Do it. In NZ, we got rid of everything below $0.10 and pretty much no one cares.
That said, a large portion of the country is cashless anyway. I almost never have cash on me.
Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
41–50 of 428 posts
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#42I'm old enough to remember halfpenny coins here in the UK. I've got a few someplace that I kept.
When they were withdrawn in 1984, they were worth more than 1.5p in today's money. The country survived, so I dare say we could safely discontinue 1p (and 2p) coins.
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#43Yes. 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 abo…
I live here in Ontario, and you're right the sky did not fall. The rounding isn't a big deal really, even on scale. It rounds to the nearest nickel, which is or is not in favour of the consumer/business. For example, $2.07 rounds to $2.05, while $2.08 rounds to $2.10. This should net out to an immaterial benefit to either side. It also is only rounded when paying cash. Card transactions are not rounded.
FYI Sales tax is 13% in Ontario now
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#44I really like it that they offer you, instead of a site with a lot of junk and JS, a plain text version! That's much nicer news than the story itself :-) ... that said - why _don't_ you guys cancel the penny? > Penny defenders' strongest argument was that eliminating it would hurt consumers. All those $9.99 products? The prices would be jacked up to an even $10! That sounds like an argument made up retroactively to t…
Yeah but what will the gas pumps do? Their prices are “$3.29.9” per gallon, do they Mae it “$3.29.5“ now? Personally yeah, I don’t think we need pence.
They're already denominated in a unit that doesn't exist. Why would they change?
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#45Go further. I haven't used coins in 10 years. Get coins - put them all in the 'penny tray'. Or give them to the cashier. Or hand them to somebody nearby. All else fails, toss them in the trash as I leave the store.
Trashing money is illegal and sounds very unethical to me.
It’s a lot more nuanced than “illegal” and definitely depends on your region: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_burning#Legality
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#46As an American living in Canada, I gotta say. Pennies and dollar bills SUCK. We have $1 and $2 coins and they're actually useful. Every time I visit home, I end up with piles of pennies and wads of stinky, tattered, overcirculated garbage bills.
If you accumulate a pile $1 and $2 coins, nobody looks askance if you plunk down a stack of them. But god, the glares if you want to spend $20 in dollar bills.
I say take it further: nickels should go too, and probably dimes.
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#47[deleted]
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#48Yes. 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 abo…
>> $0.01-$0.02 per transaction * millions of transactions per day has got to make some accountants happy. You'd think, but actually no. That's because it's per transaction, so the accumulated amount is well pennies compared to the turnover. For example, say you always rounded in favor of the company. That means an average of 2c gain per transaction. If you do 2 million transactions a day that's... 40 grand! yay. Exce…
This is similar to how HFT firms make a profit. Except it's generally less than a penny but it's per share per transaction (trade). We can thank the Sub-Penny Pricing Rule of Regulation NMS for this feature. An order for 1000 shares of XYZ stock that is front-run for half a penny per share is $50 dollars profit. Rinse and repeat.
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#49Go further. I haven't used coins in 10 years. Get coins - put them all in the 'penny tray'. Or give them to the cashier. Or hand them to somebody nearby. All else fails, toss them in the trash as I leave the store.
Trashing money is illegal and sounds very unethical to me.
Why unethical? You’re giving everyone a small gift of deflation.
Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?
#50I come from France, where we use pennies and live in the Netherlands where we don't. It's always a great deal of fun seeing the family come over and try to hand over / or wait for their pennies after doing the groceries; struggling to really understand each other because of the language barrier. There is something very charming about it .
You should be able to pay with 1 and 2 cent coins in The Netherlands. You just won't get them as change and the amount charged will be rounded to the nearest 5 cents in most, but not all, shops. But I wouldn't be surprised if many cashiers don't know they should accept those coins.