Mugato: They're not worthless to whoever owns the Coinstar machine business.

Satan?

So if we get rid of pennies, does everything we buy get rounded up/down to the closest nickle?

When will we get rid of the $1 and $2 bills and switch them over to coins that last a lot longer. And a lot more fun to throw at strippers.

Not that I would ever try, but would this make them exceptionally easy to counterfeit?

I mean, getting scrap steel and melting it down is a lot easier than getting copper. So some guy with a smelter and a mold could slip tens of thousands of fake pennies into the system using little more than selective patronage at Coinstar machines.

A penny ... cost 2.41 cents to produce

facepalm.jpg

Nihilist's Guide to Reticent Entropy: Not that I would ever try, but would this make them exceptionally easy to counterfeit?

I mean, getting scrap steel and melting it down is a lot easier than getting copper. So some guy with a smelter and a mold could slip tens of thousands of fake pennies into the system using little more than selective patronage at Coinstar machines.

The sheer volume would make it unattractive to counterfeiters, I would think. To get an amount of pennies that's actually worth something would be so time consuming (and ultimately costly) that I would think that most counterfeiters would still want to stick to dollars.

If I'm not mistaken, that's pretty much the same reason counterfeiters usually counterfeit 20s instead of 1s.

Get rid of the penny... period! Then get rid of the $1 and $2 bills. Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan all have gotten rid of them (or their equiv) and the world did not end. Time for the US to join the other first world nations. For those that would complain of 'too many coins in their pockets'; you're too farking stupid to use money so you better send it all to me just to be safe.

Informative video from C.G.P. Grey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5UT04p5f7U
Death to Pennies!

We should just get rid of physical money all together. Move to a system of buying and selling where everyone is assigned a number. If you don't have your number you can't buy or sell. It will save millions of taxpayer dollars (credits?) since we wouldn't have to produce any coins or bills anymore.

/Dibs on #666

DigitalCoffee: Get rid of the penny... period! Then get rid of the $1 and $2 bills. Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan all have gotten rid of them (or their equiv) and the world did not end. Time for the US to join the other first world nations. For those that would complain of 'too many coins in their pockets'; you're too farking stupid to use money so you better send it all to me just to be safe.

Kinda like we joined the rest of the world in switching to the metric system?

To cut production costs, an Ohio congressman has introduced a bill that would require pennies be made out of steel, instead of just doing away with the worthless things

/Golly!

The Souvenir Penny Press Machine union has some very persuasive lobbyists. This is will never happen. And if that congressman brings it up again I wouldn't be surprised if he "accidentally" fell in front of a steam roller (that had a picture of a clown, a mountain and a jumping dolphin etched into its face).

Cool story, sis:

When I was growing up overseas (Dad was in the Army), we had American currency to use on post and at local businesses that would accept dollars (eg, all of them). They didn't bother with pennies, because the cost of transporting them would come out to way more than they were worth. At the register, your totals and change just got rounded to the nearest nickel. It worked fine, and since sometimes your change got rounded up and sometimes rounded down, it all pretty much washed out in the end.

DigitalCoffee: Get rid of the penny... period! Then get rid of the $1 and $2 bills. Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan all have gotten rid of them (or their equiv) and the world did not end. Time for the US to join the other first world nations. For those that would complain of 'too many coins in their pockets'; you're too farking stupid to use money so you better send it all to me just to be safe.

Getting rid of $1 bills in favor of 1$ coins makes perfect economic sense, but as someone who's been over to Europe and used euros a few times, you do inevitably end up with a big wad of change in your pocket at the end of a busy day. It does make for convenient tipping money though.

Dammit, just do it already.


Geez, you guys just complicate everything.

interesting times: DigitalCoffee: Get rid of the penny... period! Then get rid of the $1 and $2 bills. Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan all have gotten rid of them (or their equiv) and the world did not end. Time for the US to join the other first world nations. For those that would complain of 'too many coins in their pockets'; you're too farking stupid to use money so you better send it all to me just to be safe.

Kinda like we joined the rest of the world in switching to the metric system?

