MaKenzi Bowden
Snow College
English 2010
October 27, 2016
The Problem of Pennies
The writers grandparents know that a penny is worth more than one cent even though it only costs one cent. They always pick up pennies whenever they see them and never leave them on the ground. Benjamin Franklin once said, “A penny saved is a penny earned” (BrainyQuote 2016). If you pick up every penny that you find, they eventually will add up sooner or later. Nowadays, there is nothing that actually costs a penny. People look down at the ground, see a penny and leave it there. For years and years, people have been wanting to do something about pennies. Pennies have become a problem here in the United States and also around the world. Therefore, …show more content…
An inventor in 1787, invented a device to mill blanks and stamp the edges of the coin so it could not be counterfeited (Snodgrass 2016). When the penny was first minted, it was five times heavier and 50% larger and it was made out of 100% copper (A Brief History of the U.S. Cent 2016). Abraham Lincoln has been on the penny since 1909 on the anniversary of his 100th birthday. Also in 1909, the phrase “In God We Trust” was added to the penny. For the anniversary of Lincoln’s 200th birthday in 2009, there were four different designs that show some aspects of his life (A Brief History of the U.S. Cent 2016).
One consequence of the penny is that it is bad for the environment. The penny comes from zinc mines since pennies are made out of 95% zinc (Livingston 2016). The government keeps on making pennies even though they know that pennies do not cost much but cost more to make them. Since pennies are made of so much zinc, zinc contains metals that can be toxic if it is a high enough doses that can be harmful to humans and animals (Livingston …show more content…
If they cost more to make then why does the government still make them? They just need stop wasting their time and quit making them. If they quit making them than the people would be more cheerful and not have to worry about so much change that does not cost much. A penny does not cost much so it does not matter if we get rid of them. It would probably save the world money if we got rid of them because we would not waste money to make them since they cost more to make than their worth. If the United States actually gets rid of the penny, the nickel would be the lowest coin. The government would have to raise or lower prices to the nearest five