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highroller4321
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2648 Posts |
 Posted - 02/11/2009 : 17:52:17
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Following in the footsteps of the town's historic Minutemen, the owner of a Concord bakery is leading her own revolution of sorts - against pennies.
Not only are the copper-coated zinc coins heavy and time consuming to work with, they are also nearly worthless, says Judy Fersch, owner of Concord Teacakes. According to the US Mint, it costs 1.4 cents to make and distribute each penny.
"They cost more to make than they are worth," Fersch said of the coins depicting Abraham Lincoln. "It's just wasteful. If I as a small business owner continued to make something I lost money on, people would think I was out of my mind."
The first shot will be fired Thursday, the 200th anniversary of Honest Abe's birthday, when Fersch and about two dozen other Concord merchants will begin rounding down cash transactions to the nearest nickel so they don't have to give pennies as change.
Fersch, who was inspired by an idea proposed by customer Al Lewis of Newton, is calling the boycott a "penny-anti protest."
"They are just a nuisance," said Susan Cataldo, owner of the West Concord salon Maximum Image By Sue. "I don't even bother with pennies half the time, especially if people have to dig into the bottom of their bag to find them. To me, it will save a lot of time and make it easier for my customers."
The ultimate goal is to persuade the government to do away with pennies, said Lewis, who proposed the protest on his website, You must be logged in to see this link. For now, Lewis and the merchants want President Obama to sign an executive order that says, "Businesses which round down cash transactions to the nearest nickel may refuse to handle pennies."
Though Lewis and the merchants are serious about their cause, they are using humor to bring attention to their revolution.
Playing off President Reagan's plea to tear down the Berlin Wall, Lewis declared, "We say, 'Tear down this mint, Mr. Obama.' People are not using pennies. They are essentially litter."
Lewis is certain that someday, Concord Teacakes will proudly display a historical marker recognizing its role in abolishing the penny. Lewis predicts it will be the second-most popular tourist attraction in town after the Old North Bridge, site of the first battle in the American Revolution.
"Concord's public image is really cashing in on this, so to speak," Lewis said. "And I hope we win the revolution soon because I am running out of puns."
Lewis said the movement appears to have an ally in Obama, who said at a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania last year that he "would seriously consider eliminating the penny as long as we find another place for Lincoln to land."
Past legislative attempts to abolish the penny have failed in Congress.
N. Gregory Mankiw, an economics professor at Harvard University, said there is a compelling argument to eliminate the penny given its current value, but he thinks the timing is off.
"It's useful to call it to people's attention, but there are bigger fish to fry in the economic scene," Mankiw said.
Besides, not everyone supports the penny's demise.
Christopher Curtis, manager of the West Concord 5 & 10, said there is still a place for the much maligned coin, at least in his store, where you can still buy penny candy.
"I sell things that cost 1, 2, 3, and 4 cents," Curtis said. "There's always going to be a coin that's the smallest one."
The US Mint plans to roll out four new designs of the penny this year. The designs celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, as well as the 100th anniversary of the production of the penny. The first redesigned penny, which will honor Lincoln's birth and early childhood, will be put into circulation Thursday. A Lincoln commemorative silver dollar also will be released this year.
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Copper Penny Investing
www.portlandmint.com |
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hobo finds
Penny Hoarding Member
838 Posts |
Posted - 02/11/2009 : 18:03:42
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| who even eats teacakes? |
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moboman
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2555 Posts |
Posted - 02/11/2009 : 18:37:20
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| Does anyone live near by? Sounds like a great place to dump some zinc. |
"99% of all lawyers give the rest of them a bad name" 
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Tourney64
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1035 Posts |
Posted - 02/11/2009 : 18:51:38
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| Close the mint? That would impact government jobs. Highly unlikely under Obama. |
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oober
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1304 Posts |
Posted - 02/11/2009 : 19:21:52
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| LOL, lets see them round down 100,000 times an look at there bottom line then... |
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Corsair
Penny Hoarding Member
811 Posts |
Posted - 02/11/2009 : 19:51:26
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| Someone should send them a letter and offer to pay shipping on a Flat Rate Box if they fill it with pennies that they round down. When they see that in just a few months it is filled with copper, maybe they'll rethink their stupidity. Absolutely, positively ridiculous. As my arch-nemisis Keith Olbermann might say, "Judy Fersch - Today's Worst ... Person ..... in the Woooooooorld!!!" |
So long, Realcent 1. Come visit us at Realcent.org! |
Edited by - Corsair on 02/11/2009 19:52:04 |
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highroller4321
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2648 Posts |
Posted - 02/11/2009 : 21:13:26
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quote:
Originally posted by oober
LOL, lets see them round down 100,000 times an look at there bottom line then...
