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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

#191

Post by 8bitsrule »

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.

But, but but ... what will all the gas stations do with their 99.9¢/gal signs? ;->

The same argument could be made for the nickel and the dime. (How many of us collect them in a jar, and pay a 10% royalty to turn them into dollars?)

We all know that the real reason we hold on is that we know the price of everything will go up. Skinflints!

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

#192

Post by MrMorden »

iv597 wrote: post #179
snarf21 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We've had $1 coins for a hot minute. You can almost only ever find them at the bank, post offices, and some other government places (the Sound Transit ticket kiosks here in Seattle spit them out, I found out last week), but they exist. We also have/had a 50c coin, but it's huge and I believe out of circulation these days.

Casinos use the half-dollar to pay out a blackjack.

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

#193

Post by protomyth »

XalvinX wrote: post #153
protomyth wrote: post #103

How about we forget the insane idea we need to divide the dollar into 100 parts and back it off to 10 making the dime the new penny and getting rid of the whole 1 and 5 cent steps. So, it gets rid of of the penny, nickel, and quarter. We could save a lot of money just by converting the 1 and 5 bills to coins.

There have been dollar coins in America forever and still are. The general public refuses to use them, or just collects them and they never circulate.

Yes, but the US has never removed the paper money.

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

#194

Post by ceejayoz »

acdha wrote: post #173
ceejayoz wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stripe costs 2.9% + 30¢. Merchant accounts have long been below that, they were just a pain to get, and generally required hardware from the bank.

Merchant accounts weren’t that low until they started getting more competition.

I had clients in the early 2000s with 1.9% rates, as well as one with 2.5% and no fixed per-transaction fee, and these were small mom-and-pop businesses - the Targets, Costcos, Apples, etc. of the world likely go way lower on volume.

Stripe's selling point was never low fees. It was "you can be up and accepting cards in just a few minutes of coding", and that was well worth paying an extra percent or so.

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

#195

Post by intopieces »

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.

I’d vote to round to the quarter and call it a day.

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

#197

Post by TylerE »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #176
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…

> Most soda machines are charging $0.60 or $0.65 these days. Rounding to either $0.50 or $0.75 would be annoying. The soda machines I see charge $1.25. Where are you?

Cans, not bottles

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

#198

Post by [deleted] »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #51
iamcasen wrote: post #34

Am I the only one who views pennies like an extreme annoyance? I would rather throw pennies in the trash than have them. They are literally THAT worthless. They take up far more space and weight than they offer in value. It seems like such a massive waste to continue using valuable metals to create something so worthless. Honestly, I think quarters should be the only coin we have.

I've moved beyond that. I discard all change, ruthlessly. If there's somebody nearby who wants them, I give them the whole handful of change. Otherwise it all goes in the trash on the way out of the store. Used to wear holes in my pants pockets, get stuck in dryer etc. Cost more than it was worth, in wear and tear, and in emotional energy to manage it. You can't imagine the freedom you feel when you discard your firs…

[deleted]

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

#199

Post by xstartup »

ceejayoz wrote: post #194
acdha wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Merchant accounts weren’t that low until they started getting more competition.

I had clients in the early 2000s with 1.9% rates, as well as one with 2.5% and no fixed per-transaction fee, and these were small mom-and-pop businesses - the Targets, Costcos, Apples, etc. of the world likely go way lower on volume. Stripe's selling point was never low fees. It was "you can be up and accepting cards in just a few minutes of coding", and that was well worth paying an extra percent or so.

You both can be right at the same time.

CNP transactions (which stripe does) cost bit higher than CP transactions which require POS machine at mom/pop shops.

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

#200

Post by thepratt »

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.

That's what Australia did ~2 decades ago. There used to be 1 and 2c coins; they were seen as useless, so they were axed. All prices are rounded up to the nearest 5c.
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