Should The Penny Be Taxed

Imagine that you are shopping. The person in front of you is just about to finish up, but just as you expect them to pull out a dollar or a credit card, they pull out a small jar full of coins, mostly filled with pennies. You then realize you will be there for a while. That situation is a general shopper’s worst nightmare. The penny is one of the most costly coins for the U.S. Mint, and is generally not needed in usual shopping situations. The penny should stop being minted because they cost more than a penny to distribute and make, they cost money and time to lose, and they don’t affect prices.

One reason the penny should stopped being minted is the fact that one penny costs more than a penny to produce. John Green, author of The Fault In Our

Stars, says, “In 2009 it cost 1.6 cents to make a penny and 6.1 cents to make a nickel; the U.S. Mint lost $22 million on penny and nickel production…” Of course this $22 million total also includes nickel loss, but this shows the penny is very expensive to the U.S. Mint. Around 4.8 billion pennies cost around $115 million to make and distribute in 2006 according to Sebastian Mallaby. This shows that on its own, the penny can be very expensive. This shows that not only the penny useless, but they’re expensive too.
Another reason the penny is useless is that it costs us money and time when we use them.

Sebastian Mallaby says, “...handling pennies adds 2 to 2.5 seconds per cash transaction. Assume that the average citizen makes one such transaction every day, and so wastes (to be conservative) 730 seconds a year. The median worker earns just over $36,000 a year, or about 0.5 cents per second, so futzing with pennies costs him $3.65 annually.” This shows that pennies are not only worthless, but waste our time as well. When we use pennies, the cashier is losing money because we decided to use pennies. Also, pennies can cause costly injuries. A study done on the cost of foreign objects in body to remove concluded that the average cost for penny related injuries was $1169.78. This is very costly and can cause even higher hospital bills because pennies have zinc in them, an element need to survive, but if given high amounts, it can poison the average person. This causes that high $1169.78 to go up higher so doctors can remove the zinc. An infant needs around 4 mg of zinc a day, but if they swallow a penny, which is 97.5% zinc, which can be near deadly results for a baby. This shows that pennies are very expensive when used and

swallowed.
The final reason pennies should be discontinued is that they do not affect prices. If we removed the penny, then we would have to have a rounding tax, where we would round to the nearest nickel. Many people say this would cause prices to go up, but they wouldn’t. A study done by Robert M. Whaples, the professor of economics at Wake Forest University, shows that prices would be $7.02 as they would be $6.98. The two would cancel out and there would be no gain for the average shopper. Also a study done on the Toronto economy after the removal of the penny in Canada found, “...no evidence that a smaller tick size lessens market liquidity for either small or large traders. Rather, there is evidence of lower trading costs, faster time to order execution, and greater price continuity.” This supports Robert’s study that shows that the penny would not raise or lower prices. The penny is not important in our daily lives because it does not affect daily prices and shows the penny is not needed.
People who are against penny removal say that we will forget about Abraham Lincoln. However, this argument has many contradictions. Firstly, the penny hasn’t always had that iconic picture of Lincoln. The penny was first minted in 1796, but the first Lincoln penny was minted in 1906 to commemorate Lincoln’s 100th birthday. This is a 110 year difference. Lincoln died in 1865, 41 years before the president was minted on the penny. In those 41 years, no one forgot about the 16th president because people realized that he was important and included him in the public school curriculum. This shows that the argument for the penny is invalid.
In conclusion, pennies should stopped being minted because they cost more than a penny to make, when we use pennies we lose money and time, and they do not affect prices at all. Take yourself back to that scene I set at the beginning of this. It has seemed like forever since that person started to pay, and they are just finishing up. You think you could have read a long argument essay telling how pennies are bad for the economy. As you finally walk up to the cashier, you look at the time. It is 8:00, closing time, and the cashier turns you away, ready to go home after counting all those pennies. You sulk home, empty handed. Do you want this to be really be you one day? Then support my cause and abolish the penny.