How many people were kinda sad when they heard about the Treasury ending production of the penny, and then realizing that it may have been YEARS since they last spent one?
The government nixed the penny because they were expensive to produce and increasingly unnecessary. But some of us don’t want to stop there.
24% of people say they’d be cool with also nixing nickels. 58% don’t want that, including 34% who “strongly oppose” it.
14% of people say they’d support the Treasury ending production of ALL U.S. coins, and just having everything rounded to the nearest dollar. 73% of people don’t want that, including 57% who “strongly oppose” it.
(For what it’s worth, pennies cost 3.7 cents to produce, nickels cost nearly 14 cents. But dimes cost 5.8 cents, and quarters cost 14.7 cents.)
As for pennies, most people don’t care much about them.
People were asked if they’d pick up a penny if they saw it on the ground, and nearly 30% said they’d just leave it there.
11% of people claim they still use pennies to pay for things “every day.” The most common demographic for that is poorer, older people in the South.
Another 19% claim they spend them weekly, 18% more said they spend a penny monthly.
28% of people say they NEVER spend pennies anymore, and another 16% say they use pennies “less than once a year.”
(YouGov)
