Down to the very last penny

Chelsea BrandweinSports EditorIt was Benjamin Franklin who said “a penny saved is a penny earned.” But with the copper colored currency on the verge of elimination and the possibility of prices being rounded to the nearest nickel, we’re going to have to up the price for your thoughts.The first design for the penny was suggested by Benjamin Franklin in the late 1700s. In 1787, the first penny, known as the Fugio cent, was cast by a privately owned mint and was made entirely of copper. In 1815, no pennies were minted as a result of a copper shortage brought on by the War of 1812. Later, the penny underwent a change in composition and instead of being composed of 100 percent copper, it consisted of 88 percent copper and 12 percent nickel. To commemorate his 100th birthday in 1909, Abraham Lincoln was placed on the face of the penny; the first person to be depicted on the coin. The Lincoln Cent was also the first coin bearing the message “In God We Trust.”(Americans for Common Cents).But the penny, though formerly a popular coin, has recently started to descend into the abyss. Pennies are tossed aside in wallets as people sift around for a quarter for the parking meter. They are swept up in dust pans at eateries. They sit isolated from their silver counterparts in a jar until they can make the trip to the local Coinstar machine. For these reasons and more, people have considered eliminating the coin all together.Due to the increasing price of zinc, which since 2008 has composed 97.5 percent of the penny, representative Jim Kolbe came forward with two bills in an attempt to pass The Currency Overhaul for an Industrious Act (COIN), which, if passed, would reduce the use of the penny and cause prices to be rounded to the nearest nickel.Many lobby that to eliminate the penny would be a wise decision because surprisingly, it costs more to produce a penny than a penny is actually worth (1.7 cents per penny). According to an article in a 2008 edition of The New Yorker, the U.S. Mint manufactures over 7 billion pennies over the course of a year and then deals them out to the Federal Reserve at their face value. Because of this, the Treasury suffers from a yearly penny deficit of nearly $50 million dollars.Nevertheless, according to Americans for Common Cents, 66 percent of Americans are in favor of keeping the penny in circulation. According to Professor of Economics at Pennsylvania State University, Raymond Lombra, Ph.D., rounding sales to the nearest nickel amount could cost buyers over $600 million dollars a year. Some are also convinced that making the nickel the coin with the least value could cause unwanted confusion at check-out.The debate is not over yet.cbrandwein@thesamohi.com