Penny Reign
26th December 2010
Tim Cavanaugh looks at why pennies are stupid.
Someday, probably within your lifetime, the one-cent coin will go away. The penny, the first coin minted in the United States, was obviated by inflation before most members of today’s work force were born. Its production cost is more than half again as much as its face value. Its detractors include respected economists, forward-looking realists, and coastal cosmopolitans; its supporters consist largely of sentimentalists, hoarders, the zinc lobby, and the dwindling number of women named Penelope.
Well, if the government would quit inflating our currency, this wouldn’t be a problem.