America no longer needs the penny in its economy.

Common factors that go into the reasoning include cost of production, transaction inefficiency, inflation, value, and environmental impact. Ultimately, the penny is becoming more impractical and useless as time goes on.

The first reason the penny is almost useless is because of its cost of production. According to CoinNews.com, the penny cost 3.07 cents to make in 2023. To put this in perspective of how expensive that is, based on Investopedia, printing a one-dollar bill only costs 5.4 cents.

Therefore, as reported on NPR, the United States loses around $110 million annually simply by creating pennies for circulation.

Additionally, 2% of Americans admit to throwing pennies in the garbage. “Whenever I get a penny at a store, it just aggravates me. It wastes time when the clerk has to grab the pennies out of the register, and I do not like having to put them in my pocket because they just take up space and are virtually worthless,” stated Saint Paul’s senior Trey Rather.

“In the past 5 years, I can not remember the last time I used a penny in a purchase,” Rather said. Andrew Dart, Saint Paul’s Director of Communications, agrees. “Whenever I’m vacuuming my car, if I find a penny under the seat, I just suck it up because it’s not worth the effort of picking up and putting it in my pocket.”

Like Rather, Dart cannot remember the last time he used a penny in a purchase. While many used to use pennies in combination with other loose change to tip, tipping with pocket change now seems like an inappropriate gesture. “It’s weird, but it almost seems rude when someone tips me with change, especially pennies,” said one anonymous Saint Paul’s sophomore who works at a local restaurant.

Coins as a whole are becoming more useless with the reliance on credit cards and Apple Pay. In fact, many businesses straight-up refuse cash or coins.

Another reason the penny needs to go is inefficiency in transactions. Using pennies in cash transactions takes extra time because cashiers and customers have to count and handle them. This slows down the line, making the process less efficient. In busy stores, each second during a transaction, the line builds up.

Many businesses are realizing that every second counts, but not necessarily every penny.

In addition to the penny being inefficient, it has also been heavily affected by inflation. Based on the U.S. Department of Labor, as inflation has driven up the cost of living and wages, the concept of a penny has become less relevant. For example, the minimum wage in the U.S. in 1960 was about $1.00, or 100 pennies. In the 1900s, a penny was worth about 33 cents in today’s economy. That is a considerable shift in worth that now makes the penny nearly useless.

The last major reason the penny needs to go is because of the environmental impact it has on the world. Per Treehugger.com, making pennies wastes natural resources and is toxic to people in the environment.

Pennies are three percent copper, and 97 percent zinc, and are primarily made from virgin ore, meaning they were extracted directly from nature without processing. Thus, making pennies means they have to mine for those materials.

Red Dog Mine, which is the largest zinc mine in the U.S., is by far the number one polluter on the EPA’s list because of large quantities of heavy-metal and lead-rich mining tailings. Mining tailings are the leftover materials from the process of mined ore. Lead is an extremely toxic metal, and exposure to very high levels of lead can severely damage the brain and central nervous system, causing coma, convulsions, and even death, as stated by World Health Organization.

In closing, the penny is no longer needed in America’s economy. It costs more to make than it is worth, which wastes money and resources. As prices continue to rise, the penny buys less and less, making it useless for everyday transactions.

Other countries such as Canada and New Zealand have already removed small coins like the penny without any major problems. By getting rid of the penny, the U.S. could save money on production and make transactions quicker and easier.

It’s clear that the penny has outlived its usefulness, and it’s time for a change by making less pocket change.

Featured Image Photo credit: The Steve Pomeranz Show