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The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

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Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#141

Post by mechanicalpulse »

swanson wrote: post #61

They should sell ads on the back of the penny. "A Penny Save is a Penny Earned - Chase Bank" A durable, historical, innovative new channel that also makes minting pennies profitable. Everyone loved collecting those state quarters they made a few years back. Of course, if this is successful we can move upstream to other coins and eventually dollar bills. Alternatively, we could allow rich people to put their face on t…

And think of all the chuckles to be had when asking the corporate sponsor how many "impressions" they're looking for!

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#142

Post by jon-wood »

jstarfish wrote: post #125
curun1r wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then if we could pass a law mandating that prices be displayed inclusive of sales tax, that'd be great. One of my favorite parts about going to Europe is being able to add up prices in my head and have it match up exactly with the final total. The US system is nonsensical and shouldn't be used to justify other nonsensical policies like the continued use of the penny.

The problem is that there are a lot of situations in which tax is exempt and/or variable depending on the customer. i.e. Joe Sixpack is going to pay 7% on his loaf of bread, but Jane Wicstamps buying the same loaf of bread with food stamps does not get charged any tax. Additionally, some municipalities will do things like say there's a general 7% sales tax on everything, except groceries, which are taxed at 2%...unti…

We cope just fine with variable tax rates and rules for who pays tax in the UK. The general rule is that all prices are inclusive of VAT (sales tax), if you’re VAT exempt as is the case for many businesses then you claim that money back. Some businesses allow you to provide proof of VAT exemption and sell at the price before tax to avoid having to claim back.

For things that don’t have different VAT rates, such as food or children’s clothing, it’s the retailers responsibility to price that in - most people probably couldn’t even tell you which particular goods are VAT exempt.

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#143

Post by snarf21 »

ortusdux wrote: post #11

When the half penny was decommissioned in 1857 it was worth the equivalent of 10-15 cents in today's dollars. It was decommissioned because inflation had made it nearly useless and the metal was worth more than the coin.

We should get rid of everything below the quarter. All we need are some rules for rounding up (or down). Then we could also drop the $1 dollar bill for a coin. A lot less confusion with only two main coins in circulation.

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#144

Post by [deleted] »

TylerE wrote: post #94
rbritton wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coins seem largely used anymore for tax. How common would any coin smaller than a quarter be without a percentage-based sales tax? Virtually every price is close to either the $.50 or the $.00 mark -- it's the tax that creates the need for more combinations of change.

Vending machines would be problematic. Most soda machines are charging $0.60 or $0.65 these days. Rounding to either $0.50 or $0.75 would be annoying. That said, I think it'd be totally reasonable to eliminate all coins other than the nickel and quarter. (If I really had my way, I'd also eliminate dollar bills (replacing with a dollar coin that doesn't suck, replace with some more valuable and small.... like dime-siz…

[deleted]

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#145

Post by jdblair »

SnowingXIV wrote: post #115
TylerE wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vending machines would be problematic. Most soda machines are charging $0.60 or $0.65 these days. Rounding to either $0.50 or $0.75 would be annoying. That said, I think it'd be totally reasonable to eliminate all coins other than the nickel and quarter. (If I really had my way, I'd also eliminate dollar bills (replacing with a dollar coin that doesn't suck, replace with some more valuable and small.... like dime-siz…

I was with you until you wanted to eliminate cash in favor of more coins. How is someone supposed to carry those in their wallet? Many use thin wallets or money clips for card/ID/cash. Plus if I'm leaving someone a tip, I'm sure they'd hate to have their pockets jingling while they serve food or valet. Cash is also a lot easier to count, flip through, harder to lose.

The entire EU eurozone manages to do it. There's a 1 Euro note, but I've never seen it and as far as I know nobody uses it. Using 1 and 2 euro coins works great. I personaly just keep them in my pocket. I don't think jingling is a real problem.

Same goes for the UK and the pound. Nobody uses 1 pound notes.

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#146

Post by [deleted] »

zackbloom wrote: post #124
mikec3010 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't imagine the freedom you feel when you discard your first handful of change! I get this from gambling, actually. A $20 haircut or $30 dinner feels like nothing compared to blowing $2300 at a casino so I never complain about petty expenses. It annoys me to hear people in my life (who have healthy incomes) complain about the costs of things or talk about saving a few bucks at costco. It just doesn't matter.…

Wait, obviously not everyone in your life is losing $2300 at a casino regularly right? So to them a few dollars might be important? A $30 dinner every day is $11k at the end of the year.

[deleted]

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#147

Post by mechanicalpulse »

mikestew wrote: post #3

So get rid of them. At one point in my life, a long time ago, things could be purchased for a penny. That time has long passed. Now pennies are used just to make the math work out. Round everything up a nickel ($0.05) and call it a day. Or look at it another way: inflation has made the nickel from my youth into today's penny.

> Round everything up a nickel ($0.05) and call it a day.

This already happens at convenience stores around the country, too. The "pennies for everybody" trays are the physical manifestations of our collective irritation with the penny. I know I only ever get change back rounded to the nearest 0.05 because I always leave my pennies in the tray. And since I often never have pennies, I'm only prepared to make transactions to the nearest 0.05.

Many of us are already doing it, but just in a roundabout way that requires more effort for no reason.

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#148

Post by pnloyd »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #5
mikestew wrote: post #3

So get rid of them. At one point in my life, a long time ago, things could be purchased for a penny. That time has long passed. Now pennies are used just to make the math work out. Round everything up a nickel ($0.05) and call it a day. Or look at it another way: inflation has made the nickel from my youth into today's penny.

What can you buy at a shop with just a nickel? I don't think I've purchased any item at a shop for less than ten cents in my thirty years; and it's rare to see anything that costs less than a quarter.

Nails and such sold individually at hardware stores. Things sold by weight as well.

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#149

Post by mikec3010 »

zackbloom wrote: post #124
mikec3010 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't imagine the freedom you feel when you discard your first handful of change! I get this from gambling, actually. A $20 haircut or $30 dinner feels like nothing compared to blowing $2300 at a casino so I never complain about petty expenses. It annoys me to hear people in my life (who have healthy incomes) complain about the costs of things or talk about saving a few bucks at costco. It just doesn't matter.…

Wait, obviously not everyone in your life is losing $2300 at a casino regularly right? So to them a few dollars might be important? A $30 dinner every day is $11k at the end of the year.

None of my friends gamble. So you're correct they don't have my perspective. But I don't make money gambling either, so we make about the same amount. And I know that saving $3 on strawberries at the grocery store isn't going to make or break them so it seems irrelevant and petty to even talk about.

Re: The US Mint lost $69M making pennies last year

#150

Post by walshemj »

xyzzyz wrote: post #113
rileymat2 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this true? Cash management has a definite cost, but it is just an assumed cost of doing business.

My friend, who owns a very cash heavy retail business, tells me that he pays the company that regularly picks up cash much, much less than what the credit card processors charge.

And in the Eu card issuers have been raising prices to defeat the recent clampdown on interchange fees which cost me almost £20 a month due to loss of rebates.
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