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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

#281

Post by jacobgkau »

b112 wrote: post #252
Night_Thastus wrote: post #141

I'd say screw it, get rid of nickles and dimes as well. Quarters can stay, for now. It's a complete waste of money and time continuing to mint such low-value currency. It can't be used for just about anything. Unfortunately, I do see the problem with part of this. For a handful of items where it does matter, it will force people to use cards more if they want to avoid rounding. And the card providers already have a c…

I know you're referencing more than pennies, but to speak to pennies, I find the current rounding noise in the US to be weird. Likely, it's just more of the media, talking heads, and youtube personalities trying to turn a nothing into something, story. Back when we did it in Canada, I don't recall a single person I knew concerned about penny rounding. Everyone was sick of pennies. No one cared. Everyone was happy. An…

> Basically, if something is $1.01 or $1.02, you round down. If it's $1.03 or $1.04, you round up.

So everything's going to be $1.03 or $1.04. Not sure why you think retailers (or any sellers) would ever, ever, ever let this play into customers' advantage.

But apparently pointing out that obvious truth makes me a "moron," because you can think of some clever ways to get around it that retailers surely won't work around.

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

#283

Post by phantasmish »

warmwaffles wrote: post #202
phantasmish wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gas stations price to the tenth of a penny per gallon. There is no 1/10 cent coin. Works fine.

That's because the law requires them to charge that extra 9/10. It's silly.

It doesn’t require it. There may still be (I dunno) fixed per-gallon taxes in the tenth-penny-per-gallon range, but stations aren’t forced to handle it the way they do.

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

#284

Post by ezfe »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #140
quickthrowman wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It costs on average 2 cents because without legislative authority to round to closest the retailer must round down and eat up to 4 cents of difference. Cash costs retailers money too. Safely transporting it to the bank, et cetera. For many, cash is more expensive than credit cards.

They can reprice items to minimize rounding

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

#285

Post by TheJoeMan »

Do any other countries have/had “penny squish” souvenir machines? You put in 2 quarters + a penny, and it stamps a design onto the penny. My favorite souvenir, small, cheap, can keep in a booklet, and many landmarks have the machines. There are a few machines that take a $1 bill and use a fresh penny blank internally.

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

#286

Post by cpeterso »

quijoteuniv wrote: post #177
datadrivenangel wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But add a $3.50 coin so that we can strongly incentivize coffee to stay below a certain price.

Just take a zero out of everything and change the name from dollar to something else!

Decadollars

100 dollars = 10 decadollars

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

#287

Post by cestith »

SkyLemon wrote: post #151
rayiner wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

One thing about accessibility and usability, is that when you design something for the minority it tends to make things better for the majority. Take ramps for example, they not only server those in wheel chairs, but also families with strollers and elderly with walkers.

Crutches and canes can be easier on a ramp, too. Even people with fine balance but limits on movement of the hip, knee, or ankle can benefit.

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

#288

Post by cestith »

rayiner wrote: post #176
dghlsakjg wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the Canadian solution of adding brail to the notes inconvenience you, or is that an acceptable way to make sure that people with disabilities can participate in cash transactions safely? Does having different sized coins strike you as an inconvenience? Why does a feature that can be used by anyone, regardless of disability, strike you as "inconvenient for almost everybody"? What, exactly, is inconvenient about h…

Different sized bills are harder to stack in a wallet. Braille is a much better way to handle the problem. No cost to the majority, while solving the problem for the minority.

As long as the largest bills fit and the smallest bills don’t get lost I don’t understand how it’s so much harder.

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

#289

Post by [deleted] »

ryanmcbride wrote: post #267
b112 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you're referencing more than pennies, but to speak to pennies, I find the current rounding noise in the US to be weird. Likely, it's just more of the media, talking heads, and youtube personalities trying to turn a nothing into something, story. Back when we did it in Canada, I don't recall a single person I knew concerned about penny rounding. Everyone was sick of pennies. No one cared. Everyone was happy. An…

Rounding is such a weird boogeyman to me because people are like "the companies are just going to use it to get more money from the customers" but, they're doing that anyway. They don't need this excuse to raise prices they'll just do it anyway. Same thing when people complain that raising minimum wage will increase prices, meanwhile prices have increased for 50 years completely separate from wages. They don't need t…

[deleted]

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

#290

Post by estimator7292 »

mattnewton wrote: post #159
nofriend wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just make the price a multiple of five cents

State and local taxes make this infeasible

With some 5th grade algebra, one can adjust the total of a transaction to result in a round number after taxes.

Besides that, the law (at least where I live) is that the tax must be paid, but it does not specify by whom. It's completely feasible for a retailer to pay the 2 cent difference in the tax and charge the customer a round number.

Is this really the state of American education where a percentage calculation makes a very simple situation literally impossible? You can think of no other way to overcome the complicated calculations of checks notes x times 1.06?

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