Penny Synthesis Essay

The penny, a coin in the United States is valued at one hundredth of a dollar, or one twenty-fifth of a gumball. Over 1.65 trillion pennies have been produced by the United States Mint for circulation since 1792. The United States penny should be taken out of circulation from the United States economy because pennies cost more to make than what they are worth on its face value. The high amount of penny production has led to a large consumption of metals including zinc and copper. Additionally, inflation has caused the penny to have little to no value in today’s economy. The penny should be eliminated from circulation, as pennies cost more in raw materials to make then amount it is worth. The cost of making a penny today costs 1.63 cents

Mint 1.63 cents for every penny it produces- almost 7 billion of them in 2014”(Gore). The price of penny production quickly adds up, as those seven billion pennies cost the U.S. Mint over 114 million dollars.
This price differencing has led to people melt down the pennies and resell the metal as a raw material for profit. With the elimination of the penny, the U.S. Mint would stop losing profit on production of the penny, and would stop the government from losing money in a time where the United States is in trillions of dollars in debt. The composition of the penny is a mixture of copper and zinc. The composition of a specific penny can be determined by the year of production marked on the coin. In the article “Is My Penny Solid Copper or a Copper-Plated Zinc Cent,” the writer states, “If your… penny has a date before 1982, it is made of 95% copper. If the date is 1983 or later, it is made of 97.5% zinc”(Bucki).The difference in composition has an effect on price, as copper is worth more than zinc. Since the U.S. Mint has began the production of pennies, over 1.65 trillion pennies have been made for circulation. With the average penny weighing three grams, the total mass of all pennies combined is 4.95 trillion grams. That is 10,912,881,978 pounds of copper and zinc that could have been used to reinforce metals such as iron and steel with zinc, or alloys used for electrical engineering and bronze

Although the penny has remained the coin representing one-cent, prices of all objects have significantly increased. As stated from the article “Should America Get Rid of the Penny,” “In the early nineties, you could treat yourself to a candy feast for just a few cents”(O’Neill). This differs from the modern economy greatly as one bar of candy would cost approximately one to two dollars. Additionally, pennies are no longer accepted in most vending machines, and to pay for an item solely in pennies would prove to be a gigantic hassle, as even paying for a candy bar would require counting out one-hundred pennies. An argument might be made that removal of the penny could cause inflation of products, but as stated by Justin O’Neill, “Prices would have to be rounded to the nearest nickel”(O’Neill). This could increase some products to raise prices by one to three cents to the nearest nickel, but this would be counterbalanced by some products lowering their prices by one to three cents to get to the nearest