Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
1–10 of 428 posts
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#2Go for it, America. We got rid of the penny up here in Canada in 2012. Doing so removed a degree of hassle from everyone's commercial lives.
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#3Why kill it?
Why not just re-value it instead?
For example, make its value $1000.
Would maybe be a neat solution to the 1% problem.
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#4Yes, we don't need such small amounts of money.
Just always round up, when paying and when giving the rest back.
> All those $9.99 products? The prices would be jacked up to an even $10!
Only logical thing, I know this "wow less than 10$" tricks people into buying stuff, but it's just stupid that it's the default to give me back 1 penny whatever I buy.
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#5Yes.
Canada stopped producing pennies in the fall of 2012. [0] The sky didn't fall. There was no great debate, no public opinion polls and politicians swearing heartily about the demise of our great nation. (Ok that's probably not true. For too many politicians that's all they do.)
There was resistance when Canada dropped the $1 bill in favour of a Loonie (a $1 coin with the image of a loon on it). People bitched about having too much change in there pocket, pockets became too heavy, etc. I do however see more coins in tip & donation jars now then I ever saw paper money.
This is a key difference between US policy & Canadian policy that I have informally noticed while growing up on the border (with family ties on both sides).
Canadian government: We think it's a good idea, so we're going to do it.
US Government: Lets have more opinion polls, and countless politicians swearing against any decent public reform or change to the status quo. Watch the media whip the public up into a frenzy. I guaranty that this will create a more frantic response and airtime then the BLM & Police Reform protests did.
Side note: If you drop the penny, for the love of $diety change your sales tax structure so that it's a multiple of 5. 5%, 10%, 15%, etc... Since Canada changed but left the taxes the same (14% in Ontario IIRC) there seems to be a lot of rounding-off in favour of companies instead of consumers. $0.01-$0.02 per transaction * millions of transactions per day has got to make some accountants happy.
[0]https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-s-penny-withdrawal-all...
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#6I moved from a country that has pennies (Germany, so EUR cents) to one that doesn't (Switzerland, CHF) age 18.
The smallest coin is 0.05CHF. It's still worth enough that you might use a handful of them to make change for a small amount like, say, 0.40CHF.
Grocery prices either have a resolution of 0.05CHF (all major retailers) or if not, your bill will be rounded to a resolution 0.05CHF to the customers advantage (e.g. at Lidl).
I have never ever once missed the equivalent of the 1- or 2-cent EUR coin. They were a pain to have in your wallet, and an insult to any tip jar or piggy bank.
I have no rational idea why the concept hasn't caught on more widely.
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#7No, coin collectors have enough problems as it is
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#8Why kill it? Why not just re-value it instead? For example, make its value $1000. Would maybe be a neat solution to the 1% problem.
> Why not just re-value it instead?
> For example, make its value $1000.
The US used to have $1000 bills (and $10,000 bills, but those were only for internal gov't use). I'm pretty sure we're stuck with $100 as the top denomination to make organized crime more difficult.
Also, it's WAY easier to counterfeit a coin than a bill.
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#9Yes, we don't need such small amounts of money. Just always round up, when paying and when giving the rest back. > All those $9.99 products? The prices would be jacked up to an even $10! Only logical thing, I know this "wow less than 10$" tricks people into buying stuff, but it's just stupid that it's the default to give me back 1 penny whatever I buy.
Actually, the pricing of individual items doesn't change. (Not least because of GST the price you pay at the till is not the sticker price.)
Where I live the 1c and 2c coins were killed some time ago. The smallest coin now is a 5c.
The way it works is that you go to the checkout, get a final total. If you pay cash then the change is "rounded up" to the nearest 5c mark. If you pay via card you pay the exact amount.
It's really not complicated, and frankly no-one cares about it.
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#10I remember reading years ago that the reluctance to get rid of a penny is usual the unease in the central bank of a particular country to accept that the currency has inflated.
I imagine retailers would still price things at £9.95 instead to perpetuate the 'psychological trick' that "it's not really £10!".