Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 428 posts

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#161

Post by ghaff »

lostapathy wrote: post #101
ghaff wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I very much enjoyed the existence of €1 and €2 coins Uggh. When I travel in Europe-- especially Germany with its remaining heavy use of cash--I hate coinage that is sufficiently valuable that I can't just basically ignore it. The US seriously tried to do a dollar coin (the Susan B. Anthony)--which was arguably ill-conceived for at least a couple of reasons but I'm very happy with US coinage being basically loose cha…

The US still mints several dollar coins - although the Susan B Anthony coins haven't been minted in over 20 years. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_coin_(United_States)#Sa...

I forgot about the Sacagawea dollar which did solve the fact that the Susan B Anthony coins were too much like quarters. Haven't seen one in the wild for years though. I didn't even know the other two but they're apparently not in general circulation.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#162

Post by jlengrand »

wartijn_ wrote: post #88
jlengrand wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I've tried in quite a few places and never got them accepted.

Here is the government website that says so and its translation (with a really long url, but the translation is better than that of Google Translate). Appearantly every shop should have stickers telling customers that they round cash payments. I've never noticed that anywhere. https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/geldzaken/vraag-en-... https://www.deepl.com/translator#nl/en/%20Mogen%20winkeliers... .

Geen vertaling nodig hoor :P. Thanks for the link! I can't say I have seen any of those stickers either. I'll have a more attentive look in the future

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#163

Post by [deleted] »

smichel17 wrote: post #22
ShorsHammer wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly can't understand why any country on Earth is still using paper for notes. Is basic materials science some bizarre foreign concept? And for anyone who thinks otherwise, I'm going for a swim with $300 in my pocket.

At least in the US, bills are much different from regular printer paper, closer to fabric. As long as you're not taking them for a swim regularly, they should be fine. (That said, when I've lived in Germany, I very much enjoyed the existence of €1 and €2 coins -- I've written about it on here before, if you're willing to scroll very far back in my post history).

[deleted]

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#164

Post by klyrs »

Loughla wrote: post #148
nayuki wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 This assertion is wrong. If the item you buy is $1.00, then after your 14% tax it will be $1.14, which is rounded up to $1.15. If the item is $2.00, then after tax it is $2.28, which also rounds up to $2.30. But if the item is $3.00,…

Regardless of what the practice is in Canada, I have zero faith in literally any US business to round down on anything, at anytime, for any reason at all. It will, I guarantee, be round up on everything.

It's not merely "practice" in Canada, it's the law. And since most transactions are handled by software these days, it's pretty easy to implement and verify (jobs: secret shoppers). Subtler, businesses can try to game their prices to maximize rounding gains; also illegal (jobs: accounting, data analysis). For small businesses with antiquated tills, one should offer grants for upgrades and training (jobs: installation, manufacturing, tech support...).

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#165

Post by harryh »

hagy wrote: post #158
harryh wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Supreme Court has ruled ideas like this unconstitutional. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-may-18-mn-38325...

Durational-residence requirements still exists. E.g., paying in state vs. out of state tuition at a state university, which commonly requires a year of residency. [0, 1] State-provided healthcare could be provided in a similar fashion through state-administrated health insurance that has different rates for in state and out of state. There could be a durational-residence requirements for in state pricing. [0] https:/…

From footnote [1] which you generously provided:

"If the purpose of the requirements was to inhibit migration by needy persons into the state or to bar the entry of those who came from low-paying states to higher-paying ones in order to collect greater benefits, the Court said, the purpose was impermissible"

It's obviously hard to know for certain what SCOTUS will do, but under that standard it sounds like having health care benefits only available to long term residents would be on very shaky legal ground.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#166

Post by berbec »

pixelbath wrote: post #152
torgoguys wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would probably be illegal in most jurisdictions in the US. I don't understand the big fuss over rounding in the discussion of eliminating the penny. Rounding happens. We already round sales tax up or down to the nearest penny--this would just round up or down to the nearest nickel. But while we are on the subject, I think we should eliminate nickels and quarters at the same time as the penny and just round to th…

What ludicrous talk! You may as well suggest something equally as insane, like converting to metric units! /s

Then how do I know when my Mustang hits 88 bald eagle wingspan per Budweisercan?

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#167

Post by horsawlarway »

berbec wrote: post #166
pixelbath wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What ludicrous talk! You may as well suggest something equally as insane, like converting to metric units! /s

Then how do I know when my Mustang hits 88 bald eagle wingspan per Budweisercan?

Because I found it entertaining -

If we assume it takes about 15 seconds to chug a bud, and that an eagle's wingspan is about 6ft, this leads to 528ft/15s, or ~24Mph.

Either you need a faster car, you chug your beer quickly, or you grow some oversized eagles.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#168

Post by lovegoblin »

nayuki wrote: post #90
UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #5

Yes. 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…

> 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 This assertion is wrong. If the item you buy is $1.00, then after your 14% tax it will be $1.14, which is rounded up to $1.15. If the item is $2.00, then after tax it is $2.28, which also rounds up to $2.30. But if the item is $3.00,…

Also, it's only cash transactions that are rounded. If you pay by debit or credit (which I would guess is the majority?) then it's still the exact amount and nothing has changed.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#169

Post by jellicle »

Loughla wrote: post #148
nayuki wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 This assertion is wrong. If the item you buy is $1.00, then after your 14% tax it will be $1.14, which is rounded up to $1.15. If the item is $2.00, then after tax it is $2.28, which also rounds up to $2.30. But if the item is $3.00,…

Regardless of what the practice is in Canada, I have zero faith in literally any US business to round down on anything, at anytime, for any reason at all. It will, I guarantee, be round up on everything.

Everyone uses an electronic POS system and it will round however the manufacturer told it to round (which will be correctly). The only people you have to worry about cheating you out of 3-4 cents in a world without pennies (the maximum you can be cheated) would be people without electronic systems. Which is to say, no one.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#170

Post by lolsal »

ryandvm wrote: post #125

The US penny is perhaps the most illustrative example of why I am wary that the US government can do ANYTHING efficiently. The continued existence of the penny is absolutely ludicrous. Here we have something that has almost zero economic value to everyone involved. It costs more to mint them than they're worth. It likely costs more to even transport or count them than they're worth. It is almost entirely just economi…

> It costs more to mint them than they're worth.

Isn't this largely irrelevant since the producer of pennies makes up for this when they print any other form of currency?

> But the fact that this country can't even figure out how to stop making a coin that is worthless tells me that it is probably asking a little too much to expect that the federal government can competently manage anything as complex as healthcare or the livelihoods of millions.

The worth of a unit of currency should not be measured by how much it costs to produce. If we're using that metric a $1 note has just as much worth as a $5 note, and a $20 note is equivalent to a $50 note. A single $50 pays for plenty of pennies in terms of cost.

I honestly don't know where I stand on keeping/removing the penny, but I do know from personal experience that counting and saving pennies was useful for me when I was very poor. I know that rounding down saves the consumer money, but putting the savings in a jar and treating yourself to something when you cash in your jar is something of value that is lost.

I don't count pennies these days, but I used to, and I definitely picked up pennies off the street. Should we design economic/currency policy to 'help' the poor instead of actually helping the poor? Probably not, but I wince when I hear people say that pennies are worthless.

Post reply on HN