Do you think the US government should stop minting pennies?

👍 Yes (66%) – "No private entity would willingly manufacture something that is guaranteed to be worth less that the cost of making it. Not only should the penny be retired, but the US Mint should figure out a way to make the nickel for less than a nickel. This business model is insane."

• "I’ve wanted the government to halt penny production for many years now so I’m happy to hear about this. That being said, it should probably go through Congress to make sure it sticks."

"Let’s not waste money on something used less and less. If a company produced an item for which there were only a dwindling demand, they’d discontinue production of that item, ESPECIALLY if their cost for production exceeded the consumer price for that product."

• "This is a move I can actually get behind. Why spend 3.7 pennies to make each penny when so few people use cash anymore? The only reason prices are set to XX.99 is so they can appear cheaper anyway. Just round prices to the nearest $0.05 and move on."

"As long as the penny value is honoured in electronic and paper transactions, there is little need for coinage. We in Canada stopped producing and using pennies decades ago but still recognize its value in transactions. No harm done. Its intrinsic value is higher than a penny anyway. That’s the reason they want to stop producing it."

• "There is no reason to mint a penny or any coin every year. Coins were intended to be durable and last 50+ years with normal usage. Usage has gone down so we have plenty of a supply. And, the cent position of transactions and deposits isn't going away, only the minting of the penny. So that drives us further to electronic/check payments or we pay a few cents more (or less). That's a fair price to pay for anonymity."

👎 No (20%) – "The Treasury should continue to mint pennies because removing them will raise prices, since prices will have to be rounded to the nearest nickel. Instead, the Treasury could find a different material to make pennies out of or a different way to produce them that is cheaper. This would allow cash-users to be satisfied and the national debt would be lessened."

• "It evens out with production of other money. Not including they will raise prices for consumers who are already struggling finically. That low number of cash transactions is massively skewed. They want us cashless to count every penny digitally and other coins to tax us more. Track it better means tax it better. How is this better for the plain old regular folk? It isn’t."

🤷 Unsure/other (14%) – "In one way it would be beneficial in that it could save the government money on production costs but in another way it may cause businesses to round up in stead of down, costing the consumer more & it may also negatively affect low income people who rely heavily on cash payments."