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For the most part, my pennies spend most of their time collecting dust in either the bottom of my wallet or in the cup holders in my car. Apparently Canada, among other countries like Australia, Brazil and Sweden, has had enough with the cumbersome coins as well. As of February of 2013, Canada officially ceased distributing pennies, considering the cost of manufacturing them is even more than the worth of the penny. Should the United States and the U.K. follow in Canada’s footsteps and eliminate the penny?
A wealth of small businesses around the U.S. have ceased using pennies in transactions, choosing to lose a few cents at each transaction by rounding down for customers. However, the benefits of getting rid of pennies outweigh the costs for these small businesses. The time it takes to count the pennies, along with their measly worth, just is not worth keeping the coins around.
According to the U.S. Mint’s annual report, it costs 2.41 cents to produce one penny; and according to the Canadian Mint, removing the penny from circulation saved taxpayers an estimated $11 million each year. The U.K. is also pondering the cessation of the one pence due to inflation. Also, with the increasing popularity of plastic transactions, pennies are becoming obsolete anyway. So should the U.S. and the U.K. follow in Canada’s footsteps and rid of the penny altogether?
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