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329 Comments
- lampshade, on 10/12/2007, -21/+272Get rid of the penny
:-/ - Unr3a1, on 10/12/2007, -10/+123Make the pennies out of chocolate. Something everyone will enjoy.
- kdigit, on 10/12/2007, -3/+65Add your $0.02
- phpirate, on 10/12/2007, -16/+71How about paper pennies :)
- trogdor282, on 10/12/2007, -5/+56waterdragon, - 2 diggs for two comments without a single correct fact.
clue-finding mission for you: 1. find penny 2. scrape penny on sidewalk or something to remove thin copper shell 3. hey look it's made of ***** ZINC - racketboy, on 10/12/2007, -14/+64lol
thank you, Captain Obvious :) - WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -12/+60"How about paper pennies :) "
We will have paper pennies real soon. They are green and white, and have a picture of George Wasington on them.
The good news is that-- once again, a cup of cofee can be had for merely a few of these 'pennies.'
-- as the Fed (international bankers cartel) contiues to cause inflation and devalue the un-backed, 'fiat money' we stupid americans accept for currency.
Way to empower the rich! - dylanrjones, on 10/12/2007, -1/+45Seriously, Lampshade is right. I recently moved to Australia from Canada, and in doing so, moved from a penny country to one that has gotten rid of pennies. I have to say I don't miss them at all. In stores if something comes to a price that isn't in multiples of 5 you just round it either up or down to the nearest 5 cents. It all breaks even in the end. You can still use pennies for electronic transactions. Down with the penny!
- DEFSMAC, on 10/12/2007, -3/+38we are america the answer is obvious. invade a country with copious amounts of copper and zinc.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+35Get the pennies manufactured in China? Oh, wait...
- foxhoundadmin, on 10/12/2007, -5/+38"the thing is that because of all the 1536 billion vending machines in the country, we can't replace pennies, unless we replace them with something their size and weight (good luck with that)."
wtf? there are more vending machines than people on this earth? HOW'D THAT HAPPEN!? QUICK!! someone call the nsa. the cia. the fbi. the nra. abe vigoda!! SOMEONE!!!
another thing, when was the last time you saw a vending machine that actually took pennies? - tjl2015, on 10/12/2007, -2/+35How about plastic coins? Pennies already are the cheapest currency, why not make them out of a really cheap material? Pennies are stamped, maybe it would be cheaper to injection mold them? Even if it makes counterfeiting easier, who's stupid enough to waste their time counter fitting pennies?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+33Make them out of depleted uranium... we can't ever seem to find a place for that stuff, how about the hands of John Q. Public
- Carv, on 10/12/2007, -0/+30Last year, The Mint produced 14277420000 pennies.
14277420000 x 1.4 = 19988388000
19988388000 - 14277420000 = 5710968000
5710968000 cents = $57,109,680
That's 57 million dollors in lost money, just for last year. - foxhoundadmin, on 10/12/2007, -6/+34if we get rid of the penny, then lincoln will be a sad, sad panda! :(
- mfratt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23How hard is it really to type "enough"
- dasnov, on 10/12/2007, -6/+26420 was yesterday. Come on guys, lay off the pot before posting.
- mxpxpx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20thats a confusing statement
- screensnot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17@WalterDragon
Pennies are mostly zinc now, and have been for quite some time.
In 1943, pennies were made of steel (with a zinc coating, I think). Lead was never used to my knowledge. - geoboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Some of us prefer not being tracked with every electronic transaction we make.
- chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Simple, round everything to the nearest nickle. In the end it will all average out.
- johnnyrotten, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Australia doesn't use pennies. They just round. I didn't have any problems with this when I was there.
- Ryetronics, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15The article is on a "news" site, therefore it is clarified as news. Digg is not a "breaking news" site, so this article deserves to be on the front page IMO.
It may not be new to you, but it is to me and countless others. - mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14by 'confusing' you mean 'doesn't make the least bit of sense'.
- complexigon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12I can think of a few things more profitable than counterfeiting pennies...
- eastshores, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NO!! I can't take gas prices being rounded to the nearest .05! =(
- tdowling, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12@WaterDragon: Below is a web page that lays out the history of the composition of the penny. Since 1982, it's been 97.5% zinc: http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/fun_facts/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=fun_facts2
- VaKo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12How would I buy illegal drugs and bootlegged smokes & booze with a credit card?
- coyforce, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Exactly, overseas on military instillations we use the nickel as the lowest coin due to shipping prices. AAFES just rounds up or down depending on what the prices are. It is really nice to not have to carry around all that change. Death to the penny!
- xiphoris, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12The article summary overblows the issue. It's true that pennies cost more to produce than they're worth (and thus the department loses money by printing them), but that's far offset by other things.
