Do we really need the one penny coin in modern day society? The penny has been around for over 200 years and over time, the value of the coin has slowly decreased to almost nothing. Back in the 18th, 19th and the first half of the 20th century, a one penny coin could actually buy you something in most shops like sweets or food. I understand that back then a penny had use and could be used regularly in daily transactions but in this day and age, it’s that annoying bronze coloured coin you get in your change when something costs £x.99p. What’s more, this coin is actually wasting tax payers’ money! It costs the royal mint £0.012 to make a one penny coin so if you crunch the numbers you can see that it costs more to make the coin than it’s worth in day to day life…. What happened there?
There are also people who believe that the penny coin should stay because it has been with us for so long and they would feel a bit sad if it were to disappear. These people are entitled to their own opinions but they must wake up and see sense. If it costs more to make the coin than what’s it’s worth we are all losing money on an almost worthless piece of alloy metal.
Countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Finland and the Netherlands have all stopped minting and circulating their one cent coins and they have seen no real difference in prices and the countries are now saving money on their minting bills. As a result of this monetary change all the prices have remained the same but when you go to pay the price is just rounded up or down to the nearest $0.05 of a dollar and the nearest €0.02 of a euro. To me, these countries have done the sensible thing and removed their one cent coins from circulation. Their situations were much like ours. The coins were costing more to make than what they were worth.
I caught up with local Teddington residents, Dan Callaghan and Jette Jakobsen, to get their views on the situation. They had this to say:
Dan Callaghan: "A waste of space! It’s just not required… you know, we could easily round things up and get rid of copper all together, and if its costs more to make then why bother. I think on the whole we are moving away from coins and paper to plastic anyway. In the future I think coins will become obsolete and we will just use plastic money for everything."
Jette Jakobsen: “I think it’s a bad thing. I think it’s a waste of copper. It’s worthless and I think you should get rid of copper coins because they weigh too much when you carry them, they’re annoying and they are not very useful. You can’t use them in parking machines and you rarely give out copper, you only receive it. I think all copper coins should be discontinued and removed from circulation as they serve more hassle than purpose.”
From all the above statements I think we can all come to the conclusion that the penny should become non-existent and the sooner we make the change, the better.