Changing to the metric system would have been great, except for one problem; there is no metric unit equivelant to the foot. The average person thinks in terms of inches, feet, yards, and miles. Centimeters is close enough to stand in for inches (for small measurements). The same can be said for meters (yards) and miles (kilometers). But there is no standard measurement to take the place of the foot. People don't normally say that they are two yards tall or that they are 72 inches tall, that say that they are six feet tall. Going to metric, you would either have to say that you were 183 cm or say that you were 1.83 meters. There's just too big of a size gap between centimeters and meters, you need an inbetween size.

tl;dr metric failed for not having a size equiv to a foot

DigitalCoffee: interesting times: DigitalCoffee: Get rid of the penny... period! Then get rid of the $1 and $2 bills. Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan all have gotten rid of them (or their equiv) and the world did not end. Time for the US to join the other first world nations. For those that would complain of 'too many coins in their pockets'; you're too farking stupid to use money so you better send it all to me just to be safe.

Kinda like we joined the rest of the world in switching to the metric system?

Changing to the metric system would have been great, except for one problem; there is no metric unit equivelant to the foot. The average person thinks in terms of inches, feet, yards, and miles. Centimeters is close enough to stand in for inches (for small measurements). The same can be said for meters (yards) and miles (kilometers). But there is no standard measurement to take the place of the foot. People don't normally say that they are two yards tall or that they are 72 inches tall, that say that they are six feet tall. Going to metric, you would either have to say that you were 183 cm or say that you were 1.83 meters. There's just too big of a size gap between centimeters and meters, you need an inbetween size.

tl;dr metric failed for not having a size equiv to a foot

10 centimeters = 1 decimeter.

Kimpak: We should just get rid of physical money all together. Move to a system of buying and selling where everyone is assigned a number. If you don't have your number you can't buy or sell. It will save millions of taxpayer dollars (credits?) since we wouldn't have to produce any coins or bills anymore.

/Dibs on #666

Cash still works during a power outage.

...which could, I bet, be produced of steel from Ohio steel mills?

Clever move, Congressman. Clever move.

I read 'pennies' as 'penises'. It made for a better, if slightly terrifying, headline.

yoyoyo: So if we get rid of pennies, does everything we buy get rounded up/down to the closest nickle?

When will we get rid of the $1 and $2 bills and switch them over to coins that last a lot longer. And a lot more fun to throw at strippers.

Well, since our brilliant government is touting stopping producing the Presidential Dollar series as a "cost saving measure" I wouldn't count on it any time soon.

Antimatter: tl;dr metric failed for not having a size equiv to a foot

50cm = 1 cubit, a much more useful unit of measurement than a foot.

Tainted1: Kimpak: We should just get rid of physical money all together. Move to a system of buying and selling where everyone is assigned a number. If you don't have your number you can't buy or sell. It will save millions of taxpayer dollars (credits?) since we wouldn't have to produce any coins or bills anymore.

/Dibs on #666

Cash still works during a power outage.

I was being facetious ;)

//bible joke

so if they were to switch all of the pennies to steel, if i kept the current pennies we have, they would be worth even more in a couple of decades. awesome.

Make them out of treated wood.

They're not really worth the expense/risk of counterfeiting. It would be a renewable resource we produce in the US (and provides decent jobs) and it would sequester a bunch of carbon from the atmosphere.

As long as we're wasting time with these things they may as well serve a real purpose.

I don't get the unbridled hate for the penny. I can see both sides of the argument for keeping or getting rid of them, but the amount of vitriol that gets injected into the debate over pennies?

Kimpak: We should just get rid of physical money all together. Move to a system of buying and selling where everyone is assigned a number. If you don't have your number you can't buy or sell. It will save millions of taxpayer dollars (credits?) since we wouldn't have to produce any coins or bills anymore.

/Dibs on #666

Well everyone already has a number, just put a magnetic strip on the backs of SS cards and make everything electronic, what could go wrong?

Anyway, that's like going on vacation and trading ALL your money for Disney dollars.

