I hate pennies.

Concord - Following the publication of an article in The Concord Journal on Concord Teacakes co-owner Judy Fersch, describing their penny boycott starting on Lincoln’s 200th birthday, many more West Concord merchants have followed suit. In each case, all transactions will be “rounded down” so that pennies will not be needed in change. Customers who insist on paying with pennies will be asked to throw them into a charity jar, though a charity which is willing to accept piles of pennies has yet to be located, a search which turns out to be harder than it would appear.

For actual payment, though, pennies will no longer be considered legal tender by most of these merchants.

“Being right across from the train station, we have long lines before trains leave and pennies make it worse,” said Fersch. “Further, there is a lot of lugging them from the bank, dropping them, not being able to reconcile register receipts and so on. Plus, mining zinc is an environmental nightmare, and it costs the government more to make pennies than they are worth. Finally, they have minted thousands for every man, woman and child. Where do they all go? If they were truly worth anything they wouldn’t end up in coffee cans, vacuum cleaners or sofas. It is simply a tax, which raises no revenue.”

Concord is also the birthplace of civil disobedience, where Henry David Thoreau went to jail for refusing to pay poll taxes to support the Mexican War.

“The jail is right down the street so we can be there in no time.” jokes Fersch.
Susan Cataldo, of Maximum Image by Sue, is equally adamant.
“When I run low on them [pennies], I usually have to reach in my wallet for a few,” she said. “Since I rarely have to deal with them, anyway, they are currently covered in the cash drawer with raffle tickets.”

Bill Griffin, Of Sally Anne’s Bakery in Concord Center, said he would like to have his register reprogrammed to round all prices including tax, to avoid handling pennies. “Until that happens, I still have to handle these worthless coins,” he said. “Let’s start a revolution right here in Concord to get rid of them altogether.”

Many of the participating stores say they already often round down in change because pennies are so annoying, and are happy to refuse to accept them in payment. “This doesn’t change what we do, no pun intended, except that refusing them means one less annoyance,” said Paula Silva of Millbrook Farms. But by drawing attention to it, Silva said, businesses are trying to make the point that pennies are a constant reminder of “government waste and it’s time to get rid of them. There are so many better things that the government can do with the money it spends on pennies, so many problems which need to be solved.” Regular West Concord shopper and Concord resident Christal Bjork reflects the sentiment of most other customers when she said, “They’re wasteful and it would be much easier not to have them. I think this is a great idea.”

This act of civil disobedience was conceived by http://www.thinkoob.com/, the Think-Out-of-the-Box Web site which bills itself as “America’s Marketplace of Ideas,” as a way to draw attention to its idea for phasing out pennies, as well as to its other ideas and to its million-dollar prize for the first idea originated on the ThinkOOB site to become law.

“We’ve figured out that all you need is a very simple executive order signed by the president saying ‘Establishments which agree to round down cash purchases may refuse to handle pennies,’” said Al Lewis. “This one-signature approach does not require an act of Congress, which the zinc mining companies have always blocked in the past. Obama said he is reviewing the cost-benefit of all government activities. This should be number one on his list.”
As part of the Lincoln’s birthday protest, Lewis intends to throw pennies on the ground in front of a policeman, and get cited for littering. “I want to prove that the government makes businesses accept litter as legal tender,” he said. “Then I want to go to jail and post my bond in pennies. The court will have to accept them and roll them all up. Our goal can be summed up in one Reaganesque sentence: Tear down this mint, Mr. Obama.”

America’s growing anti-penny sentiment was inspired by Professor Robert Whaples, chairman of the Economics Department at Wake Forest University. He has written in USA Today and elsewhere on the topic and is considered the father of the anti-penny movement to his admirers. To his enemies in the zinc lobby, however, he is considered the penny’s John Wilkes Booth. He said, “Even though a sparkling newly-minted penny brings back the innocence and joy of childhood, the penny is a tarnished relic. It wastes natural resources like zinc and energy, but worse — it wastes our precious time. Let’s honor Abraham Lincoln on his 200th birthday and stop linking his noble name to a useless, wasteful coin.”

Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw has also blogged on the topic. He coined the term “Penny-Anti Protest” in support of the West Concord merchants. Among the other West Concord businesses to join the Penny-Anti Protest are Concord Outfitters, Reflections, Phillips Fine Paint, West Concord Supermarket, West Concord Liquors, Walden Italian Kitchen, Twin Seafood and The Barber Shop. Others are considering it. Early this week, the protest began to spread to Concord Center as well, with Anderson’s, Sally Anne’s, The Concord Flower Shop, and Country Kitchen also on board. “This is where Concord’s second revolution starts and ultimately the site should be commemorated with a statue of Lincoln, who himself would approve of our emancipation from the tyranny of the zinc lobby,” said Lewis. “Since this is Concord, I’d like to see an Emersonian quatrain inscribed on the statue as follows:
“To the rude lobbyists who corrupted our good/Congressmen to support their zinc/here the embattled merchants stood/and said: “We think your pennies stink.”