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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

#631

Post by DrewADesign »

onraglanroad wrote: post #558
ekelsen wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During the French Revolution, they tried to make a right angle have 100 degrees and even recomputed all new trig tables for this new standard. It obviously did not catch on :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradian

There's no reason you can't have 400 degrees in a circle and therefore 100 for a right angle. It's a degree scale: you can choose any number you want.

Indeed, gradiens are a scale where a circle is divided into 400 equal parts. Really fucked me up a few times when I got a new calculator and wasn’t paying attention to what the little “grad” meant.

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

#632

Post by why_at »

flymasterv wrote: post #622
why_at wrote: post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get it. Why couldn't a cashier pocket $1.99?

Because they were handed $2 and have to get the change out of the register.

Ok, but if the cashier is stealing they could just have change in their pocket?

I'm skeptical that preventing theft is the reason for these prices rather than the psychological trick of looking cheaper.

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

#633

Post by HWR_14 »

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'd be amazed if prices weren't engineered so they rounded up far more often than down.

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

#635

Post by babypuncher »

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…

And the reality is that with most price tags ending in .99, retailers will actually round down to .95 to preserve the psychological benefit of not crossing a dollar barrier.

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

#636

Post by gosub100 »

hn_acc1 wrote: post #519
emodendroket wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This. A large chunk of the US population has been programmed that ALL CHANGE from when they were children in the 1950s is bad.

thats a strawman argument

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

#637

Post by ianferrel »

gblargg wrote: post #570
ianferrel wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live where there is no sales tax, so it's not hard to imagine! But good luck convincing every state, county, municipality, and other weird governing body that requires something other than that and also collects a weird sales tax. Or go with the solution that papers over all that nonsense: a flexible and maximum $0.04 per purchase discount.

What if businesses issues their own penny coupons that could be used in future purchases? If you bought from there regularly you'd on average only have a couple of them.

This is what happens when you wish on a monkey's paw to get rid of pennies.

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

#638

Post by extraduder_ire »

firefax wrote: post #363
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'd say screw it, get rid of nickles and dimes as well. Quarters can stay, for now. Let's do it like Japan does, only one type of currency. And that currency will be the penny. One dollar note? No buddy... that's a one hundred cent note now. We may or may not continue to mint one dollar coins (previously one cent coins), but everything will make... cents. (I guess this style of humor is better delivered verbally?)

The sen still exists. There's even a few 50 sen coins still floating around.

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

#639

Post by jakefromstatecs »

wat10000 wrote: post #484
meandthewallaby wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're all easily solvable problems. The issue, as GP mentioned, is that the pennies are just stopping without the thought through these problems and planning for the solutions. This was done via a social media post, not a well thought out transition like Canada had.

If they're easily solvable then why do you need planning? Changing the currency on a whim by executive fiat is stupid, but that's just principle. In practical terms, I really have a hard time caring about the problems this specific change creates.

> If they're easily solvable then why do you need planning?

Easily solvable problems still need coordination. Do you want to go to one store and have your change rounded up then go to another and have it rounded down?

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