Only an Insult Will a Penny Buy

For a few months now I have had a friend on my payroll. It's not that he actually works for me, it is quite the opposite. Unlike many today, my friend just cannot ignore one of these.  My inside joke has been that every time we go to a meeting or event, I surreptitiously drop a shining penny in front of his drivers door, or somewhere in his path. If he sees it, he always, without fail, bends over to pick it up. Of course for political correct reasons  I really can't fill you in on why I was doing this. However, until this moment he did not know I was the source of his new found wealth. In all I guess that I have paid him a total of 60 cents for his efforts.

What many have discovered is that the penny, or as the Canadian Mint refers to them as “one-cent piece,” has no real value. In fact they have become a nuisance to the average consumer. Many empty their pockets of change and sort the larger coins and leave the pennies stuck in a pickle jar. If you wish to find out just how much the penny is treated with contempt, take that pickle jar full of pennies into a bank someday and try to deposit it. They have such little value, that nowadays almost every store or restaurant has a rubber dish on the counter that states, “Need a penny, take a penny. Got a penny, leave a penny.”  How I wish when I was 5 years old to have that option in front of me. I could walk out of the store with 5 Mojo candies for every penny I tendered. Nowadays, you can't buy anything for a penny. Even the average 5 year old Kool-Aid stand is offering a glass of hand stirred cherry drink for a buck a glass. The penny buys you nothing, unless you consider interrupting a stranger in a park and say, “Penny for your thoughts?”  Yes, only an insult will a penny buy.

It has been over two years since Winnipeg MP Pat Martin submitted a private members bill calling for the one-cent piece to be taken out of circulation, and it appears that our government has ignored this submission.

It is estimated that over the years there have been 30 billion Canadian pennies in circulation, of which it costs our federal government 1.5 cents per coin to produce. In other words, stuck in jars, under beds or hidden in the top shelve of  kitchen cupboards, Canadians are holding $300M from circulation, which costs estimated $450M to produce. I think the honourable member of parliament may be onto something here!

Every year Canada issues an average of 25 pennies for every Canadian, which is costing $130M a year to keep in circulation. I truly believe that if the federal government wanted to cut costs, the elimination of the penny should be something we need to implement. In two surveys conducted, strong arguments were put forth in favour of crushing the penny.

In a study conducted by the Desjardins Group it was successfully argued that the penny has “so little purchasing power that Canadians increasingly refuse it as change.”  The study stated that, “It (the penny) is kept in circulation solely to facilitate cash payments (with bank notes and coins) to the nearest cent.”

The Royal Canadian Mint and the Department of Finance prepared a study by Altitude Marketing Research which revealed that 67 percent surveyed were not against the elimination of the one-cent piece. With 42 percent in favour, 33 percent were against and 25 percent were neutral on the subject. Unlike my penny-pinching friend who cannot pass up an abandoned one-cent coin, 64 percent of those surveyed stated they would not chase after a penny lost in a couch while 71 percent perceive the penny as part of the Canadian heritage.

The perception of the penny as a Canadian heritage is what many would refer to as an irrational affinity. A weak kneed reason to hang onto an obsolete tool of society that is costing the tax payer millions of dollars each year to hang onto. Money that could be spent more effectively toward social programs, health care, or housing for those who huddle in the streets stuck in a mind-set that makes them societal burdens. If everyone who hoards this copper coated steel coin would take their jars down to a charity of choice they could donate millions of dollars overnight. This would in turn push these missing-in-action 300 billion coins into the banking system, giving our government the opportunity to pull them from circulation.

New Zealand and Australia have already done away with the penny, leaving a five-cent piece as their lowest financial token. They have done so with no ill effects, and at the same time have weaned their people from any irrational attachment they may of had to this “piece of heritage.” It is time Canada joined their ranks.