Changing U.S Currency - What It's Made of, and the Abolishing of the Penny

The one-cent coin should be eliminated as a unit of currency for several reasons including that many Americans do not actually spend them, but rather only receive them in change at stores and proceed to return them to a bank for higher denomination currencies, or cash them in at coin counting kiosks. Most modern vending machines do not accept pennies. Further, the production cost now exceeds the face value of the coin, caused by increasing inflation. The U.S. Mint reported that in fiscal year 2010 the unit cost of producing and shipping one-cent coins was 1.79 cents. Polymer banknotes incorporate many security features not available to paper banknotes, including the use of metameric inks. In light of all these facts, we know that changing our currency would be beneficial to our country.