 1.75 billion $20s, because the store doesn’t take large bills.) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/57 "2011-10-06T21:52:56Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - > > The way to get rid of the One Dollar bill and replace it with a One Dollar coin is put Reagan’s face on the coin. The political will would be insurmountable, every Republican would make it ISSUE # 1. And a sizable portion of the public would be enthusiastic adopters. I think this group would include the people who kid themselves that somehow we’ll bring back the gold dollar of 1932, presumably by shuttering must of the federal government. To eliminate pennies and dollar bills, resize other coins downward, and introduce a $5 coin would be a clear surrender to inflation. When I pay a $3 parking tab with a twenty and get a wad of 17 ragged old one-dollar bills, seemingly as thick as a deck of cards, though, I don’t feel like I’m beating inflation. I can’t imagine why. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/58 "2011-10-06T22:26:08Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > How could one buy a 44 cent stamp at the Post Office without pennies? > > And don’t say “round up to 45 cents”. Because that means the effective postage rate is 45 cents, not 44 cents. And that means a 1 cent increase in postage, which needs to be specifically authorized. Whenever we have these discussions and people make this argument, I have to ask: We should make this determination based entirely on the scenario of the customer buying a single item whose price isn’t divisible by five cents? That’s not how people usually buy things anyway. But I’m not saying by any means you should have to sacrifice that extra penny. The post office could make up the difference by giving you a 1c stamp. Of course, what can you do with a 1c stamp? They’re awkward and have no other useful function than to make up the difference when you need to mail a letter and there’s been a recent increase in the postage rate. Or you could let them pile up until you have forty-four of them, take them to the post office, and ask for a _real_ stamp in exchange for them. This seems strangely familiar… ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/59 "2011-10-06T22:39:47Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > Back in the mid-80s, I waited tables, and finding $70+ in singles in my pocket at the end of the day wouldn’t have surprised me, and that was at a midlevel restaurant and at a time when most people only tipped 10%. There are ways to deal with this situation. Someone has to go to the bank on a regular basis, so why can’t you keep on hand a few hundred dollars in fives and twenties, so when the servers cash out, they can trade all those singles in for larger denominations? Then the singles get traded for larger bills the next time someone goes to the bank, and the cycle repeats. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/60 "2011-10-06T23:05:07Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Or you could let them pile up until you have forty-four of them, take them to the post office, and ask for a _real_ stamp in exchange for them. You might be surprised how many people don’t know this, but you can use any combination of stamps that adds up to 44 cents to mail a letter at the current rate. You could for example, save up 4 one cent stamps and paste them on an envelope with two [20 cent stamps](https://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10052&productId=10007349&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=10000003&top_category=10000003&categoryId=10000025&top=¤tPage=0&sort=&viewAll=Y&rn=CategoriesDisplay&WT.ac=10007349). Or you could go to a Post Office with an envelope that had four 1 cent stamps on it and ask the clerk to put a 40 cent PVI label on the envelope. There are many other possibilities. And, of course, you could buy your stamps in multiples of 5 and avoid the problem altogether. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685.md?page=4)