Blog
08.14
Quick Lesson in Economics – A Penny Design Saved Is a Penny Not Spent
Yesterday, my colleague and I went to lunch and received some change with a shiny, new designed penny.
After a quick search, I learned the U.S. Mint is issuing “four different one-cent coins in recognition of the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln's birth and the 100th anniversary of the first issuance of the Lincoln cent,” as a result of the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005. In addition, more coins are to be minted with our country’s presidents and “first” spouses.
While the reasons of increasing the coins circulation and teaching presidential history to an unfamiliar public are nice in theory, let’s be realistic. The odds of these coins inspiring millions of unknowing citizens to learn about U.S. presidential history are slim to none. And, I’m not familiar with the need to increase coin circulation, but I feel like that need and the likelihood of that happening because of a new penny design is far from balancing out the cost of designing and producing these coins.
Now, granted this act was passed in 2005, prior to our current economic state, I’m going to take a huge gamble and suggest that Congress still had better things to resolve then AKA world hunger and world peace… oh and of course, steroids in MLB (another drastically important Congressional issue).
As politics have really heated up recently because of health care and economic debates, I’d like someone somewhere to start eliminating useless acts like penny redesign that don’t really serve the public, start putting creative ideas into real concerns and begin saving our country some money somewhere. Any takers?
Anonymous
I couldn't agree more! Enough with the money redesigns! Let's get the bigger stuff solved first!
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