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!

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• Loss of Utility
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Loss of Utility

So what does it mean when a penny is no longer worth a penny? It means that the minted penny is useless and wasted. The penny hardly qualifies as money anymore. If you want to buy something with pennies nowadays, you'll need to put a lot of effort into gathering up enough before they amount to anything worthwhile.

Most vending machines no longer accept pennies--they'll just kick them back into the coin return.  Some parking meters and toll booths also reject them.  And you'll never satisfy a homeless person merely with pennies anymore.

And what about those little red buckets outside of K-Mart each Christmas season, you ask?  Do you really think throwing away your useless pennies makes you a good person?  Before inflation kicked in, back when pennies were worth over ten times what they are today, giving pennies to charity might have been acceptable.  Nowadays, if you want to feel the Christmas spirit, you had better give at least a few dimes and quarters, and you're not entirely safe until you've contributed at least a dollar.

The final point has been saved for last because of how obvious it is:  You can't buy anything with a penny or even four.  Nowadays you're lucky to find anything under $0.50, and such quantities are best left to quarters, dimes, and nickels.