What Are We Erasing With the Penny?
It’s amazing to me that we’re doing away with pennies.
I grew up using pennies.
Pennies were how I learned to multiply, divide, add, and subtract.
They were how my teachers showed me value, step by step — one cent at a time.
As a part-time associate at a retail store, I stood behind a register with a drawer full of them.
I learned to count change with care:
If a customer’s total was $7.77 and they handed me a $10 bill, I knew — without hesitating — that the change was $2.23.
That felt *right*.
It was honest.
It was exact.
It was math that added up.
Now, to hand back $2.25 instead?
My mind knows that’s what the system wants.
But my heart says, “That’s not what we were taught.”
It feels like a tiny lie — like the numbers don’t match the truth on the receipt.
We say it costs America over $56 million a year to make pennies,
about 4 cents to create 1 cent.
On paper, that sounds wasteful.
But I can’t help but ask:
Is saving money worth tearing down the way generations learned value?
Because we’re not just removing a coin.
We’re unlearning a way of thinking.
A price like $7.77 turns into “just round it.”
Change like $2.23 becomes “close enough.”
So now we live in this world of almost and about,
where exactness is replaced by approximation.
It might seem small — just a few cents here and there —
but what else are we rounding away?
When we say pennies don’t matter, what are we teaching the next generation?
That the small things don’t count?
That if it’s too inconvenient, we can just round it off and move on?
That precision can be sacrificed for speed and “efficiency”?
I get it.
The math of the government says:
“It costs too much to make the penny.”
But the math in my soul says:
Every cent mattered when I was learning.
Every cent mattered when we were taught to count carefully,
to pay attention,
to honor the numbers.
So much of what we learned growing up is being undone,
piece by piece, lesson by lesson.
So much of what shaped us is now called “outdated,”
and we’re told to unlearn it.
But I still believe in what the penny represented:
* That the smallest piece has value.
* That details matter.
* That what you learned wasn’t a waste.
Maybe the rest of the world is okay rounding up and rounding down.
But I refuse to forget how I was taught.
I refuse to forget that $7.77 from $10 *is* $2.23 —
even if the register wants to hand back $2.25.
We may do away with pennies,
but I pray we don’t do away with what they taught us:
Carefulness.
Accuracy.
Respect for every little bit.
And the truth that nothing is too small to count.

**What are we erasing, really? **
Maybe it’s not just a coin.
Maybe it’s the value of the smallest things —
and the people who still believe they matter.