Particularly, collectors have been taking the new "State Quarters" off the market in hoards. Every time someone "collects" a quarter (and never spends it again), the treasury department gains money. Those collections far outweigh the pennies. - fantasticFlan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11copper plated oak
- StarSaber, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11The government had this same problem in 1982, so they changed it from a copper penny (95%copper 5% zinc and tin) to the current copper zinc mixture (99.2% zinc .8% copper). My guess is that they will change the mixture again. I have no idea what they would change it to to get the penny making money again.
- kingprad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Make it half as big?
- dayquil, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12Please note the url: http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Penny_costs_more_than_cent_to_0421.html
has the word "news" in it. And is presented as news.
The person who posted this, despite what you apparently think, does not have a responsibility to do their own research and figure out whether this is "common knowledge" (which it is not, by the way - the term "common knowledge" is thrown around here way too often).
Once again, just don't digg the article, report it if you think that's necessary, and then stfu please.
Some folks seem to think they have more appreciation of digg than others, and go around patrolling and leaving comments about the content sucking. If you really understood and appreciated digg you'd know that there is a built in method (digging, dumbass) for controlling what content is delivered to the scanning public.
Don't digg it and let it go. Just because you don't care doesn't mean nobody else will (which apparently they do, as this did hit the front page). I don't much care either, but your behavior is, to me, far more infuriating. - venom8599, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Until the first blackout or natural disaster rolls around we'll be fine. Never underestimate the importance of a little cold hard cash.
- funpet, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11the problem is that they don't want people melting down pennies for the metal, thus undermining the mint system.
- Sturmur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8It's already being proposed in Canada, so it is not my idea.
What you do is round up or round down to the 5c mark.
Edit: Chris got me by a couple seconds. Damn! - mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9why are pennies bigger than dimes anyhow?
- generalleoff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I used to play with plastic Penny's when I was in 1st grade. Learned to count with them. 25 years later someone tried to buy a pack of smokes from the store I worked at with some plastic Penny's. I would not discount the possibility that someone would counterfeit the things. Then again it's not exactly hard to stamp metal coins either.
- lerch, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11lol, thats great. Made me laugh. Thats the perfect fit for the us American stereotypes ;)
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Why not just reset the inflation, so that a penny means something. We'd have less money, but it'd be worth more. Evens out. Inflation is pure greed, that is why minumum wage keeps going up, just to keep up with the problem. Why not fix the problem?
The way things are going, everything will keep inflating till a can of pop costs $7, but that's ok because we'll have more money, so $7 is like .50. Why not just reset it. Or let the problem remain, then get rid of pennies... then nickels... eventually we won't even have $1 bills... - Yellow, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10There are enuff pennies out there to get by. Quit Making Them!!
- lastthingusee, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Wow, it only took 27 comments to get a Bush hater out of this.
(At the time of this post) - joshjoneswas, on 10/12/2007, -9/+16We could try a little harder to improve our economy... therefore, bringing the costs of many things down. Funny thing is, lampshade probably has the best idea of just getting rid of it.. I mean think about it: Inflation is a continuous thing. Cheeseburgers once cost 5 cents.. now they cost a dollar or so let's say. So eventually, they will cost 5 dollars one day. But with inflation, we will all be accustomed and adjusted to that new price in the future. (Wages and the cost of living would be higer, etc.).... So, to me, it would seem that eventually the penny would not factor in and something like the nickel would be the lowest common denominator... Perhaps even the dollar would be the LCD. Right? I'm sure many of you guys know more about that stuff than I do, anyone else know if that is probable or possible?
Or does it eventually do something like a stock split does... and reground itself? - zydeco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I think all the money made by people hoarding the 50 States quarters can surely makeup for the loss on the pennies. The US Mint is the most profitable arm of the Government right now.
I'm more for getting rid of the paper dollar and getting a real dollar coin in circulation, and we can catch up with the rest of the civilized world....oh, what's that, Senator Kennedy? The paper mill is in your district? We can't kill the paper dollar? Sorry we brought it up, sir. Never mind. - ChileanGoD, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Here's an idea.... When a merchant has to give a costumer the change for a purchase. He could round up the total to the nearest 10cents and can ask the costumer if he would like to donate the other 1 to 9 cents to a charity. That would get rid of the need for physical pennies and still have them around, virtually. And you get to do something good at the same time..
- Digital.Totem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Last time I needed a penny was in middle school for a science project. Get rid of the penny, seriously it's so worthless gas stations give them away, and some people actually take them.
- joshrt, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11It probably costs a lot less to create other currency so it should make up for it.
- erkokite, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Stop charging *.99 for everything.
- motorhappy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7We should just have them made in China.
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