[bert]

I purchase just about everything but a haircut with a visa card. It easily takes care of transactions requiring odd cents.

We have an old milk bottle that was the depository for change, mostly pennies. The bottle sits there now with almost no pennies.

the fact of the matter is that for many, all change is obsolete.

[T. P. Pole]

I’ve got a better idea. Stop the government policies that made the penny worthless.

[weezel]

ACTUALLY, we dont have a penny. We have one cent coins.

[steveo]

We don’t have ‘pennies’ we have one cent coins.

[Wuli]

Yes. Get rid of it. It cost more than a penny to produce a penny. That cost alone demands we quit minting pennies.

Have everyone round up or truncate down to the nearest nickle.

And don’t be surprised if in another 100 years they eliminate the nickle.

[I want the USA back]

Eliminate it by allowing prices to be rounded to the nearest multiple of 5 cents. Then stop minting pennies. The nickel will one day go the way of Venezuela, but it’s not there yet.

[sjmjax]

Maybe we’re asking the wrong question.
How about we restore the purchase power of the US Dollar?

[1Old Pro]

Today, there’s literally nothing you can buy with a single penny — and you can’t do much else with it either

They make a good washer in a pinch if you drill it out.

[King_Corey]

Today, since the fed printed 37% of the US Money in circulation within the last YEAR, all US Currency is becoming worthless. This is a waste of time to worry about.
If you aren’t changing your US Paper and Coin into something of VALUE you are going to be broke. Long gone are the savers and bank account holders. Inflation and zero interest rates make your bank account worthless.
Silver and Gold haven’t exploded yet, but it is coming. Inflation isn’t reported properly, but check out the price of lumber, food, fuel and other stuff the government isn’t reporting on. The coming destruction is not about the value or usefulness of pennies, it is about the uselessness of a dollar.

[The Great RJ]

Consider that some states impose sales taxes that would not necessarily round up to the nearest nickel. For example Minnesota has a 9.6% tax on alcoholic beverages. Would there be a temptation for states to simply raise taxes to allow for “easy” rounding?

[Leaning Right]

So I guess that no one here wants to join my “Bring Back the Half Penny” movement.

[Dilbert San Diego]

According to a website which has an inflation calculator, showing buying power over the years, 1 cent in 1948 had the buying power of 11 cents today.

So if the goal is to eliminate coins which have negligible buying power, we should eliminate pennies and nickels and make the dime the smallest denomination.

[zeugma]

It is way past time to drop the penny completely. I'd actually go so far as to say that we should drop the nickel as well, but that would cause issues because of quarters.The dollar bill should go as well.

Zeugma's proposal for currency reform:

1. Drop the penny.
2. Drop the dollar bill. (people would start actually using dollar coins, which are much more economical to produce than $1 bills, because the bills wear out so fast due to their velocity in transactions. $1 coins work a heck of a lot better in vending machines than paper dollars do, from personal experience.
3. Start making more $2 bills. Between this, and the $1 coins, the amount of change most people carry wouldn't increase that much, if at all.
4. Start printing $500, and possibly $1000 bills again. In the early 20th century, when they still made a $500, and $1000 bill, a single $500 note would buy a Model T.

I'm sure some drug warrior will complain about resuming production of larger bills, but after more than 50 years of the drug war, isn't it about time to declare that particular unconstitutional nonsense lost, and just get on with our lives?

[faucetman]

DUMB question!

OF COURSE we should get rid of the penny!

I THROW THEM AWAY!

[Jim Noble]

We should have legitimate coinage again, is what we should have.

25c and 50c copper, $1, $2, $5, $10 silver, $20, $50, $100 gold.