Do Pennies make SENSE?

The Washington Times ^ | 2/13/09 | Jennifer Harper

[lakeprincess]

The minting of 4 new Lincoln cents has got the anti-penny crowd in an uproar - complete with civil disobedience calling for the end of penny use. They're vexed at the "zinc lobby."

[SiVisPacemParaBellum]

"Do Pennies make SENSE?"

They sure work great in my fuse box!

I forgot about that very important contribution to their worth.

[vidbizz]

Well, that’ll be the only Change I’ll have left.

[longtermmemmory]

Eliminating pennies is inflationary.

[NavyCanDo]

Read a story once about a chain of stores that offered as an “Option” to round-up to the nearest nickle. The 1 to 4 pennies were used for charity. They had a catchy phrase like round-up for the hungry, or something like that. The story went on that if tried on the national level, about how much money the country could save - in two ways. One they would have to mint less pennies of which many of which are lost or discarded within a few years of being minted. The other way would be the “charity funds collected” could be used for something useful - that your tax dollars normally fund.

Interesting idea.

[bonnieblue4me]

"Yes i use mine to pee with"

That's series. Mine's hugh and I do more with it.

[MortMan]

Never get rid of one dollar bills. Do you realize how inconvienent it would be at the gentlemans club?

I dunno - Coin slots work on vending machines... ;-P

[Names Ash Housewares]

God bless ya, but if you did that 1000 times each year, 2.7 times a day, you would have ten bucks.

Figure 10 seconds per penny, seeing it going over to it, picking it up, later putting it in the jar.

that is like a 3.60 an hour job.

oh now you have to roll them, or go to counting machine.

Far more efficient to put in an extra 30 minutes of overtime at work then picking up pennies.

[Joe 6-pack]

Yep...I can get 100 fuses for a dollar!

[Rightly Biased]

but it would be my 10.00 bucks and not yours

I’m one of salaried masses OT means nothing but not getting to go home.

I’ll go ahead and pick up pennies just to give you something to shake your head about. :^))

[Mad Dawgg]

"Far more efficient to put in an extra 30 minutes of overtime at work then picking up pennies."

Hmmm how does one go to the store and be at work at the same time?

The problem with your premise is that you assume one goes out with the intent to do nothing but pick up pennies. When you could be at work.

Most of us penny scavengers do so while we are on the way to and from the store. So if you are walking into a store and see a penny and don't pick it up how much overtime are you making at that moment?

[Names Ash Housewares]

It’s still time out of your life that adds up, I mean hey, go for it, I used to pick ‘em up too once. I changed my mind in the last few years. But in the end, how many a year do you pick up?
We’re really talking a trivial amount of chump change.

And if I am out walking through parking lots, my attention is better spent on watching I do not get hit or for criminals.

[Mad Dawgg]

"We’re really talking a trivial amount of chump change."

In one month alone I picked up slightly over 25 Bucks just on the trips I made to the store to get the local news paper and an occasional soft drink. (I can almost touch the store from my building.) I put the money in the bank and add it to my savings I use to buy Certificates of Deposit.

I've also found paper money on occasions and once even found a winning Lottery Scratch Off someone threw down because they didn't understand how to win the game. It was 15 bucks. All of it went in my Certificate of Deposit fund.

My Grandparents taught me long ago its not how much you make its what you do with it that makes you wealthy. See that money I picked up isn't a one time profit, its working daily for me making me more money.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Hey, if it’s silver or green, I will pick it up abso-posi-lutely.

Pennies just ain’t worth the time.

[Axenolith]

One of the major reasons I continue to pick up visible (as opposed to metal detected) pennies is because it keeps me in the zone of "looking for circles and rectangles". Your brain is far more amenable to scanning the ground for a shape than the abstract monetary quantity (i.e. a dime, quarter, ten etc...) when you're looking for that type of stuff.

I have found a LOT of cool stuff scanning this way, gobs of change but also bills up to $100, a 1901 $20 gold piece, and several very nice rings.