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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

#391

Post by emodendroket »

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…

Let's face it, these arguments are simply post hoc rationalizations. If the proposal were instead to introduce a "milli" coin people would find some way that meant you were getting ripped off too.

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

#393

Post by rando001111 »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #225
rando001111 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to my knowledge the legislation only says that the executive branch needs to make the "necessary" amount of pennies. the argument is that because they're losing money literally printing money that the "necessary" amount is zero and that therefore doing this follows the law because zero is an amount.

I don’t understand why it costing more than face value to mint is such a bad thing

This is one of the stupidest comments I have seen on the internet bar none. Wasting money is bad. I should not have to explain further.

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

#394

Post by dyslexit »

simpleguitar wrote: post #273
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…

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?

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

#395

Post by Symbiote »

zer00eyz wrote: post #278
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…

> 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. The problem: the dollar is almost global in its usage. The penny may not be important to the US, but it dam well is every where else where dollars are still in use frequently, along side, or in place of the local/native currency. Getting rid of the penny will have implications, getting rid o…

Countries like Ecuador that use US dollars mint their own coins for local circulation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_centavo_coins

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

#396

Post by dragonwriter »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #313
jacobgkau wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 arou…

Are we pretending that nobody has ever tried phasing out smaller denomination currency, and that we don’t have a vast body of actual case studies to draw from? Why are we running thought experiments at all?

Americans like to pretend that history and the experience of the rest of the world doesn't exist and that things that large numbers of other countries have done successfully (and which even the US has done in the past, in this case, as the half-penny, after all, was phase out a long time ago) are impossible to do successfully.

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

#397

Post by emodendroket »

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.

When I was in Japan everything was all-cash and the smallest bill was the equivalent of a $10, with equivalents to $1 and $5 coins being in common circulation. Most wallets they sold/people had had a coin pocket to account for this.

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

#398

Post by metabagel »

mattnewton wrote: post #351
estimator7292 wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on, this is not complicated. It's elementary algebra. You sum the rounded prices, then add a credit or surcharge of 2 cents to make the tax come out to a round number. The tax is on the actual, real amount in your transaction subtotal. You are charged sales tax on the actual, real money you pay for the entire transaction . Then you multiply by 1.06 or whatever the tax rate is. That's how sales tax works. If one…

You have to do this algebra per state and locale, and your reward is higher advertised prices than the shop next door. I think you both underestimate the problem and overestimate everyone involved in retail, especially the consumer. I’m not saying it’s hard, I’m saying there is enough friction where it’s just not going to happen without legislation mandating it.

> it’s just not going to happen without legislation mandating it.

Obviously, and I don't think anyone said otherwise.

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

#399

Post by dragonwriter »

jacobgkau wrote: post #301
bigfishrunning wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but then you buy 2 things, and it's $2.06. round down! or you buy 4 and it's $4.12. round down! it'll come out in the wash. there are much bigger things to worry about.

You attempt that at my store. To help ensure my business is sustainable in these hard times (/s), I'm imposing a "multi-item order" fee at my store. Now what?

Now your customers go and shop at a store that isn't cartoonishly customer-hostile. Now what?

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

#400

Post by giantg2 »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #102
giantg2 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how do they account for people who use coupons or rewards cards today? Those create a discount that technically result in charging some customers less than others, including SNAP users. In the case of rounding, you wouldn't be charging SNAP user any more that other users who use cards for payment. The point of the law was to prevent stores from charging surcharges etc on food stamp users back in the day.

Rewards are taken from merchant fees. The retailer isn't party to that rebate. Likewise, coupons are almost always funded by the manufacturer who returns those monies to the store.

"Rewards are taken from merchant fees."

That would be true for credit card fees, but not for stuff like loyalty card discounts.

"Likewise, coupons are almost always funded by the manufacturer who returns those monies to the store."

It doesn't matter. The store is the one charging the customer. As stated, the law says the store cannot charge SNAP recipients more. Thus it would be a violation if we are taking it strictly.

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