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When paying in cash, we use coins every day thus making them a detrimental part of our economy. Coins used in the United States of America include quarters, dimes, nickels, and most important to this article, pennies.
Donald Trump’s presidential term is causing some controversy amongst the population for a variety of reasons. One executive order that Trump has passed is the banning of pennies as a means of reducing the amount of federal waste produced and it costs more to make it than use.
But the question now remains: what does removing the penny from the entire U.S. coin circulation have to do with anything that President Trump claims he is against?
The history of pennies:
According to the United States Mint, (the organization is responsible for producing coinage for the United States for us to be able to commence with our trade and commerce), the penny is defined as, “one of the first coins made by the U.S. Mint after its establishment in 1792. The design on the first penny was of a woman with flowing hair symbolizing liberty. The coin was larger and made of pure copper, while today’s smaller coin is made of copper and zinc.”
Furthermore, the Sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was significant to the history of the penny as his face was the first to be featured on it for his 100th birthday! Surprisingly, Lincoln’s face is still used today!
While the penny is worth only one cent, there is still historical significance and it could have an impact on the economy if removed.
Why does Trump want to get rid of pennies?
Doubling back to the question presented within the introduction, why does President Trump want the U.S. Mint to cease the production of pennies? What are his reasons?
To begin, Trump and supporters of this bill (which is being set into motion to ban pennies in the United States) claim that the amount of money saved from producing money would far exceed the overall value of the penny.
The U.S. Mint states that it takes 3.69 cents to create a penny and combined with the billions of other pennies which are being created, that’s a lot of money!
We have had similar instances where coins were removed from the USA’s currency. Such instances include the removal of the half-cent coin in 1857.
Other countries have also removed their version of pennies such as Canada in 2010. Their reason was much like President Trump’s reasons for removing the penny, it took more money to produce the penny than it was worth in the long run.
What would the impact of removing pennies be?
The impact of removing the pennies may be detrimental to society and the economy.
CNN states “Getting rid of the penny introduces a new problem: nickels.” To explain, if Trump did carry out his plan of removing pennies entirely from circulation, we would have to worry about nickels next, then dimes and even possibly quarters. The reason why the Supreme Court and other powers would be worrying about nickels next is because, nickels, dimes, and quarters take money to make and could be contributing to the “federal waste” as mentioned before.
The same source also mentions that nickels would have to fill in the gap from the reduction in pennies for small-value transactions. “Without the penny, the volume of nickels in circulation would have to rise to fill the gap in small-value transactions. Far from saving money, eliminating the penny shifts, and amplifying the financial burden,” said American for Common Cents.
So, as a consumer, do you think it would be right and or beneficial to remove pennies from the circulation of American currency?