Pennies are an annoyance to carry around and to use?and they
cost more to make than they?re worth. There?s always a shortage
of them because people either throw them away or collect them in
jars. But if the penny was eliminated, as some economists
suggest, would rounding prices to the nearest nickel end up
costing consumers more money? Economist Robert M. Whaples has
discovered it wouldn?t and says, "It's time to eliminate the
penny." Whaples estimates that the US loses about $900 million a
year on penny production and handling. The cost is mainly due to
the rising cost of zinc, the metal that makes up 97.5% of the
penny, as well as to the costs of minting and transportation.
Whaples says, "The cost of making our money, the penny, is now
more than 1 cent (per penny)." In a penny-free market place,
what consumers pay at the cash register would be automatically
rounded to the nearest nickel for cash transactions. Most retail
prices end in a 9, so customers don?t realize the actual cost of
the item (our store do