There goes that Sunday Times gig.
Thereās something everyone can do about this; refuse pennies. If we all just refused to take pennies as change from purchases we might lose a few cents but ultimately it would cause a huge glut of them, giving the zinc industry a big penny constipation problem. I have my local merchant trained pretty well; I donāt take pennies, but every now and again she slips me a nickel to make up for the difference.
The half-cent coin was retired when it still had 20 times the buying power that the penny does now. We could easily retire the nickel too without making much of an impact on most consumersā lives. How often do people make purchases totaling less than a dime?
I like the ability to make exact change. Otherwise, we have to introduce rounding into the system. I think that we are moving towards a cashless economy where most of our money is transferred electronically. If so, why bother getting rid of the penny and having to update countless PoS systems to switch them to use rounding? The number of pennies in circulation will go down anyways as we use less and less cash. If you donāt like dealing with pennies drop them into the tip jar or charity box on the store counter.
Perhaps a campaign to remind people that the penny is the official coin of Abraham Lincoln, noted race mixer and warrior of northern aggression, would help?
(Or just end up with us being saddled with zinc busts of Nixon, the size of your fist, as replacement legal tenderā¦)
Well my nickle bags suit me just fineā¦ Iām not sure I could make the move up to a full dime bagā¦
Iād rather they replaced the dollar bill with a coin, go be honest (but why not do both?). I canāt believe the intention was to have a coin as worthless as the quarter now is as the largest in general circulation.
I think you overestimate the cost and difficulty of rounding. Canada eliminated the penny a couple of years ago. Have you seen Trailer Park Boys? I think America can handle it just fine.
If so, why bother getting rid of the penny and having to update countless PoS systems to switch them to use rounding?
Because the cost of updating is much, much less than the cost of producing and handling pennies?
Yep. If I were in charge, weād get rid of the penny and nickel and replace the quarter with a 20 cent piece. The prices would BE expressed the nearest dime. It wouldnāt be āroundingā any more than charging to the nearest cent is considered rounding from the nearest mil. (except for gas for some strange reason)
There is a great Planet Money episode on the whole coin vs. bill thing. Mostly it comes down to American āpaperā money being made out of linen is actually pretty durable and the usable lifespan of a dollar bill makes it still a good deal and cheap to produce compared to coins.
We already round to 1/100 of a dollar (penny)
Once we retire pennies and nickles we round to 1/10 of a dollar (dime)
Not only should the penny go, the nickel should go too.
Dimes are useless, but at least theyāre small and light.
I think Iāve seen that before somewhereā¦
Yeah Canada got rid of the penny recently and itās been a smooth transition. I donāt miss having a bunch of change around and rounding works out fine.
I imagine like most sensible progress this will be met with much fury and gnashing of teeth in the states.
If we had plastic bills like Canada then yeah it would make sense for $1 coins.
I personally would like coins instead but probably not going to happen barring a major change in how bills are made in 'murrica.
Bring back the groat, you bastards!
āZinc lobbyā strategic talks
Getting rid of the penny would free up slots in cash registers for dollar coins, so they might actually go well together.