As Chappelle said, you can't buy weed or pussy with those.

Get rid of the penny and the dollar bill at the same time. There might be a public outcry, but those who are upset about it will forget about it when the next celebrity scandal breaks. Then, they will drop a few dollar coins for the latest issue of "People" and forget about the whole thing. Dropping the nickel might be more difficult, as it would most likely also mean making the quarter obsolete.
/Switching to metric might take THREE whole celebrity scandals before people stop caring.

Zeno-25: Getting rid of $1 bills in favor of 1$ coins makes perfect economic sense, but as someone who's been over to Europe and used euros a few times, you do inevitably end up with a big wad of change in your pocket at the end of a busy day. It does make for convenient tipping money though.

Also, dollar coins leave better bruises on the strippers when you make it rain.

Antimatter: 10 centimeters = 1 decimeter.

Which is still useless since that is less than 4 inches. You need something close to a foot in size (about 30 cm).

saminman:
/Switching to metric might take THREE whole celebrity scandals before people stop caring.

The U.S. will never switch to the metric system. The infrastructure would grind to a halt as people attempt to wrap their Jersey Shore-addled and Big Mac-fueled brains around it while driving 55 kph on the highways and putting on parkas when it's 37° C.

A nice, rational essay about the U.S.'s history of adopting (or not) the metric system (a .gov PDF):

Link (new window)


I lived through the 1970s first wave, with many Interstate signs "dual listed." They're all gone now, I think.


/I'm ready to chuck the penny and the (paper) dollar. If we "need" pennies now, why didn't we "need" (not so long ago) tenth-pennies back in the earlier 20th c., when prices/wages were a tenth of what they are now?

DigitalCoffee: Antimatter: 10 centimeters = 1 decimeter.

Which is still useless since that is less than 4 inches. You need something close to a foot in size (about 30 cm).

So, what you are saying is that Americans are too stupid to learn anything new. "Greatest nation on Earth - Biggest retarded gene-pool on Earth"

Honestly, American taint-licking of the Imperial system is bizarre. We fought the British to NOT be in their Empire, yet are adamant that we will scour the Earth clear of all life by nuclear fire rather than let go of a system created by the very people we fought to get rid of. Instead of using a logical and easy system, we cling fanatically to a system that was so retarded it took generations of Englishmen to develop - and even they have realized that they were wrong, and have made substantial steps to change. America is now officially a bigger proponent of the British Empire than the farking British; why the hell do we even celebrate July 4 anymore, since we now spent out time swinging on the labia of Britannia?

Donnchadha: Zeno-25: Getting rid of $1 bills in favor of 1$ coins makes perfect economic sense, but as someone who's been over to Europe and used euros a few times, you do inevitably end up with a big wad of change in your pocket at the end of a busy day. It does make for convenient tipping money though.

Also, dollar coins leave better bruises on the strippers when you make it rain.

I thought they don't like it when you make it rain.

Why is this country so resistant to change?

kenny's mom: A nice, rational essay about the U.S.'s history of adopting (or not) the metric system (a .gov PDF):

Link (new window)


I lived through the 1970s first wave, with many Interstate signs "dual listed." They're all gone now, I think.


/I'm ready to chuck the penny and the (paper) dollar. If we "need" pennies now, why didn't we "need" (not so long ago) tenth-pennies back in the earlier 20th c., when prices/wages were a tenth of what they are now?

BUT HOW WILL MY INSIPID AMERICAN BRETHREN UNDERSTAND THEIR FOOTBALL!!!!?

Cents and Sensibility Act

No one has commented on this? Really? This act naming business is getting out of hand.

MoronLessOff: Donnchadha: Zeno-25: Getting rid of $1 bills in favor of 1$ coins makes perfect economic sense, but as someone who's been over to Europe and used euros a few times, you do inevitably end up with a big wad of change in your pocket at the end of a busy day. It does make for convenient tipping money though.

Also, dollar coins leave better bruises on the strippers when you make it rain.

I thought they don't like it when you make it rain.

Well, not when you're using coins, but that's what makes it fun.