A penny for your thoughts.

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

"But gee, we eliminated the half-penny and did just fine." This is because the half-penny was a value that was, in fact, smaller than the lowest base increment that we use to measure the value of the gold reserve. We can safely eliminate those fractions and not jeopardize our system of representational values.

Actually the dollar is the base. The cent, nickel etc. are all subdivsions. We only keep them around because the dollar is worth quite a bit, in contrast to say the Japanese yen, which subdivision the sen is never used because the yen is worth so little. But as the value of the dollar decreases over time, these subdivisions will become obsolete and fall by the wayside. The half-cent went, and the mill, which is 1/1000 of a dollar, also went.

But I do agree with you that the penny's time is not up yet. Rounding up prices to the nearest multiple of five could still cost us in the long run. The cent still packs a punch. However, I also agree with Shin's sentiment about the penny as currency. I personally don't give two shits about what I do with my pennies. In fact I'll even throw them away if my pockets are overloaded with things. However little I care about pennies, though, as long as we have a paper economy then they will still have their uses.

Jam it back in, in the dark.