They have been talks for quite sometime about if the Federal Reserve is going to retire, completely eliminate the penny, I want your thought on this.

What I think, in a way, it'll be a good thing and a bad thing, the reason I think so, the reason why I think it's good is that it'll lower the national dept by a little bit (not a whole lot) if the United States does retire the penny, and they're round out prices to the nearest 5 cents (like something $19.99 will become $20), and this will be a little more easier on us to carry because you don't have to carry like 100 pennies just to get a dollar out of, and two, what's really the point of pennies anyway because their isn't anything that cost 1 cent anymore (used to but not now). For the bad thing is that you're going to have a lot of worthless coins laying around and the only way you can use them is as a collectors item or wait till their value raises and then you can go cash them in, and also, it's for like an emergency cash like if things went a couple more cents than you though, but other than that, that's it for the penny.

Yeah true, we have been discussing this lately in economics and I think I have mixed feelings for it, that would mean that products would have minimum value increments of 5 cents, or a nickel. So that means that all products would end in either a 5 or a 0. In a way I think it is good because they are lowering the national debt a little bit and I think it will also be a plus because you won't need to have like exact change, and you won't need to carry around 100 pennies all the time like you said, because you can pay it evenly in 5,10, or 25 cents or just a full dollar. So in a way I think that the pros outweigh the cons in this decision. 

Good thread by the way, it is a topic that everyone can openly discuss.

we just did it in Canada and I actually really like it. Makes for less pocket change and the rounding will go in your favor as often as it doesn't. And really, 1 or 2 pennies per transaction isn't much.

geeogree : Yeah, I heard you guys already got rid of the penny and things really worked out for you up there in Canada, in a way, I hope they do the same down here in the U.S. as well.

when you consider that more transactions are done via debit/credit cards than cash it makes a lot of sense(cents).

I wasn't a fan at first when it was proposed but I really don't see a downside for it.

I'm in favor of retiring the penny. No one really uses them anymore and to be honest, they are nearly useless these days. How many people even carry a bunch of pocket change these days, anyway?

I am not in favor of getting rid of the penny. It is probably just me and my OCD, but I think that there needs to be something that equals one. I would be fine if they changed what the penny is made of, but I do not want them to eliminate it completely.

Pennies cost more to make in materials than they are worth. Canada recently retired the penny and I think it was a good move. It saves time and money for everybody in the country. If you are paying in cash, you don't have to pay small change amounts under five cents, so it's pretty awesome not having to fish for pennies in your wallet.

Annette : Yeah, I heard it cost more to make one, like the last time I heard, it cost 2 pennies to make one penny, so in a way, we're losings more pennies than we're gaining pennies more like.

I don't know that I really feel strongly about this one way or the other.  I ideally don't even care.  Although I do save pennies, they are more of a hassle than anything, and I see tons of people just throw them away, actually.

We're spending a LOT of money on things people don't even care enough to keep in their possession.

Another part of me wonders how America would take it. They don't seem to adapt well to such huge issues, and I can see a lot of anger being thrown out by finicky people who will want to claim they were ripped off in store transactions.

Then too.... think about what it will do to math classes!!!!! O.o I know this seems far fetched to many of you, but there are TONS of kids who can not understand a math concept unless you relate it to money.  If we teach them that the 'ones' digit doesn't matter?  Oh... the horror!

Singelli :  Yeah, that is why I have seen like a number of pennies around parking lots and sidewalks all the time, because not a whole lot of people cares about having them anymore, so in a way, this will be a little smart for them to retire the penny.

Don't "eliminate" it, just stop printing them. They don't need to remove it from the currency, just no longer make more. Pennies will actually become collectors items after they become rare enough. People with pennies can still use them, but if they are eliminated from the currency, people that have a container of 500 pennies get gypped out of five bucks for no reason at all.

This one seems to be a no-brainer to me, If something costs less than the cost it took to make it, stop making it.

pennies are worthless so it should eliminated   

In Canada, you don't even notice they are gone. Not one day have I "missed" the penny. The only people who notice are those working the register. But, from what I can see, it took the general public about 1 second to adapt.

Pennies should be removed from production, but not because its easily possible to round up all transactions. It now costs the government more then one cents worth of zinc and copper to make each penny. If it cost more to produce then it's worth, there's no economic sense in producing it.  

In Canada, they were gone before I moved. Really, you don't even notice. People still throw remaining pennies into fountains. They still throw them on the floor. They still just waste them.

There isn't a big downside, really. Actually, I can't think of one at all. You get less costs for your country (which is something the US needs), it doesn't take forever to adapt to, and pennies are just overall, worthless.

I think the only people who actually want to keep production are those who want to:

A) Raise our debt
B) Are Abraham Lincoln fans
or C) Don't care.

But, yeah. Just my opinion, here.

goodboy : For option B, I don't personally think Lincoln fans shouldn't be really disappointed because Lincoln is also on a $5 bill as well, so it's not like the end of the world for them. But I understand with option A and C.

IgorBird122 :

Well, that was meant to be a joke. But, I still see what you're getting at. A and C are the legit reasons that I actually thought of thoroughly, though.