money, pennies Options

[smile4me]

do you think the penny should be discontinued indefinitely?
(if they are no longer used.
their values still hold.
ppl get their money back.
rounding occurs.)

pennies should be dicontinued because...
rolls of 50 pennies cost 60 cents.
slow checkout lines (due to pennies) = lost productivity
US Mint has to create more pennies because ppl either throw them in the streets or keep them in jars at home (apparently, the Mint has some way of keeping track of the amount of pennies in circulation)
US Mint spends .81 cents on minting a penny. Pennies are only a little bit more than that, so US Mint spends more money on pennies than other coins.
Pennies are a hassle
Cant be used in vending machines or public transportation
People face ridicule when they take out a bag of pennies to pay for something

pennies should be continued because...
they are part of tradition
rounding would increase price and consumers would have to suffer the blow
charities rely on pennies for donations
zinc and copper makers will suffer (pennies are made of zinc and copper)

what do you think?

[Spirited Away]

Wouldn't rounding hurt seller and buyer, depending on the price?

Lets say I sell pencils for $0.52 each, and to make things simple, no tax is involved. The purchase price would probably be rounded to $0.50/pencil. $0.02 cents doesn't sound much if I sell one pencil. But if I sell 5023 pencils to 5023 people, instead of getting $2611.96 as revenue, I would only get $2511.50. I would lose $100.46.

Now if I'm the buyer, I would benefit from the above example. However, what if the price is $0.53? I'd have to pay $0.55 for something that cost $0.02 less?

Rounding isn't the best thing to do with money.