Live data from Hacker News

The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

cnn.com

151–160 of 981 posts

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

#151
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone can see. Australian notes vary in size for this reason.

[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.

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

#152

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…

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

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

#153

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…

just make the price a multiple of five cents

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

#154

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…

For the SNAP law, could they just round down SNAP purchases in the same way to be compliant?

They probably will, but that means a POS software update on a tight deadline.

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

#155
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> require merchants to provide exact change All the items in my dad's farm shop were priced so they came out to a round dollar amount after tax, and that was 40 years ago.

But less decent people can’t resist the dark pattern of using $x.99 prices everywhere.

At big retailers the price tag code indicates what type of price it is. For example the last digits can mean:

0: full

9: sale

8: reduced

7: clearance (item will not restock)

I forget the exact system Sears used but we could tell at a glance if a deal was really “good”.

I’m curious if Sears and WalMart used different systems and if WalMart exploited knowledge of the Sears system to signal better prices to shoppers. Like a full WalMart price being .97 and clearance being .94.

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

#156

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…

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

Also for the memes…

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

#157

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…

The last time a coin was dropped was the half penny in the late 1850s, when I think it was worth about 25 cents today, so there is a precedent for what you are suggesting.

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

#158

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…

Only if the increased revenue from rounding doesn't go into retailers pockets but rather is redistributed somehow. i.e. to reduce sales tax

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

#159

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…

just make the price a multiple of five cents

State and local taxes make this infeasible

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

#160
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…

In my country they round up if you pay in cash but they keep the cents for electronic payments.

So for instance 1.69 in cash would be 1.70 but if you pay with your phone it stays at 1.69

Post reply on HN