It is possible to look anywhere in the United States of America and be reminded of history. The penny may be one of the smallest things that is used in society, but it is a remainder of historic adventures in America. It can be carried around and found in different places. Sometimes the penny is found on the ground in streets, but it is still a vital factor in everyday life. Although pennies have their disadvantages, they should be allowed to remain because of their benefits to businesses, the ability to remind the world of a person critical to our history, and the power to bring back childhood memories.
Pennies gives benefits to businesses, because they do not have to round their prices and this gives the illusion that the price is less expensive than it really is. In businesses, they continue to charge $4.99 not $5.00. They use this strategy to confuse your brain into thinking the price is $4.00 not $5.00. Desjardins says, “Since the rounding is symmetrical, sellers would not be able to gain money by always rounding up. It would be similar to the situation now, in which transactions are symmetrically rounded the nearest cent.” By making the penny the smallest coin denomination, it avoids the methodical rounding of prices. This type of system is used in Britain, Canada, Japan and the U.S. The penny is important to the pricing system in these countries. When it comes to drugstore business, people complain about how the penny slows down services in stores, but the same people might scream if the penny is abolished. National Association of Convenience Stores and the Walgreens drugstore calculated the estimated time wasted handling pennies. National Association of Convenience Stores says, “handling pennies adds 2 to 2.5 seconds per cash transaction. Assume that the average citizen makes one such transaction every day, and so wastes (to be conservative) 730 seconds a year.” If the lowest denomination becomes a nickel, it will still take the same amount of time as pennies and consumers would suffer more from the rounding of prices.
Pennies helps us understand Lincoln’s significance in American history and the symbolic value the penny holds. The penny has existed in our county since the earliest days of American history. The penny is a sign of the nation’s past. For example, the penny was minted in 1909 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth and to honor his image on American currency (Soniak). The White house and Lincoln memorial are cautiously secured and they have a high value in honoring America’s remains, and the penny shouldn’t be preserved differently. The penny is important as the National Monuments. According to the Congress, “the penny shall bear an image emblematic of President Lincoln’s preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country.” If the penny is abolished, it will not be a remainder of all the accomplishments of Lincoln and it is prohibiting a feature of American life.
Although pennies are just coins, Americans build an emotionally attachment to the penny from childhood memories. This emotion is derived from the ideal of picking out the best piggy banks. When I was younger, I remember picking out multiple piggy banks with my parents. Once one of my piggy banks were filled, we would go to the nearest Walmart and place the pennies in the Coin-star to make dollars. Abolishing this coin would be a forfeiture to American’s childhood memories. While some people use the piggy banks for coin-star, some people use their coins in the piggy banks to give to different charities. In instance, there is an article with “Children’s Society Charity” discussing how they depend on the pennies to support their charity and they would suffer a huge loss if it abolished (Blake 62). Not only would it affect their charity, it would make break the concept of collecting pennies for charities as a young child.
The penny is a convenience in everyday life; furthermore, changing this system would be almost as different as going from inches to centimeters. The penny is popular in the public. The penny should be honored and kept in our society and economy. Although the penny cannot be used to buy candy or accepted in vending machines, it still being use in our traditions and cultures. The past and present depends on it. It is too historic and economically useful to be excluded.