Raymond Lombra

Lombra has published over 75 scholarly articles and six books.^[3] In 1990, Americans for Common Cents enlisted Lombra to produce evidence in support of continuing to make the U.S. penny. He subsequently testified before the Senate Banking Committee that eliminating the penny would “impose a significant and regressive rounding ‘tax’ on the American public”.^[4] He has also said that eliminating the penny would have especially adverse effects on people without checking accounts.^[5] He later elaborated on these claims in a 2001 paper he published in the Eastern Economic Journal which stated that the direct and indirect effects of eliminating the penny would be “no less than $1.5 billion over five years and $2.5 billion over a decade”.^[4][6]

Lombra and his wife, Bobbi, enjoy drinking fine wine and filling the resulting empty bottles with pennies.^[7]