<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><head><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:AllowPNG/><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--></head><body>
This sounds like the author(s) must be people who haven’t studied whether low-income people use cash, much less pennies: everyone <u>they</u> know uses plastic, so <u>everyone</u> must use only plastic. Get rid of pennies; eliminate cash altogether.<br><br> – Mike Alexander<br><br><br><p class="yahoo-quoted-begin" style="font-size: 15px; color: #715FFA; padding-top: 15px; margin-top: 0">On Sunday, September 8, 2024, 10:03 PM, Larry Wittig via LCTG <lctg@lists.toku.us> wrote:</p><blockquote class="iosymail"><div dir="ltr">This appeared on<br></div><div dir="ltr">Morning Brew <<a ymailto="mailto:crew@morningbrew.com" href="mailto:crew@morningbrew.com">crew@morningbrew.com</a>><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Is the penny obsolete?<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">The penny is like an ashtray in an airplane bathroom—a holdover that<br></div><div dir="ltr">no one has the energy to nix.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">That’s the thesis of Caity Weaver’s 7,000-word manifesto published in<br></div><div dir="ltr">New York Times Magazine last weekend, in which she argues that the US<br></div><div dir="ltr">needs to consign the measly tokens to the dustbin of numismatic<br></div><div dir="ltr">history. She decided to offer her two cents on the matter after<br></div><div dir="ltr">learning that producing a single penny costs the US Treasury more than<br></div><div dir="ltr">three pennies.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">The government lost over $94 million last year minting billions of the<br></div><div dir="ltr">pesky discs, which are used mostly as change for cash purchases ending<br></div><div dir="ltr">with .99 and…not much else.<br></div><div dir="ltr">The vast majority are destined to vanish into couch crevices and other<br></div><div dir="ltr">places of coin oblivion, abandoned by Americans who have no reason to<br></div><div dir="ltr">carry currency with a face value that amounts to a rounding error<br></div><div dir="ltr">after centuries of inflation.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Weaver is far from the first commentator to find the status quo<br></div><div dir="ltr">absurd: She joins a chorus of penny abolitionists that includes<br></div><div dir="ltr">prominent economists, US Mint officials, lawmakers, and at least one<br></div><div dir="ltr">POTUS (Obama). But despite years of grumbling about the<br></div><div dir="ltr">superfluousness of the near-worthless coins and several congressional<br></div><div dir="ltr">bills to ditch them, nothing has yet killed the penny once and for<br></div><div dir="ltr">all.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Who’s grasping at pennies?<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">“A penny saved is a penny earned” rings true for the Tennessee metal<br></div><div dir="ltr">manufacturer Artazn, the government’s sole supplier of the zinc blanks<br></div><div dir="ltr">used to make the 1-cent coins (a penny is made up of 98% zinc coated<br></div><div dir="ltr">with copper). The company, which was bought by private equity in 2019,<br></div><div dir="ltr">has raked in $1 billion in revenue since 2008 from selling zinc discs<br></div><div dir="ltr">to the US Mint.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Artazn’s lobbying on Capitol Hill is the main reason for the penny’s<br></div><div dir="ltr">endurance, according to retired US Mint Spokesperson Tom Jurkowsky and<br></div><div dir="ltr">other sources Weaver spoke to. Though the company spent a relatively<br></div><div dir="ltr">paltry $3 million on coin lobbying efforts, Artazn is the loudest<br></div><div dir="ltr">voice promoting pro-penny talking points, sponsoring the advocacy<br></div><div dir="ltr">group Americans For Common Cents, which argues:<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">The abolition of the penny would negatively impact low-income people<br></div><div dir="ltr">and the unbanked, who make up a disproportionate amount of cash users,<br></div><div dir="ltr">by causing stores to round up prices.<br></div><div dir="ltr">Charities like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society rely on penny donations<br></div><div dir="ltr">for fundraising.<br></div><div dir="ltr">Polls show that the majority of Americans want to keep the penny.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">But many penny opponents claim that these arguments don’t add up to<br></div><div dir="ltr">much, just like a bucket of pennies.