Maybe they get confused and can only count by 5's
Lets say they do 100 transactions a day Round down average of 3 cents each transaction. In a year they are out $1095! Out that much just for being to lazy to count out pennies and give them to the customer! |
Copper Penny Investing
www.portlandmint.com |
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n/a
deleted
14 Posts |
Posted - 02/11/2009 : 21:17:37
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These people are absolute idiots. Can someone get them a friggin' education???
They are protesting the fact that the government is 'spending' more on making the penny than what it is worth....BY PAYING FOR THE PROTEST THEMSELVES!! WTF.
I never wish ill on anyone, but I hope they go bankrupt....they do not deserve to stay in business with stupid reasoning like that. |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 02/12/2009 : 01:55:10
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| You guys just don't understand. It's not about the pennies.. it's about FREE publicity. It seems with the economic downturn, folks have stopped visiting their local teacake establishment. When you have to cut back, teacakes are one of the first things that folks are willing to give up. They are doing this to get publicity and generate a little traffic. You can't buy this kind of publicity! |
If your percentages are low.. just sort more. If your percentages are high.. just sort more.
Now selling Copper pennies. 1.6x plus shipping. Limited amounts available. |
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Mikep2020
Penny Collector Member
USA
402 Posts |
Posted - 02/12/2009 : 06:23:45
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| I live a few towns East of Concord, about 15-20 miles away. I should go in and pay for tea and crumpets with pennies! |
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Ardent Listener
Administrator
USA
4841 Posts |
Posted - 02/12/2009 : 07:25:58
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| "According to the US Mint, it costs 1.4 cents to make and distribute each penny." I wonder if those figures are now outdated with the fall of commodity prices. If they want to bring back the Minutemen then there are much better issues to do so than the cost of a penny that is due to fiat inflaton. |
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All posts either by the members, moderators, and the administration of http://realcent.forumco.com are for your edification and amusement only. It is not the intent of realcent.forumco.com or its host to provide investment, medical, matrimonial, legal, security or tax advice and nothing posted here should be considered to be so. All rights reserved.
Think positive. |
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AgCollector
Penny Collector Member
USA
266 Posts |
Posted - 02/12/2009 : 07:55:47
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| On the other hand, remember that the only reason there is a ban to melt is because it would take them out of circulation. If they no longer circulated, we could legally melt and sell copper cents for melting. Of course, since the copper prices have come down so far, maybe we want to wait a while for this to happen! |
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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1641 Posts |
Posted - 02/12/2009 : 08:36:06
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quote:
Originally posted by AgCollector
On the other hand, remember that the only reason there is a ban to melt is because it would take them out of circulation. If they no longer circulated, we could legally melt and sell copper cents for melting. Of course, since the copper prices have come down so far, maybe we want to wait a while for this to happen!
Yep, I would be happy to see the mint stop making pennies. Also if the penny was no longer part of the official coinage, all of the left-over pennies held by the government and banks would be sold to scrappers. All of a sudden collectors could not go to the bank and get (unsorted) copper pennies for a penny each...so what happens to the price of hoarded copper pennies?
