We went to the Denver Mint today!!! You know, the place where they make coins. Unfortunately they don't allow you to take any photos inside the building or even to have your phone on so there won't be any pictures with this post. :( But alas, I shall paint a picture with my words.
It's a big building with lots of coins in it. SO MANY PENNIES!! I mean really, I did not realize how many pennies there are in the world. My favorite penny themed thing was a clear glass pillar filled with 1,786 dollars worth of pennies. They were all so shiny and new! It was pretty impressive. But at the end of the tour I asked our tour guide (Joe) what his thought were on the penny and how soon America will phase the penny out. He seemed pretty excited about this topic and spoke to us for a few minutes on it. Here is the argument according to Joe. When a penny is made it cost 2.4 cents for materials and manufacturing costs. 2.4 cents for a penny! That means for every penny that is made they are losing almost a penny and a half, it just doesn't make any sense to continue producing pennies. Canada has already phased out their penny and it seems to be working just fine so we should really think about doing it too. The real kicker is that any excess profit that the Denver Mint make in a year goes to paying off the national debt, so if they were able to stop producing pennies it would aid the country. The way I see it, it is a win win. You wouldn't have to carry around pennies and the national debt would go down. When it really comes down to it, it's just common cents.
No comments:
Post a Comment