Emancipate Your Pennies

Wondering what you can do to help the Penny Emancipation Coalition abolish circulation? Start by becoming better informed by researching the issue. Take a look at the provided links and then take matters into your own hands!

• Home
• Cost of Production
• Loss of Utility
• Loss of Time
• Alternatives
• What You Can Do
• External Links

Loss of Time

As the penny has lost its value, it has become a burden on the society which created it. According to some experts, American wages average around $18 per hour, meaning that it takes the average person two seconds to earn one cent.¹ Think about all the times you've had to search for pennies at the bottom of your pockets during transactions, though. When pennies are involved, it is estimated that the fumbling around and counting out takes an average of over two seconds to complete the transaction.

True Anecdote

The other day I was at a coffee shop buying a drink. With sales tax the price came to $1.76. I handed the cashier a $5 bill. His brow furrowed as he, being of the generation of cashiers never trained in counting back money, tried to figure out the proper amount of change. He got as far as the three $1 bills but then started reaching for the dimes. Realizing that he was about to give me two dimes and four pennies in change, I frantically rushed to the "Take a Penny, Leave a Penny" tray that no one uses anymore (and he had obviously forgotten about it). I told him, "Kind sir, I will give you this penny, and you may just give me a quarter." After he spent a second or two double-checking the math, he finally consented. Total time lost on account of the penny: 4-6 seconds.

The moral of the story is that the penny is simply too small a price to pay in the course of daily transactions.

¹Robert Whaples, Wall Street Journal