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The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

cnn.com

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Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

#91

Post by ceejayoz »

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #80
nayuki wrote: post #20

We eliminated pennies in Canada in 2012 and the transition was a non-issue. The vast majority of retailers would round cash transactions to the nearest $0.05, but a few would round down to the nearest $0.05 in favor of the customer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_of_low-denomination... Canadian cash is better than American cash in several ways: No penny, durable polymer banknotes (instead of dirty wrinkly c…

American banknotes have numbers on them to easily distinguish the different values!

Not everyone can see.

Australian notes vary in size for this reason.

Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

#92

Post by madcaptenor »

ianferrel wrote: post #52
JohnFen wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the stores in my area have started requiring people to pay with exact change or by card because they can't get pennies to make change. Personally, I think stores should just start setting prices to avoid the need for pennies, but that would be too easy, I guess.

Setting prices to avoid the need for pennies is probably technically challenging given the combination of requirements to post prices and sales taxes that don't always round the same way. If the effective tax rate is 7.432%, you can price single items so that the price plus tax ends up in a multiple of $0.05, but if you get a purchase with multiple items, you either need to round somewhere or post prices that are lik…

For example, $0.93 * 1.07432 = is $0.9991176 exactly, which rounds to $1.00. But if you buy a dozen such items then $0.93 * 12 * 1.07432 = $11.9894112 exactly, which rounds to $11.99.

Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

#93

Post by Arubis »

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #80
nayuki wrote: post #20

We eliminated pennies in Canada in 2012 and the transition was a non-issue. The vast majority of retailers would round cash transactions to the nearest $0.05, but a few would round down to the nearest $0.05 in favor of the customer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_of_low-denomination... Canadian cash is better than American cash in several ways: No penny, durable polymer banknotes (instead of dirty wrinkly c…

American banknotes have numbers on them to easily distinguish the different values!

Which is great if you are fully abled! But for folks for whom sight isn't as strong, additional aids (different colors, different sized banknotes for different denominations) are super helpful.

Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

#94

Post by darthcircuit »

simonw wrote: post #64
ianferrel wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a non-issue as long as they round the price down. Because there's no law that the store can't discount their total by a small amount and then provide exact change. "Congratulations customer, we have a special coupon today for $0.03 off your purchase. Here's your change :)"

> In addition, the law covering the federal food assistance program known as SNAP requires that recipients not be charged more than other customers. Since SNAP recipients use a debit card that’s charged the precise amount, if merchants round down prices for cash purchases, they could be opening themselves to legal problems and fines, said Jeff Lenard, spokesperson for NACS.

When I lived in Australia, those paying with card were charged the exact amount. Those paying cash would round to the nearest 5 cents, in the customer’s favor. I suspect the same will happen here.

Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

#96

Post by ajmurmann »

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #80
nayuki wrote: post #20

We eliminated pennies in Canada in 2012 and the transition was a non-issue. The vast majority of retailers would round cash transactions to the nearest $0.05, but a few would round down to the nearest $0.05 in favor of the customer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_of_low-denomination... Canadian cash is better than American cash in several ways: No penny, durable polymer banknotes (instead of dirty wrinkly c…

American banknotes have numbers on them to easily distinguish the different values!

From dealing with Euro notes, I like being able to look down at the money in the wallet and pull the right notes out based on color. With USD I need to take the bills out of the wallet.

Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

#97

Post by quickthrowman »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #4

Many countries eliminated their pennies without chaos or unfair burdens on shopkeepers. In Canada, the process was widely popular after the fact even though newspaper articles prior to the elimination intimated it wouldn't be due to their "both sides" style of reporting. It's indicative of the current US administration that they managed to screw this up despite many examples world wide of how to do it properly.

Unfair burden?? I think you’re blowing this out of proportion..

Credit card fees are 2-4%. Rounding to the nearest nickel costs at most $0.02 (1,2 round to 0; 3,4 round to 5)

It is cheaper for the merchant to round to the nearest nickel for any transaction of one dollar or more than it is to pay CC merchant fees.

Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

#98

Post by iammattmurphy »

nayuki wrote: post #20

We eliminated pennies in Canada in 2012 and the transition was a non-issue. The vast majority of retailers would round cash transactions to the nearest $0.05, but a few would round down to the nearest $0.05 in favor of the customer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_of_low-denomination... Canadian cash is better than American cash in several ways: No penny, durable polymer banknotes (instead of dirty wrinkly c…

Even though I never use cash, I’m really not a fan of coins, so I wish we did have $1 bills.

Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

#99

Post by ecshafer »

mkehrt wrote: post #61
Analemma_ wrote: post #5

Honestly nickels and dimes, and maybe even quarters, should go too. It's ridiculous that we don't have $1 and $2 coins in widespread circulation in the US (we have a $1 coin but nobody uses it).

Sorry Europe and Canada, $1 and $2 coins are just absolutely terrible . I never want to have to think about where my change is. Bills are much lighter than coins and stack with the rest of the bills.

I want to get rid of bills and move to only coins. We can carry coin pouches and act like a medieval/fantasy novel character.

Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

#100

Post by afavour »

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #80
nayuki wrote: post #20

We eliminated pennies in Canada in 2012 and the transition was a non-issue. The vast majority of retailers would round cash transactions to the nearest $0.05, but a few would round down to the nearest $0.05 in favor of the customer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_of_low-denomination... Canadian cash is better than American cash in several ways: No penny, durable polymer banknotes (instead of dirty wrinkly c…

American banknotes have numbers on them to easily distinguish the different values!

> The United States is the only country that prints all denominations of currency in the same size. The US and Switzerland are the only two countries that use the same colors for all of their various bills. Needless to say, this sameness of size and color make it impossible for a blind person to locate the correct bills to make a purchase without some sort of assistance, or confirm that he or she has been given the correct change by the sales clerk. Even people with partial sight may have trouble distinguishing a $1 bill from a $10, especially if the bill is old and worn.

https://afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision/using-technology/ac...

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