Nickel for your thoughts?

Congressman Jim Kolbe of Arizona (though a Republican, he voted to override the president’s stem cell veto yesterday) has introduced legislation to eliminate the penny. Yahoo! News, among others, has the story.

Two things. One, why not make it easier all around and just eliminate the decimal place? That is, why not round-off to the nearest dime?

Two, I am reassured that eliminating the penny is a good thing not just because it costs more to make a penny than they’re worth, but because Kevin Federline (and Richard Branson — hello is he even an American) “threw a “Save the Penny” show in Times Square … to publicize the penny’s plight.” Plight!? Kevin Federline is a plight.*

Kolbe, by the way, probably likes the nickel because there is more copper (Arizona copper) in the nickel-coated copper nickel than there is in the copper-coated zinc penny.


* Plight = a dangerous, difficult or otherwise unfortunate situation.