If a recent Coinstar poll is correct, you will probably be using those one-cent coins for years to come. The fourth annual “Coinstar National Currency Poll – A Periodic Look at Americans and their Money” indicated two-thirds of those taking the survey are not ready to see the cent eliminated from daily commerce despite many efforts to the contrary.
Legislatures who seek to do away with the smallest American coin would do so by establishing a rounding-off system for purchases including sales taxes. The cent could still be retained in production for inclusion in annual collector sets such as Proof sets and Uncirculated Mint sets but it would no longer be seen in circulation. Those who say the usefulness of the cent has passed, point to the high cost of producing billions of pennies each year, and the notion that users do not seem to want to receive them in change.
The survey, however, revealed that the cent still maintains a strong following with 65 percent of people responding to the poll saying that Congress should keep the cent in circulation.Women are the dominant supporters of the cent, with nearly three in four women (74 percent) in favor of keeping it compared to more than half of men (56 percent).
If the day comes when Congress decides to get rid of the cent, 42 percent of respondents believe the old cents would become more valuable, with a majority of Americans (79 percent) considering they would become a collectible. A greater number of Americans age 18 to 34 believes there would be a future collector value to the cent if the U.S. Mint discontinued the coin as compared with those 65 and older.
The Coinstar National Currency Poll was developed in 1998 to enhance public understanding of coin and currency habits in America. The results of their polls were compiled from telephone research among more than 1,000 randomly selected American adults conducted by an independent market research firm. Coinstar Inc. is a recycler of loose change, with a network of more than 8,600coin-processing machines that count coins (for a fee) for customer convenience.
Though most poll participants supported keeping the cent, 32 percent staunchly believed it should be discontinued, according to Coinstar. When asked if they would like to see the coin eliminated even if it cost consumers more money as a result of retailers rounding up prices, an overwhelming 81 percent of the cent protesters still say it should go. Men are more committed to this than women, and point to the practice of taking or leaving pennies on the store counter as evidence that they are no longer needed.
Analysts are equally divided as to whether rounding off prices would significantly increase the cost of goods citing that some prices might be rounded down. Americans age 35 to 44 say they would prefer to discontinue the coin regardless of any increased cost of merchandise, while those older than 65 would rather keep the coin. The poll also found that three out of four Americans accumulate change rather than spend it because it is too cumbersome to carry, or because they receive so much change in daily transactions the coins add up faster than they can spend them. Younger Americans are accumulating more change than any other group, and most indicated they were saving them for some special purchase.
One in four people surveyed do nothing with their coins, allowing them to sit idly in jars or piggy banks. More than half of respondents think that it is easier today than a few years ago to get rid of loose change, but cite the lack of time to sort or roll their coins, and a reluctance by some banks to accept them, as obstacles to cashing them in.
For the time being it seems unlikely that any change will be made and that the longest-reigning American coin will continue to circulate for many years to come. Collectors are watching carefully to see if the government attitude changes in any way, and if the cost of producing pennies remains under their face value. Older Lincoln cents with the wheat-back design have all but gone from circulation and are being saved regardless of dates. The copper pieces minted from 1959 to 1983 are also now nearly all replaced by the current copper-plated zinc coins. The future of all American cents is of greater interest to collectors than at any time in the past.
**Courtesy of The American Historic Society Coin Collector's Newsletter**