Argumentative Essay: The Elimination Of The Penny

Imagine a world without the penny. No more happy children who think good luck will come their way when they find a penny heads up on the ground. No pennies around to make that old tin cup clink and brighten the day of some desperate homeless man. Charities, instead of thriving, would suffer due to penniless penny drives. Jobs would be lost due to the lower demand for zinc that could be mined and produced into American money. Most importantly, a significant part of history would be thrown away and lost. Elimination of the penny would be hard to deal with and could cause problems left and right with society. America needs to keep the penny because it has a great deal of social and cultural value, it holds a significant amount of history,
and it is vital to the U.S. economy.
One important reason why the penny should be kept is because Americans agree that it holds significant social value as well as a respectable amount of cultural value.
For example, two-thirds of Americans want to keep the penny (O’Neill).
In a recent survey, it showed that no matter how much income a person makes, the percentage of people who oppose the penny removal has always been higher than those who support the removal (“Abolish the Penny”). The Harris Poll survey was a survey that was conducted online in the U.S. in June and contained a wide variety of 2,136 adults (“Abolish the Penny”). When adults were asked whether eliminating the penny and making the nickel the lowest value coin was favorable or not, a majority said no and wanted to preserve the penny. Removal of the penny would anger a lot of Americans. It was found by a cross examination between a large varied group of adults that the penny is still important and loved by many, no matter how much money a family makes.
Furthermore, many people like to collect pennies. Collecting pennies is a hobby to many people and that means the penny has a strong social value to Americans. For example, a man named Sylvester Neal has been collecting pennies for a long time now and would strongly support keeping the penny. He could eventually collect millions of them (Guidone). He quotes, “Sometimes I walk with my head down looking for pennies” (Guidone). He currently has 700,000 pennies in his garage which is $7,000 worth of money, and about five years ago had 8,000 before he had to cash them in (Hagenbaugh). Collecting pennies can be very beneficial to anyone in the future and also exciting to look forward to adding more every day.
There are several theories that suggest that pennies are good luck, and even though these are just superstitions, they have become a part of our culture that may go away if the penny is removed. People in ancient civilizations believed that metals, such as the metal that makes up the penny, were a gift from the gods and that pennies were given to them as a means of protection (“Are Pennies Lucky”). The idea that the penny is a source of luck came from this superstition that people have followed since ancient times and still believe today that finding a penny means protection. This brings out the cultural side of the penny and shows that as Americans, we should carry out and continue those good luck superstitions our ancestors once followed and believed in. Additionally, “Find a penny, pick it up. All day long you’ll have good luck” is also a popular saying and superstition amongst Americans (“Are Pennies Lucky”). More than three-quarters of adults say they pick up any pennies they see laying on the ground according to the USA TODAY Gallup survey (Hagenbaugh). There are many sayings and superstitions about the penny; this is just one of them. Other ones that people say are “Penny Pinching”, “A penny for your thoughts”, and many more. What would become of these saying and the people that follow them? =Another saying that every bride knows and abides by is: “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a lucky penny in the shoe.” This is another idea that has been carried over into other traditions that insist pennies bring luck (“Are Pennies Lucky”). Having a penny in the shoe during a wedding ceremony brings good luck to people on their wedding and marriage. Removing the penny would cremate the traditions of some families and ancient beliefs.
Not only do Americans want to keep the penny because they love to collect them and use them for good luck, but also want it to remain because of its historic value to America.
One of the reasons the penny is historically valuable is the fact that they were the first U.S.
currency. The U.S authorized the penny the first currency so this means the penny has worth in regards to U.S. history (Kahn). Benjamin Franklin took a huge rule in making and developing the design of the penny in 1787 which gives it even more historical value (Guidone). But most importantly, Abe Lincoln is represented on the face of the penny. Even the president Barrack Obama himself wanted to eliminate the penny but the fact that Abraham Lincoln is represented on it ruled that decision out of mind (“A Penny”). People argue to keep the penny simply because of who is shown on the face; the most beloved leader and the countries 16th president (O’Neill). Michael Bishop states, “The penny is perhaps the most visible and tangible reminder of Lincoln’s significant in American history” (“President”). It can be agreed that the penny is a very strong tangible and valuable visual reminder and representation that all Americans need to remember. It visually shows designs that represent stages in Abe’s life time. The new design of the penny, created by President Bush, shows four different important stages of Lincoln’s life. The stages include birth and childhood, years in Indiana, professional life in Illinois, and Presidency in Washington (“President”). The new design of the penny emphasizes the fact that Americans need to remember Lincoln as a president as well as everything he went through in his lifetime. In 1909, Abe Lincoln was first placed on the face of the penny coin in honor of that year marking his one-hundredth birthday (Guidone). These tiny little pennies in America hold such an important historic remembrance for America that needs to be kept within our
society.
Probably the most significant reason for keeping pennies, along with the reasonings of historic, cultural, and social value, even though small in size, is that they have a huge impact on the U.S. economy.