The sooner the penny is eliminated the better. (said by a guy sitting on over 1.3 million copper pennies) |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 02/12/2009 : 09:43:10
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| I want to wait a while for that to happen. I still don't have enough. |
If your percentages are low.. just sort more. If your percentages are high.. just sort more.
Now selling Copper pennies. 1.6x plus shipping. Limited amounts available. |
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SANITARIUM_INMATE
Penny Pincher Member
211 Posts |
Posted - 02/12/2009 : 10:42:34
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quote:
Originally posted by HoardCopperByTheTon
I want to wait a while for that to happen. I still don't have enough.
LMAO |
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MatLock
Penny Pincher Member
USA
122 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 14:27:53
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I completely agree with KEEPING the penny, there is simply no reason to stop production and/or stop it as a form of legal tender. These ladies in teacake markets are just lazy. The lady in the picture is fat, take a hint. Can you imagine the rise in prices citizens would be paying in the long run? Also it does not take 1.4 cents to produce a penny, are they outdated or what? I doubt that lady reads books.
"Until very recently, the penny has historically cost less to produce than the face value of the coin, so the U.S. Treasury Department earned a profit on each penny minted. Between 1982 and 2006, this profit from the penny, known as "seigniorage", has earned the U.S. Treasury almost $1 billion. Seigniorage reduces the amount of money that must be borrowed to finance the federal debt. (See, also, June 2002 H. Con. Res. 433 under "Congressional Action" tab or via The Library of Congress' Thomas system)" |
Edited by - MatLock on 02/15/2009 14:28:21 |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 14:37:11
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| A lot of how they arrive at that cost per penny produced is how they allocate the overhead. If they were to stop producing the penny, that overhead would have to be allocated to the other demonimations produced.. thus negatively impacting the seignorage on all the other coins produced. |
If your percentages are low.. just sort more. If your percentages are high.. just sort more.
Now selling Copper pennies. 1.6x plus shipping. Limited amounts available. |
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n/a
deleted
10 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 16:12:07
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Its also possible that it will never be legal to melt copper pennies. I certainly hope not. I am saving them.
I'm also wondering how long will it be fruitful to look for halves in rolls from the banks? With more and more people looking for them, how long before they get really scarce?
Thanks. I really enjoy everyone's posting. |
The exact opposite of gluttony is not starvation, its simply eating wisely. |
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slickeast
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2533 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 16:32:50
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Well Greg I think that there will always be silver halves in rolls. How many is the question. As older generation hoarders die their family might start spending them. Why do you think that some people find whole CWR's at the bank. A friend of mine got 4 solid silver rolls recently at the bank.
As the penny thing goes. I don't see them eliminating it any time soon.
How would taxes be figured with no penny? 1 cent increase in tax is common.
So if we round to the nearest nickel and something that was 99 cent is now 1 dollar. Sales tax here is 2 cents on groceries is the tax now 5 cents? or no tax until u buy 2.50 of goods? If that was so I would pay for all 1 dollar and under stuff on seperate transactions.
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You don't have to be the BEST you just have to be.......SLICK
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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1641 Posts |
Posted - 02/16/2009 : 06:08:06
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Inflation will make all arguments to keep the penny moot and render the penny obsolete. It is just a matter of when not if. Trying to stop the penny going away is like trying to stop the tide from coming in.
The only possible way that the penny would remain in circulation indefinitely is if the started chopping zeros off the dollar. |
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Copper Catcher
Administrator
USA
2092 Posts |
Posted - 02/16/2009 : 08:38:02
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quote:
Originally posted by horgad
Inflation will make all arguments to keep the penny moot and render the penny obsolete. It is just a matter of when not if. Trying to stop the penny going away is like trying to stop the tide from coming in.
The only possible way that the penny would remain in circulation indefinitely is if the started chopping zeros off the dollar.
I agree....with the money supply shooting up like a bottle rocket and our purchasing power dropping like a rock I think it is safe to say our beloved penny will be discontinued within five years or less. Then and only then will all our sorting and hording time be well rewarded! |
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Revolt against our penny starting???
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