What is change? Many people say change happens when something becomes different than what it currently is. However, I am not talking about this kind of change. I am talking about the kind of change that jingles in your pocket: coins, specifically the penny. The penny is a unit of U.S. currency that is worth 1/100 of a dollar. The cost of making a penny exceeds the value of the penny by far. Therefore, the U.S. government should eliminate the use of and stop the production of pennies in 2013.
Stopping the production of pennies is necessary because the cost of a penny is much more than the value of a penny. A penny currently costs 2.41 cents to make. That is almost two and a half times the value of the penny! Every year, the government loses over 60 million dollars due to the production of pennies. This number will continue to rise in the coming years due to the increasing costs of raw materials, such as copper and zinc. Imagine if you were running a business that could cut 60 million dollars in costs per year. Would you not take advantage of that opportunity? There is also great inconvenience in handling pennies for both consumers and businesses. Consumers often receive pennies as change and then have to carry this change around. Businesses constantly have to go to the bank and make sure their cash registers are supplied with pennies.
Some people may argue that the penny cannot be eliminated because we will not be able to pay a fraction of a nickel. However, the solution to this is very simple; the prices of all products would be rounded to the nearest nickel. Some prices would be rounded up and others would be rounded down. This would average out to about the same cost for products and services. Therefore, people would not pay any extra money for the same products and services.
Stopping the production of pennies would prove to be a very beneficial change to the United States. Currently, pennies cost 2.41 cents to make, which is much more than what they are worth. This difference between the cost and the value causes the U.S. government to lose over 60 million dollars per year. Eliminating the use of and stopping the production of the penny would be a very positive change for the year 2013.