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CNN Live Saturday

Congress Considers Doing Away With the One-Cent Coin

Aired June 02, 2001 - 15:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Pennies. Sometimes they're kept in jars, often they fall between the sofa cushions. But do you have any place for the penny in your wallet or purse? On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are reviewing the coin's usefulness. CNN's Garrick Utley takes a look now at the real value of pennies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Every time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven.

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Of course, the pennies pour not from heaven, but the U.S. mint, 14 billion of them each year, copper coins which are now 97.5 percent pure zinc.

Lincoln's profile is one of the most reproduced images in the world. But what is the value of one cent today? Have pennies become confetti coins we no longer need?

(on camera): There you are, walking down a street and you see a quarter lying on the pavement in front of you. Decision time. Do you pick it up? Probably. If it's a dime or a nickel? Maybe. But if it's a penny, do you stop, stoop and pick it up? Or simply walk on by?

(voice-over): Pennies are still needed to satisfy the sales tax, and retailers still try to seduce buyers by setting prices ending in 99 cents, rather than an even-dollar amount. Still, from toll booths to vending machines, the penny is finding fewer takers, which has led to proposals in Congress to do away with the coin, which, in turn, led to lobbying efforts by the zinc industry and other vested interests who defend the penny.

MARK WELLER, AMERICANS FOR COMMON CENTS: Our organization has done a considerable amount of polling the last 12 years, and over 76 percent of the public want to keep the penny as a part of our coinage system.

UTLEY: And how we do keep them? In jars, bottles and dresser drawers. We may not really want all those pennies, and yet we can't bring ourselves to throw them away, which is what charity organizations have long understood. They raise millions of dollars each year with pennies no one minds giving away. The strongest argument for the penny is that without it, prices would be rounded up to the next figure ending in a five or a zero.

WELLER: There is a protection, I think, as a hedge to inflation that we have this low denomination coin that affects our pricing and helps keep prices low.

UTLEY (on camera): After all, we have invested a lot of personal value in this tiny piece of metal. We have been raised to be penny- wise, to count our pennies. But times change, and prices rise.

(voice-over): What should be the future of the penny? A nickel for your thoughts.

Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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