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Down with the penny<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Penny abolitionists point out that cash usage is declining and<br></div><div dir="ltr">highlight studies showing that even cash-loving consumers would not be<br></div><div dir="ltr">harmed if prices were rounded to the nearest nickel. Just like some<br></div><div dir="ltr">after-tax totals would be rounded up by one or two cents, others would<br></div><div dir="ltr">be rounded down (one study did predict a minuscule price increase in<br></div><div dir="ltr">aggregate).<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Plus, the US wouldn’t be the first country to ditch the penny:<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Canadian merchants say that consumers there have gotten used to the<br></div><div dir="ltr">rounding system the country implemented when it stopped minting its<br></div><div dir="ltr">one-cent coin in 2013.<br></div><div dir="ltr">The US itself previously parted ways with the half-cent coin at a time<br></div><div dir="ltr">when it was worth more than today’s penny.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Concerns for charities might also be misplaced. When Weaver reached<br></div><div dir="ltr">out to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, she was told that the<br></div><div dir="ltr">organization no longer relies on coin drives and has been more<br></div><div dir="ltr">successfully using credit card payment roundups to fundraise.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">As for the penny’s supposed popularity, the majority of Americans<br></div><div dir="ltr">across party lines are on board with ceasing penny production once<br></div><div dir="ltr">they’re told how much it costs to make them, according to a 2022 poll<br></div><div dir="ltr">by progressive think tank Data for Progress.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">There are some Abe Lincoln stans who worry that the demise of the<br></div><div dir="ltr">penny would diminish the legacy of the 16th president, whose profile<br></div><div dir="ltr">graces its obverse. Financial Times reporter Sam Learner proposes<br></div><div dir="ltr">erecting a copper-plated Lincoln monument made out of melted pennies<br></div><div dir="ltr">to appease them.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">So, why are shiny new pennies still a thing? Weaver blames government<br></div><div dir="ltr">inertia. The Fed reflexively orders them from the Treasury, the<br></div><div dir="ltr">Treasury fulfills the order from the Mint, and Congress lacks the<br></div><div dir="ltr">political urgency to officially nix them. But she claims there’s one<br></div><div dir="ltr">person with the power to pull the penny kill switch: According to an<br></div><div dir="ltr">obscure law Weaver discovered during her research, the Treasury<br></div><div dir="ltr">Secretary can simply not order any coins she deems unnecessary.—SK<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">From Larry W: I would also ditch $10 & $50 dollar bills, and dimes.<br></div><div dir="ltr">===============================================<br></div><div dir="ltr">::The Lexington Computer and Technology Group Mailing List::<br></div><div dir="ltr">Reply goes to sender only; Reply All to send to list.<br></div><div dir="ltr">Send to the list: <a ymailto="mailto:LCTG@lists.toku.us" href="mailto:LCTG@lists.toku.us">LCTG@lists.toku.us</a> Message archives: <a href="http://lists.toku.us/pipermail/lctg-toku.us/" target="_blank">http://lists.toku.us/pipermail/lctg-toku.us/</a><br></div><div dir="ltr">To subscribe: email <a ymailto="mailto:lctg-subscribe@toku.us" href="mailto:lctg-subscribe@toku.us">lctg-subscribe@toku.us</a> To unsubscribe: email <a ymailto="mailto:lctg-unsubscribe@toku.us" href="mailto:lctg-unsubscribe@toku.us">lctg-unsubscribe@toku.us</a><br></div><div dir="ltr">Future and Past meeting information: <a href="http://LCTG.toku.us" target="_blank">http://LCTG.toku.us</a><br></div><div dir="ltr">List information: <a href="http://lists.toku.us/listinfo.cgi/lctg-toku.us" target="_blank">http://lists.toku.us/listinfo.cgi/lctg-toku.us</a><br></div><div dir="ltr">This message was sent to <a ymailto="mailto:mna.ma@yahoo.com." href="mailto:mna.ma@yahoo.com.">mna.ma@yahoo.com.</a><br></div><div dir="ltr">Set your list options: <a href="http://lists.toku.us/options.cgi/lctg-toku.us/mna.ma@yahoo.com" target="_blank">http://lists.toku.us/options.cgi/lctg-toku.us/mna.ma@yahoo.com</a><br></div><blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
</body></html>