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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

#521

Post by gus_massa »

dyslexit wrote: post #394
simpleguitar wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the article points out, there are laws that say people who pay via SNAP debit cards "cannot be charged more than others". If cash payments are rounded down, but debit card payments aren't, they are in violation of state law. The article also points out that rollback of pennies in Canada and other places were planned, addressing these kinds of issues. USA is doing it with no such planning.

The article also points out that some states and a lot cities require retailers to provide exact change. Congress would need to pass legislation to allow rounding nationally. I'm guessing in the meantime they'll continue holding pennies from previous years?

Here in Argentina the law says they must be rounded down. Initially it was for 5 AR$cents, and some shops still has the oficial sign that says AR$ 0.05.

We unofficially drop the coins/bills when the reach ~US$0.03, so now we dropped the AR$50 bills and everythig in cash is rounded down to AR$100 (US$0.07).

(The only exception is the photocopy shop 2 blocks away from home.)

Credit cards are charged the exact ammount, with cents that are irrelevant.

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

#522

Post by kazinator »

That seems weird. I mean, if you decide to abolish the penny, you just do it cold turkey. You don't set a date in the future and the continue making them, so that the last penny is accompanied by fanfare.

> Trump announced via social media in February that he instructed the Mint to stop making the once-popular coin, citing the cost of production.

So between February and today, they just ignored the order?

What justified the pennies produced between February and November? Those pennies were necessary, and still cost-effective, but going forward, the penny as such is no longer necessary?

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

#523

Post by dec0dedab0de »

barbazoo wrote: post #503
droptablemain wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The famous little jingle "shave and a haircut, two bits" Most people today have no clue what a "bit" is. I imagine the future will hold something similar for the penny in all the idioms and cultural phrases we have. What the hell is a penny?

What is a bit, a penny?

1/8, so 2 bits is a quarter.

it comes from old spanish coins that they would cut into eight pieces, or bits.

I learned that after watching one of the pirates of the Caribbean movies and googling pieces of eight.

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

#524

Post by hinkley »

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…

I think people underestimate how many stores used to set prices to avoid pennies. When I was a kid it was frequent. Goose the price so cost + tax rounded to the nearest nickel. But now everything is 23.99 or sometimes 23.95, and they use the pennies place to denote clearance items. Like 19.94 or 3.98.

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

#525

Post by hn_acc1 »

echelon wrote: post #340
smeej wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you buy two things at $1.03 or $1.04, it's $2.06 or $2.07 and rounds down to $2.05 more often than it's $2.08 and rounds up to $2.10. That's not "some clever ways." That's so basic it's absurd. They don't know how many things you're going to buy. They don't know how many things anyone is going to buy. There's no way to game the entire system for every combination of things people might buy. Never mind this: When w…

If there is no rounding down, it could amount to more. Hypothetically if you incur 10,000 transactions per year with the max rounding up of $0.04 per transaction, you're out $400. This doesn't make a huge impact to individuals, but it absolutely will to large volume businesses.

For large volume businesses, $400 / year is what we usually call.. a rounding error.

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

#526

Post by ryandrake »

patrickthebold wrote: post #511
dyslexit wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article also points out that some states and a lot cities require retailers to provide exact change. Congress would need to pass legislation to allow rounding nationally. I'm guessing in the meantime they'll continue holding pennies from previous years?

Is gas sold as a whole penny amounts in those locations? Where I am it's always something and 9/10ths of a cent.

Allowing gas stations to denominate their prices by the 10th of a cent has always struck me as a just an underhanded and extreme way to practice the "9.99" retail psychological trick. Why not allow retailers to price things 9.99999? Ridiculous.

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

#527

Post by Octoth0rpe »

Galacta7 wrote: post #277
strbean wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now is our chance to switch to European style "you pay the price it says on the shelf"!

That makes too much sense, which is why it won't happen. Though I'd be all for it.

More specifically, if Americans stopped have a daily reminder of how much is paid in taxes (which IMO isn't egregious by any stretch), one party would have a tougher time whipping anti-tax sentiment.

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

#528

Post by gblargg »

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…

Things have always been rounded (tax). There's just a change in what multiple it's rounded to.

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

#529

Post by retrocog »

droptablemain wrote: post #257
darth_avocado wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the Pennies go away, you can no longer get things for pennies on the dollar.

The famous little jingle "shave and a haircut, two bits" Most people today have no clue what a "bit" is. I imagine the future will hold something similar for the penny in all the idioms and cultural phrases we have. What the hell is a penny?

Exactly. Two bits is a quarter because the US silver dollar was modeled on the Spanish Pillar Dollar, also called pieces of eight. Hence 2/8 (two bits) = 1/4.

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

#530

Post by hn_acc1 »

water9 wrote: post #436
jacobgkau wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As others have pointed out, governments sometimes issue actual guidance on how it's supposed to work when they phase out currency. It's not always "just stop making them and see how the market deals with it."

It makes no sense to spend more money to mint the actual money, then the money is worth OK. You might not like it, but something has to be done because to continue in a slow and methodical process 1) forgets that the government is the same entity that runs the DMV 2) people love to throw out criticisms of solutions that aren’t perfect not realizing that it’s still better than the status quo. To do nothing is costing…

1) DMV is state-run, not federal govt. 2) Why can't we at least spend 5 minutes studying how it went in Canada, and learn that govt guidance was helpful to the transition, so do that too? 3) Sure. And even more because, even when he DOES pick up on a good idea (I support elimination of the penny), he does so in a haphazard / slipshod way that the end result is often worse than if nothing had been done.
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