Today, Explained: Pennies don’t make cents

October 14, 2024 12:36 PM

Pennies cost more than a cent to make — and no one spends them. The New York Times Magazine's Caity Weaver explains why we can't get rid of them.

This episode was produced by Peter Balonon-Rosen, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Rob Byers and Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast
Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members
Photo by Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

posted by Brandon Blatcher (2 comments total)

A fascinating 25 minute listen, particularly the details about why the money system was created in the USA. Previously there had been trade and/or ad hoc ways of paying people (like in tobacco leaves), but having standard way to do helped alleviate a lot on confusion.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:38 PM on October 14, 2024

It was mostly enjoyable, and brief, but a couple of things irked me. One was padding the segment out a bit with music, which I'm not crazy about because I tend to listen to podcasts that are mostly talking with musical cues at the beginning and end. Another was dancing around the idea that it probably hasn't happened in America for the same reason that we haven't adopted widespread use of dollar coins (although new designs keep being created and new coins minted) or the metric system for that matter: Americans are just weirdly conservative about things like that, like there's a strong strain of you-aren't-my-real-dad-ism in the national psyche that doesn't exist in Canada (or Australia or New Zealand, which also ditched the penny successfully).
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:05 AM on October 15, 2024