Death To Pennies?

[Asumel]

Here are two videos explaining why, in the US at least they should get rid of the penny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5UT04p5f7U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77C47XYm_3c

1 i thought it was quite interesting so decided to share

and 2 what are peoples opinion of the (current) penny in the UK, useless? or not?

After watching these videos I see some similarities between here and the US, our pennies are not as good looking as they once were so maybe it is time we got rid of ours?

[Peckris]

The problem is, our penny goes back to the Roman denarius, so it's 2,000 years old. Unlike the pound which as a coin is not much more than 200 years old. Having said that, our bronze coins are worth less in real terms than farthings were in 1960 when they were demonetised.

So my vote would be

1. get rid of our useless bronze coins, they're more trouble than they're worth
2. rename another coin as the 'penny' - candidates for that...?

[scott]

they should get rid of americans who call thier CENTS, pennies, making searching for info on the real ones difficult

penny isn't worthless, unless they get rid of the good old .99p

[Red Riley]

they should get rid of americans who call thier CENTS, pennies, making searching for info on the real ones difficult

penny isn't worthless, unless they get rid of the good old .99p

Why shouldn't Americans call their cents pennies? Where I come from right up until decimalisation, five shillings was always known as a dollar. I am sure some American collectors will fill you in (!) but I have a feeling that there is some history behind the American 'penny'.

[scott]

because it floods up the searches on practially everything when looking for information on pennies.

Edited February 25, 2014 by scott

[Rob]

That's just a fact of life. The analogy could easily be extended to the 999 pages out of 1000 of totally uncollectable, indeterminate pieces of shi*e on eBay. Cleaned, holed, broken, featureless, wrinkly pieces of metal that the seller usually claims were coins at some point judging by the descriptions used. Nobody wants them, but we have to live with it. The same goes for someone who wants to call cents pennies, after all, I've got half a nicker in my pocket. heh, heh, heh.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Rob

[RLC35]

they should get rid of americans who call thier CENTS, pennies, making searching for info on the real ones difficult

penny isn't worthless, unless they get rid of the good old .99p

Why shouldn't Americans call their cents pennies? Where I come from right up until decimalisation, five shillings was always known as a dollar. I am sure some American collectors will fill you in (!) but I have a feeling that there is some history behind the American 'penny'.

Here in the U.S. the cents are called both cents and pennies, why I don't know, but it has always been that way. All coin books and albums use the name cents, but if you and another person have a roll of cents, they are generally referred to as a roll of pennies. Lincoln pennies, indian head pennies, big (large) penny, etc. I really never noticed the difference until I started collecting British coins about 60 years ago, that I noticed the English called their coins pennies, but never cents. So maybe its has something to do with the large influence, over time, the British heritage of so many Americans decided the cent should also be considered a penny, as well as the Americanized name...cent! BTW...our cent has always been a lesser value than the British penny!

[Asumel]

The problem is, our penny goes back to the Roman denarius, so it's 2,000 years old. Unlike the pound which as a coin is not much more than 200 years old. Having said that, our bronze coins are worth less in real terms than farthings were in 1960 when they were demonetised.

So my vote would be

1. get rid of our useless bronze coins, they're more trouble than they're worth
2. rename another coin as the 'penny' - candidates for that...?

Yeh i was thinking the same as you Peck obviously because we have a comparability bigger history on our penny than the US and a lot of people not just those who are interested in coins would be sad to see the penny go

Deflation- would be one way to increase the value of the penny, however this has the obvious drawbacks

the other way would be to call the £1 coin the penny, 50p the half ( maybe have a need for the farthing again) then increase from there

Note: i haven't really thought that last one through so it could be wrought with holes

they should get rid of americans who call thier CENTS, pennies, making searching for info on the real ones difficult

penny isn't worthless, unless they get rid of the good old .99p

The point is, you would still be able to pay the 99p with plastic but it would be rounded up for all cash transactions

[Garrett]

Australia did away with the 1 and 2 cent coins about 20 years ago.

Don't miss them.

New Zealand has gone one better and gotten rid of the 5 cent coin as well and reduced the size of the others.

[Asumel]

Australia did away with the 1 and 2 cent coins about 20 years ago.

Don't miss them.

New Zealand has gone one better and gotten rid of the 5 cent coin as well and reduced the size of the others.

It doesn't seem to do any harm, but it of course is the historic value of the coin that is preventing it from happening even in the US ( from what I can gather) let alone here where it essentially is 10 times as old

[Rob]

I think the penny should stay. Collectors of pennies will be satisfied and there doesn't seem any prospect of the mint issuing commemorative pennies to flood the market with unwanted tat.

[scottishmoney]

It doesn't seem to do any harm, but it of course is the historic value of the coin that is preventing it from happening even in the US ( from what I can gather) let alone here where it essentially is 10 times as old

The only redeeming thing with cents in the USA is I can buy up bags and boxes of rolls at the bank and search through them and find old fogies like the 1874 and 1890 that I found last month. In the past few years I have found a couple of dozen cents that were older than 100 years old.