The United States one-cent piece, also known as a penny, equals one hundredth of a U.S. dollar. On the front of the penny is the face of Abraham Lincoln, the United States 16th president. The back or reverse side of the penny shows the Lincoln Memorial which is located in Washington D.C. The penny has a mass of 2.5 g, a diameter of 19.05 mm, and a thickness of 1.55 mm.
Efforts to Remove the Penny from Circulation
Recently the penny has been a topic of criticism. Due to inflation the penny is become of less and less use today. Considering the wage of the average American is $17 dollars an hour (one penny every two seconds), it is argued that it actually costs the American public about $300 million dollars a year to deal with time is takes to make a transaction. Another major problem with penny is that it costs approximately 1.4 cents to manufacture a penny, not including the distribution of that penny. This means it costs more money to create a penny than the penny is actually worth.
Two major bills have been proposed to eliminate the production of the penny. These bills, the Legal Tender Modernization Act and the COIN (Currency Overhaul for and Industrious Nation) Act, proposed that the penny be eliminated and that the price of goods should be rounded to the nearest nickel (5 cents).
