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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

#111

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

SoftTalker wrote: post #76
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…

I honestly don't know why we don't get rid of nickels and dimes as well. What can you still buy that costs less than $0.25?

My employer has a 55¢ vending machine with a dodgy bill validator.

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

#112

Post by mattnewton »

throw0101d wrote: post #107

So Obama wanted to wanted to ban the penny, but it was deemed illegal to do so and efforts to get rid of the law requiring it did not pass: * https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/02/10/trump-us-mi... * https://www.local3news.com/obama-wants-to-retire-the-penny-b... It's not that keeping the penny around is (necessarily) a good idea, but that there are, you know, laws, and people (including the President and cab…

You already know the answer.

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

#113

Post by Amorymeltzer »

Some interesting complications with rounding I had not heard about before were mentioned here, worth noting I think, especially given the prominence of SNAP in the news lately:

>Four states - Delaware, Connecticut, Michigan and Oregon - as well as numerous cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Miami and Washington, DC, require merchants to provide exact change, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS).

>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.

>“Rounding down on all transactions presents several challenges beyond the loss of an average of 2 cents per transaction,” Lenard said. “We desperately need legislation that allows rounding so retailers can make change for these customers.”

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

#114

Post by mooreds »

hrimfaxi wrote: post #3

I watched a video on the demise of the penny and its predicament was so succinctly explained: everyone gets pennies as change but few carry them around let alone spend them, so we are stuck producing ever more. One news outlet even did an "experiment" where they threw hundreds of pennies on the ground in a city on a busy morning and not one person stopped to pick any up.

I remember moving out of a place (decades ago). I was the last roommate out, and so was stuck with some of the cleanup (wanted to get that deposit back!).

One of the things we had was a ton of pennies (no idea why). I had no room in my car, so I spend a few minutes late at night flinging pennies out onto the sidewalk after a long day of cleaning the place.

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

#115

Post by SCUSKU »

totallykvothe wrote: post #101
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…

I'll agree on all but one point. The cotton/linen notes feel so much better in the hand than the candy wrapper plastic of Canadian bills. I know it's a dumb reason, but I just hate the feeling.

Plus US dollars just have that smell to them. I wouldn't mind though if we rotated out some of the faces on the bills, e.g. Andrew Jackson

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

#116

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

throw0101d wrote: post #107

So Obama wanted to wanted to ban the penny, but it was deemed illegal to do so and efforts to get rid of the law requiring it did not pass: * https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/02/10/trump-us-mi... * https://www.local3news.com/obama-wants-to-retire-the-penny-b... It's not that keeping the penny around is (necessarily) a good idea, but that there are, you know, laws, and people (including the President and cab…

The president is now immune to obeying the law and can pardon all of his stooges.

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

#117

Post by SoftTalker »

afavour wrote: post #100
ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 c…

It's a bit odd that the mint doesn't emboss the denomination in braille on each note. I'd think that there would be a way to do that and have it hold up pretty well in circulation?

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

#118

Post by lbourdages »

thayne wrote: post #56

I'm a little worried this will encourage vendors to increases prices up to the next 5 cent mark, which will cause inflation that we really don't need more of right now.

This has not been an issue in Canada. There is sales tax, which basically randomizes the last digit.

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

#119

Post by varun_ch »

afavour wrote: post #100
ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 c…

Switzerland has same colors for all of the various bills? As far as I can tell, that has never been true

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

#120

Post by CGMthrowaway »

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).

Used to use dollar coins at toll booths all the time. That was before ez pass
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