The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 42, October 21, 2007, Article 23

THE TAKE A NICKEL, LEAVE A NICKEL TRAY

Dick Johnson writes: "A journalism senior at Penn State
wrote an opinion piece for his university's Daily Collegian
this week on abolishing the cent. He went so far as to
criticize one of his professors who opposes elimination
of the cent.

"The student, Jim Tuttle, reports such support for the
cent as the State of Illinois. It still accepts cents at
its tollbooths undoubtedly because of Lincoln's close ties
with the state. (Illinois was not the birthplace of Lincoln
as stated in his article)

"However he does list several factors for the cent elimination
including the cost greater than its value and the stench of
handling a large quantity of the coins. 'You can't count and
roll 50 cents in pennies,' he states, 'without getting that
greasy residue all over your fingers. It's disgusting.'

"The professor he disagrees with is against rounding off
odd cent purchases. 'If the penny was eliminated, cash
purchases would be rounded to the nearest nickel. This is
probably the most controversial part of the whole issue,
and Raymond Lombra, a Penn State economics professor, is
one major proponent for keeping the penny.

"'Lombra argues that since convenience stores commonly
price items ending in 99 cents, prices would usually be
rounded up, resulting in a loss to the consumer more often
than not.' The writer contends this would even out in
multiple item purchases.

"The writer foresees in the future we might obverse at
store checkouts 'take a nickel, leave a nickel' trays."

To read his full article, see: Full Story

[I've already seen these "penny" trays stocked with some
nickels as well as cents.  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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