I have been against the continued manufacture of the penny for a while because I believe that the cost of production outweighs the benefits of more exact change. Divisive.info has more:

A growing number of experts are concluding the penny is too picayune to bother with. “The purpose of the monetary system is to facilitate exchange, but the penny no longer serves that purpose,” says Harvard professor Gregory Mankiw, a former chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. “When people start leaving a monetary unit at the cash register for the next customer, the unit is too small to be useful.

When the half-cent was abolished in 1857 it was worth more than eight cents in today’s currency. People afterward had no problem living and conducting business, even though the new smallest unit of currency — the penny — was worth more than our dime is today. No major problems with transactions were reported at a time that predated the many cashless means of electronic transaction we enjoy today and which, even after penny abolition, can preserve prices to the exact cent if people so choose.

Let's hope it truly is a growing consensus.

Posted by Ryan S. on Sunday, December 03, 2006 at 11:30 AM | Permalink |