Rebuilding Rob

The final pennies – the 1 cent coin in the United States – were minted today in Philadelphia. Donald Trump announced plans a few months back to cease production of the penny, as a single penny costs 4 cents to produce

It’s the end of an era here in America. The penny is dead at 232. The death of the penny is bound to turn countless Americans into coin collectors. I must admit that I personally have been planning to buy some penny coin booklets for some time. On another thought, the old expression “a penny for your thoughts?“ Is going to become one of those conversational pieces who will eventually be lost to history – not like the way quarters are still archaically referred to as “two bits“.

The conspiracy theorist in me believes that this plan has been in place for some time, to use it as an excuse to round prices up to the nearest 5 or 10 cents. I mean, I sound like a big jump prices, and not a single item it’s not. But when you find her in making 34 cents more per every product to every customer in every store, retailers are inevitably going to see their profits increase. I’ve already been seeing signs in several fast food, drive-through windows, saying things to the effect of “due to the impending penny shortage, all cash totals will be rounded up to the nearest nickel, dime, quarter, or whole dollar“

For as long as I can remember here in America, retail prices for mini products ended in $.99. It’s nothing to see a commercial talking about something costing $1.99, $9.99 or $99.99. I’m sure that somewhere along the way, some corporate bean counter thought that that would sound better than saying that things were two dollars, $10 or $100. But this will no longer be the case. Now retailers will just round everything up to that nearest whole dollar.

Of course, there is a possibility that this will result in an even greater increase of electronic transactions. Why pay $10 for something in the store, when you can pay $9.99 for it online?

Incidentally, it cost approximately 13.8 cents to produce a nickel, the five cent piece of the United States. – according to Google AI. I’m sure that a few years down the road, we’ll see people calling for the United States to stop minting nickels as well. 

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related (and perhaps, not-so-related) posts:

• Rob’s Retro Movie Review: This is Spinal Tap (1984) – The Movie That Scaled to Eleven
• A Death in the Family (And My Disposable Income): My Life in Comics
• The Supporting Cast: Navigating the Eras of Male Friendship
• Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision
• The Moment I Walked Inside a Hallmark Movie

The article “RIP Penny” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.