Is it time to kill off the penny? see source?

Question

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/News/TimeToKillOffThePenny.aspx?GT1=8376

Answer 1

I CAN'T believe this. WE the PEOPLE DON'T see through this yet. By ELIMINATING the penny the only thing that is going to happen is PRICES are going to GO UP. Do you really believe that if the price of something is $2.03 that they will drop the price to $2.00. I'll bet the price will now be $2.05. I know a whole two pennies. BUT two pennies and 3 pennies is .05 At the end of a day the store has just increased ten, twenty, thirty dollars or more profit. THE ONLY ones this is GOOD for is the business man. WE the people GET SCREWED AGAIN by our own government. Think about this people.

Answer 2

We are a society of black and white answers. Keep the penny or kill it. ON the one hand, we must realize that our economy is good enough that the penny is the smallest denomination we need and still consider changing it to the nickle. Many "third world" ( I know this is old terminology ) economies have denominations that are worth 1/3 of our penny or less. They only wish they could round to the nearest penny, much less a nickle. On the other hand, pennies are 9 times out of ten, only used as change. Rarely spent, often thrown into a change jar and forgotten, and worse, often thrown away. Kids don't buy penny candy anymore, penny candy doesn't exist.
In the end, if we eliminate the penny, what happens? The nickle becomes the new penny (might as well round to the nearest 10)and loses some of it's value - especially when it gets spent on the item that would have otherwise been 7 cents. (that would be the old penny candy)
Now look at it from Nebraska's point of view: Where did Abraham Lincoln grow up and live? Who is on the penny?
I say keep the penny, let your kids save up 500 pounds of them over their lifetime, and maybe when they graduate, they can buy some pencils and paper for the first week of college.

Answer 3

Yes kill it. Round everything up to the nearest nickel. Add it as a national sales tax. Really, is anyone going to miss an extra 2-3 cents per purchase? How many people have jugs of pennies that they will never use or cash in? Get rid of it.

Answer 4

It doesn't mean that we have to round every purchase to the nearest 5 cents...just every total and only if you're paying in cash. Check and credit/debit card transactions can still end in any amount. For example, if your grocery bill is $80.56, you can pay $80.55 in cash. If it's $80.58, you can pay $80.60. It would even out in the long run. But we wouldn't have to reprice everything to end in 5 or 0. Pennies cost 3 cents to make. What a waste!