The penny

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

While a lot of people have sentimental attraction to pennies, it looks like what would make the most sense is to get rid of the penny, and make a smaller cheaper to make nickle.

[MODU]

No/No.  What we need to do though is get more people switching over to electronic currency (ie check cards) so less coins actually need to be produced.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

While a lot of people have sentimental attraction to pennies, it looks like what would make the most sense is to get rid of the penny, and make a smaller cheaper to make nickel.

Doesn't need to be smaller, but they do need to get rid of the nickel in the nickel.  Besides being expensive, it's a difficult metal to mint, requiring heftier and stronger coin presses than if they used other metals.

[memphis]

Getting rid of cash seems so inevitable to me. All kinds of shady transactions (drugs, robberies, terrorism, tax evasion) would be made much more difficult. I hardly ever use cash anymore, as even fast food places take my visa debit card now.

Yes, and it will allow government to track your every move.  No thanks.

And the government doesn't already do that now?

The government doesn't know where I spend my cash.  Debit cards are much more easy to track.

Just out of curiousity, what purchases are you hiding from the gov't? I really don't think George Bush cares about your porn collection

[KEmperor]

Getting rid of cash seems so inevitable to me. All kinds of shady transactions (drugs, robberies, terrorism, tax evasion) would be made much more difficult. I hardly ever use cash anymore, as even fast food places take my visa debit card now.

Yes, and it will allow government to track your every move.  No thanks.

And the government doesn't already do that now?

The government doesn't know where I spend my cash.  Debit cards are much more easy to track.

Just out of curiousity, what purchases are you hiding from the gov't? I really don't think George Bush cares about your porn collection

Please, porn is free on the internet.

[Gabu]

Getting rid of cash seems so inevitable to me. All kinds of shady transactions (drugs, robberies, terrorism, tax evasion) would be made much more difficult. I hardly ever use cash anymore, as even fast food places take my visa debit card now.

Yes, and it will allow government to track your every move.  No thanks.

And the government doesn't already do that now?

The government doesn't know where I spend my cash.  Debit cards are much more easy to track.

Just out of curiousity, what purchases are you hiding from the gov't? I really don't think George Bush cares about your porn collection

Please, porn is free on the internet.

And, depending on what you're trying to find, can sometimes even be hard to avoid.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Getting rid of cash seems so inevitable to me. All kinds of shady transactions (drugs, robberies, terrorism, tax evasion) would be made much more difficult. I hardly ever use cash anymore, as even fast food places take my visa debit card now.

Opebo would hate that.

Actually, so would I. How do you tip strippers?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Getting rid of cash seems so inevitable to me. All kinds of shady transactions (drugs, robberies, terrorism, tax evasion) would be made much more difficult. I hardly ever use cash anymore, as even fast food places take my visa debit card now.

Opebo would hate that.

Actually, so would I. How do you tip strippers?

Assuming that the strip club does full nudity, I can think of one place to swipe the card that would encourage plenty of tips, but getting the technology miniaturized to the point where you could put a card reader there might be a problem.

[12th Doctor]

No, we should keep the penny. 

It is that simple. 

Is it now?  And you are not bothered by the fact that we spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year pumping out a tiny piece of plated zinc that most people will just end up throwing away?  I don't know what they ave done to the new pennies, but they tarnish so easily now anyway.  If you haven't washed your hands in a while and you press your fingure on one, within a week there is a good chance that you finger print will be perminantly worn into the surface.

[Reignman]

Yes/Yes

Because it sucks/It's only a question of when

[jimrtex]

2009 is the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, and there will be 4 versions of the one cent coin issued that year.

Jim Kolbe used to sponsor legislation that would get rid of the penny.  His Coin Overhaul for an Industrius Nation (COIN) Act would have required rounding of transactions paid in cash to the nearest nickel, making the penny even less useful than today.  It would also have required the FRB to stop issuing 1 dollar bills as soon as more than 1 billion dollar coins were place in circulation for two years.

[Cubby]

Getting rid of cash seems so inevitable to me. All kinds of shady transactions (drugs, robberies, terrorism, tax evasion) would be made much more difficult. I hardly ever use cash anymore, as even fast food places take my visa debit card now.

Yes, and it will allow government to track your every move.  No thanks.

And the government doesn't already do that now?

The government doesn't know where I spend my cash.  Debit cards are much more easy to track.

Just out of curiousity, what purchases are you hiding from the gov't? I really don't think George Bush cares about your porn collection

Why do you assume that most cash transactions are shady? Cash is a way of making sure the government and credit card companies can't track our every purchase and compile data on us. Its great that you don't do anything illegal, but thats not the point. Its a civil liberties issue. The large majority of people who use cash have done nothing wrong. Its elitist to assume otherwise.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Remove the penny and the nickel from circulation.

[memphis]

Getting rid of cash seems so inevitable to me. All kinds of shady transactions (drugs, robberies, terrorism, tax evasion) would be made much more difficult. I hardly ever use cash anymore, as even fast food places take my visa debit card now.

Yes, and it will allow government to track your every move.  No thanks.

And the government doesn't already do that now?

The government doesn't know where I spend my cash.  Debit cards are much more easy to track.

Just out of curiousity, what purchases are you hiding from the gov't? I really don't think George Bush cares about your porn collection

Why do you assume that most cash transactions are shady? Cash is a way of making sure the government and credit card companies can't track our every purchase and compile data on us. Its great that you don't do anything illegal, but thats not the point. Its a civil liberties issue. The large majority of people who use cash have done nothing wrong. Its elitist to assume otherwise.

I never said that most cash transactions are shady. I'm saying that most shady transactions are in cash. Getting rid of cash would make these things more difficult.