Give a Penny, Take a Penny

You might want to hold onto that penny the next time you think of throwing it into the community jar. It now costs our federal government more to make a penny than its value. It's actually worth more than one cent, as the rising costs of zinc (it's main ingredient) has increased it's production cost to 1.4 cents per penny. Just one year ago, it cost them only .97 cents per penny.

Due to this fact, Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona is unveiling details of legislation to eliminate the penny. This makes logical sense to me. At the current rate, the Mint would spend some $44 million producing pennies this year, nearly $14 million more than in 2005. Every small business owner knows that "every penny counts"... when you're losing money on a product you can't make it up in volume.

Personally, I can't wait for the day when I no longer need "cash" at all and everything is done electronically. If you haven't used your debit card at McDonald's lately, try it. You don't have to sign anything and they push you through faster than if they had to count your change. Even better, it allows me to save my cash for those important things... like an old-school vending machine.