Editor:
Re: ‘Will you miss the penny?’ Question of the Week, Feb. 21.
The photo included with the Question of the Week showed at least two American pennies. Are pennies made in the United States being removed, too?
I understand why they’ve stopped producing Canadian Pennies. It’s because the cost of making pennies was more than they were worth. But pennies produced last year are still in circulation and still shiny. Of course, also in circulation are the 2011 pennies, 2010 pennies, 2009 pennies and gazillions of others.
Now comes news that as of Feb. 4 this year, they – whoever – will be physically removing the pennies.
All of them; including the ones produced just last year!
I ask why. Why not leave the pennies in circulation and let them disappear slowly and naturally as they’ve always been doing?
Are there not costs associated with removing them?
Why waste money by:
1) intercepting the pennies;
2) having machines differentiate Canadian pennies from U.S. pennies;
3) transporting the withdrawn Canadian pennies to other location(s); and
4) having machines destroy them.
While stopping production of the Canadian pennies may be OK, purposely removing them and then destroying them doesn’t make sense to me.
A more natural and low-cost thing to do is to leave them alone in circulation.
As pennies gradually disappear, consumers would have more time to adapt and round up or down. The only cost would be distributing them with a gradual decline.
Tony Roy, White Rock