For example, the existence of the penny simply creates jobs. Tennessee is a place that thrives in zinc and pennies made today are made up of 97.5% zinc (Lewis). If the penny was removed, Tennessee miners who work to mine zinc could potentially lose their jobs. Without the penny, there wouldn’t be such a high demand for the use of zinc in the economy. The US Mint produces 20.27 million pennies per day and about 7.4 billion every year (Headley). Taking away the penny would also cause peoples jobs to be cut in the U.S Mint which is the corporation that produces American money, because fewer people would be needed to produce the penny.
Keeping the penny can be economically beneficial to people personally, no one simply just throws money or change in the garbage. Edmond Knowles is a great example of someone who greatly appreciates the penny. Edmond saved 90 pennies every day for the last 38 years. When he went to cash in his life time supply of pennies, everything added up to be $13,084.59 or 1,308,459 pennies (Kahn). This example proves the saying that every penny adds up or every penny counts. “Penny Pinching” is a common phrase which means that people try to save as much as they can and are frugal with their money which supports the fact that every penny counts and has a value even though very small.
Most importantly, charities thrive off of penny drives and help the economy flourish. A great example of a successful and beneficial charity that benefits from pennies is the Free the Children group. This charity was considered Canada’s largest penny drive before the penny was removed from Canada’s currency (Divon). The money that Free the Children raised went straight to the Water Initiative Organization which provided rural villages with ability to generate and withstand their own clean water supplies (Divon). Marc Kielburger, the cofounder of Free the Children, is very proud of the outcomes and the impact he knows he had on the lives of the people in the villages that the water was going to (Divon). Marc states, “They’ll be able to equate that into something incredibly powerful in that I, a young person, through a penny drive, have given someone I never met clean water for the rest of their lives”( Divon).. For Marc, the Free the Children Penny drive was more than just a penny drive, it was a spiritual event for him and made him feel really good about helping the economy by supplying water to people who are in need of it. Even though the penny was soon removed in Canada after this penny drive, the penny had a major impact on several people’s lives, including marc and everyone who had helped him, and benefited the economy. He quotes, “For young people, pennies are overlooked. And we want to show that just like putting a whole bunch of young people together, a tremendous impact can be mad putting a whole bunch of pennies together” (Divon). Even though pennies are small, as Marc says, they have a huge impact and advantage in the economy, they just need to be put together for the right cause. Once again Marc’s quote further backs up the saying the “every penny counts” and that many collected together are powerful just like many people working together to reach a goal. Another little organization called Power of Hope Community Organization started a penny drive to collect items to give to families that are less fortunate during the Christmas season and also throughout the year (“Pennies for HOPE”). The penny drive collected pennies and lose change from anyone who was willing to donate to buy coats, hats, towels, socks, bedding, gloves and many more (“Pennies for HOPE”). Pennies in this case, symbolize hope and the power they have on certain people and how much of a difference they can make. An organization in New York conducted by children of the area called Common Cents collected over 65 million pennies which accounts to $655,508.54 (Hagenbaugh). Fifty six year old Deborah Reed is a retired teacher in Crittenden Kentucky, and she states, “I wouldn’t be happy,” if the penny was eliminated because she wouldn’t be able to send the pennies her church collects to help send orphans to a camp every summer (Hagenbaugh).
Even though there are many benefits to keeping the penny, people can argue that getting rid of it can be beneficial as well. It may save people the slightest bit of time dealing with a transaction at a cash register (40 seconds), but without it, overtime, the rounding up of sales prices would hurt someone’s wallet figuratively (Kahn). All these small increases would add up if the prices rounded up to the nearest nickel. It may not seem like it in one single transaction but progressively it would add up. People who are for the elimination of the penny argue that pennies are too expensive to make than they are worth. As Jim Kolbe says, the penny is a nuisance and will cost more that it is worth pretty soon (“Stop”). But there is an easy solution to that problem. If the penny was constructed primarily out of zinc, and not a combination of zinc and copper, the price to produce it would decrease. Cheaper materials equals the easy solution society is looking for in order to save the penny. To make one penny, it costs 1.26 cents but to make the nickel it costs 7.7 cents (Headley). Why should the country single out the penny, and not the nickel or dime? Removal of the penny would just mean the US Mint will have to produce more nickels which would pretty much cancel out the savings of stopping the penny production (Headley). Even though the penny doesn’t have much value in relation to money, there is much more to the penny than people think.
Pennies should be kept in the U.S. money system because they hold social and cultural value, have historic importance, and are extremely helpful to the economics of the U.S. Its obvious that a penniless world would mean losing social and cultural value to Americans. Also, a world without a penny would diminish historical value, which would mean losing a great part of our nation’s past including a reminder of our most beloved leader, Abe Lincoln, who appears on the face. Removal would also affect the economic side of the country because they wouldn’t be present to help charities thrive and could cost people their jobs.