Lori Borgman: Dropping the penny may make cents

Lori Borgman, Tribune News Service on Mar 18, 2025

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I can’t call heads or tails on whether we should stop minting the penny. There are two sides to every coin, right?

Zinc and copper used to make a penny are worth almost four times the value of the coin. Bottom line: The penny is not cost-efficient. I empathize. Some days I’m not terribly cost-efficient either.

It’s hard to imagine life without pennies. Stale mints and wadded up receipts in the bottom of my purse all alone with no pennies? Ketchup packets, napkins and insurance cards crammed in the glove box, but no pennies?

What about the children? What about all the piggy banks and penny banks? Then again, most of those children probably already have Venmo accounts.

Penny gumball machines faded into the past long ago. They were simple fun — dropping in a penny, turning the knob and hearing a gumball rattle down the chute.

A long time ago, a shiny penny was a decent bribe for a kid. I suppose now it would take something along the lines of a 10 or 20.

Not to carbon date myself, but I put pennies in my penny loafers as a girl. You can’t size up to a nickel in a penny loafer, you’d have to size down. The term “dime loafers” has no ring to it whatsoever.

Ask Canada (if they’re still speaking to us) what happens to prices when pennies are discontinued. Most prices were rounded up when our neighbors to the north discontinued pennies more than a decade ago. Without pennies, the cost of everything must end in a five or a zero. So much for “every penny counts.”

Would a “penny for your thoughts” retain any value? Would it remain a question of endearment or become an insult?

What happens to all the penny pinchers? Do they become plain old misers?

If the penny goes, will all the penny riddles grandkids lob our way disappear as well?

What is a penny’s favorite ice cream? Mint.

In the final analysis, we tilt pro-penny as evidenced by the vintage 5-gallon glass jar in the entryway that has accumulated pennies for years. Nearly every child that has passed through has loved dropping pennies in, hearing the clink and seeing where they fall.

Estimates on how many pennies are in circulation in the U.S. range from 100 billion to 200 billion or more. The humble penny will not disappear anytime soon.

Maybe it is time for change.

Now, for the really bad news: It costs nearly 14 cents to make a nickel.