Pros And Cons Of Pennies

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Should the Penny Continue to be Minted?
Everyone has seen and picked up a penny. We even call them lucky pennies. Children collect these little coins, possibly saving them up for a piece of candy. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “A penny saved is a penny earned,”. But, times have changed since then. Instead of pennies being a source of luck, they are now being seen as a nuisance. While it isn’t a highly controversial topic, it has still brought about enough attention to spark many debates between family, friends, and foes. The penny has many pros and cons to each side of the debate, which leads many people to ask if we should continue minting the penny.
Everyone is familiar with the penny, but many may not know where the penny came from, …show more content…
The first penny was supposedly designed in 1787 by Benjamin Franklin and was called the fugio cent (Cohen). The design included a sun and a sundial (Cohen). Not only was the penny the first form of currency authorized by the U.S. government, but it was also the first to have “In God We Trust” on it (MileWealth). Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was the first president to appear on a coin (MileWealth). In 1909, Teddy Roosevelt introduced a new face to the penny (Cohen). Designed by Victor David Brenner, it displayed a profile of Lincoln’s face in celebration for his one hundredth birthday anniversary (Cohen). Fifty years later, the back of the penny was changed from wheat to bear the Lincoln Memorial (Cohen). Before that, the image on the penny was an Indian head. When pennies were first introduced, they were made from one hundred percent copper (MileWealth). By the end of WWII, the penny had changed from being pure copper to 95% …show more content…
Brian Domitrovic made an interesting claim as to why we should keep minting the penny. He starts off by explaining how the relationship between a coin’s face value and the “metallic constituent” (Domitrovic) used to be closely related. Gold coins were worth twenty dollars because the amount of gold in a gold coin was worth twenty dollars (Domitrovic). Same goes for how much silver was in a dollar coin, and how much nickel was in a nickel, and for how much copper was in a penny (Domitrovic). The economy back then preferred money to be made out of metals because it made sure that the marketers didn’t overproduce the money (Domitrovic). Paper money is so easily overproduced which caused people to lose confidence in it (Domitrovic). Paper money also isn’t worth anything; a hundred dollar bill isn’t worth one hundred dollars in paper. Majority of today’s money is made from paper is made from paper which is why we have such high inflation rates. The Nixon Shock of 1971 allowed the Federal Reserve to print money and lend it to smaller banks, with interest. This stimulated growth which is basically “making money from nothing” (Wood). Jennifer Shafer Wood from Middletown Patch also asked “How do you print money you do not have, and then lend it, with interest and make money from nothing? How does this make economy grow?” (Wood). Domitrovic and Wood both
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