WASHINGTON - To Rep. Jim Kolbe, pennies represent a waste of space; they're inefficient, bothersome, nearly worthless.
The Arizona Republican has introduced a bill in Congress to greatly reduce the use of pennies in daily transactions by requiring all sales in retail establishments to be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel.
The Legal Tender Modernization Act is Kolbe's plan to update not just the penny but also other U.S. currency. It calls for a rounding system for penny usage: Merchandise that costs $4.53, for example, would be rounded up to $4.55. An item that costs $4.52 would be rounded down to $4.50. Pennies would still be legal to exchange, and credit card and money order charges would continue to be for the exact amount.
Kolbe maintains that the penny proposal "favors neither the consumer nor the retailer because the probability of rounding up or down is 50 percent either way - it would all come out even in the end."
But the lowly penny has its defenders.
Americans for Common Cents, a lobbying coalition, said the penny is a valuable asset to the economy, particularly for consumers who are thrifty. The coalition represents more than 50 organizations that either support or benefit from keeping the penny in the U.S. coin system, including various charitable and coin-collecting organizations and the zinc industry. (Once composed of copper, pennies are now made mostly of zinc.)
"Every penny does count," said Mark Weller, executive director of the Washington-based coalition. "A large number of people out there ... really watch their budgets closely, and the penny in pricing does matter."
Tynisa E. Trapps is a reporter for The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.
