Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadians?

Get rid of the nickel while we're at it. Costs 2.6 cents to make each penny. Costs over a dime to make a nickel. I guess zinc, copper, and nickel mining CEO's benefit, but these forms of currency are just wasteful. Period.

Re: Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadiens?

Because we will never follow the lead of The Canadians.

We put dead Presidents on our currency...and occasionally Indians and Buffalos.

And we love them.

When we say..."A Penny For Your Thoughts"....we aren't looking for a bargain. Sure a Nickel is a weird coin...bigger than a dime, but worth less.

Who cares? I want them.

Too many things are being lost to the reality of a more efficient option. The bindings of books not being created in favor of downloaded bits of information.

Someday do we not have hard currency?

How then do I bury my fortune in maynoise jars in the back yard to survive the Zombie Appocalypse?

How do I encourage the business interests of budding young entrepreneurs that are selling Lemonade or Kool-Aid from folding tables? Do I crush them because I am sans change? I think not.

Does my Nephew lose his baby teeth, to be rewarded with coupons by a toothfairy that has decided to stop dealing in change? I say Hard Metal for Teeth!

The value of something, sometimes exceeds the cost. The world without a penny? Nickeless Nickleby? Not for me.

Let the Canadians do as they wish. I'm for the useless Penny! The overpriced Nickel!

Re: Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadiens?

I don't get why this is in environmental discussion. The use of metal for currance is tiny. As we continue to move away from coins to electronic money this is hardly a priority.

Closing foreign militry bases will save large amounts of oil and money, and greatly reduce the polluting footprint. Getting rid of the penny and nickles will save pennies and nickels

Re: Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadiens?

Better still... let's get rid of the 9/10 in the price for a gallon of gas.

Re: Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadiens?

I don't know the exact quantity but we are wasting: effort to mine the metals, energy wasted to refine and make the metals, wasted human energy and time to count the coins and recycle them back to the money supply, and often times these coins are just thrown away into the trash. I guess it could be trivial.

As for not following the Canadiens, the Medicare that our old farts use, was copied after the Canada's version except it didn't include everyone.

Re: Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadiens?

Or just devalue the dollar by 90%?

Ever since the $1 and $2 bills were taken out of circulation up here, I've really had a tough time (read: gave up) trying to pay in a manner that avoided getting a fistful of change back.

Re: Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadiens?

Here are some of the numbers and commentary.
snopes.com: Penny Manufacture Cost

When the fed makes the dollar weaker the metals in pennies gets more expensive. I don't think there is much metal wasted though, it is a tiny percentage of the metals used, and metals can be recycled.

http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/circulating_coins/#anchor3

I don't really care if pennies are in or out of circulation. Inflation has now made the metal worth more than the coin, but there is not much waste here. There are much more wasteful government programs to go after, and other practices that are much more harmful to the environment.

Re: Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadiens?

I say we should start using mils in the near future. How much cash are we losing to rounding errors on gas and sales tax?

Re: Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadiens?

The problem will solve itself. No need to try and accelerate it.

At some point it will become economically feasible to "mine" pennies and later Nickels for their metal on a large scale. Once that point is reached, then a whole lot of adjustments start taking place. The most likely is that transactions will then be done to $xxx.x dollars instead of $xxx.xx dollars so pennies and nickels are not even useful in transactions.

The Canadian mint's already working on digital currency, though I think the cashless society is still a long ways off. Maybe it'll arrive faster if we start with the smaller denominations and work our way up.

I think the US has enough diversionary political tactics in play already - no need to follow the Canadians with this one.

Re: Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadiens?

Australia and New Zealand preceeded Canada in retiring small coins (1&2 cents).

This is most often discussed in terms of penny hoarders who are aware of the copper-content reduction after 1982.

No doubt someone can recycle coinage metal, but not you or I. Anti-melt laws. You have been warned

Meanwhile, there are souvenir "squish-a-penny" machines. Defacement is also illegal, but as laws go, pretty ho hum.

Perhaps more interesting to test the legal export limit by leaving with more than 500 pennies in your luggage?

All this misses some of our earlier discussions of the 25% nickel in nickles. Now there's a real Prius metal.

Environmental is a stretch for this thread. Copper is toxic to fish and amphibians, so they 'wish' you would not throw such coins into their waters. Sell 'em to the hoarders instead.

Re: Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadiens?

They still mint euro cents in the Netherlands but people rarely use them. Over two years I got just a few. Saves time at the register, especially since it's far more common over there to try to make exact change to get rid of your pocketful of coins.

Re: Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadiens?

Two words:
Federal jobs.

Besides...it will affect poor people more than evil, rich dilettantes that don't have to pinch them!

http://coins.about.com/od/uscoins/i/penny_debate_2.htm


Personally? I think that the government has bigger problems to worry about than whether or not they should continue to bang out centavos. Seven billion???? Chump change, when you're running trillion dollar annual deficits...

Re: Why can't we get rid of the penny like the Canadiens?

I was gonna say that. But what happens when you fill your car and it clicks off at $29.77? You already lose out a little with the 9/10 on the price and if you pay cash you won't get your full change in Canada.

And I bet they won't round it down in your favour either!

Many retailers here have 'penny jars' on the counter. If you don't want yours as change, drop them in the jar. If you need some to pay for your purchase, take some out. I know, it smacks of evil socialism, but it seems to work.

Before I know how the whole penny change will work out, I'll have to research how other countries have made the switch to a penny-less society. Every retail register will have to be re-programmed, all the pricing and taxation will have to be changed...and how will the accountants balance everything to the penny? It seems to me there are many more costs involved that probably add up to more than the savings from not making pennies any more.

There are not many problems But it also doesn't solve anything or save much money. There are people that love pennies, which means is will turn in to another political fight, and just another distraction. I end up using my credit or atm card for many small transaction to not collect change. This is a evolution that is taking place, that makes it a non-issue. And now I have spent too much time thinking about it.

I like pennies... makes for cheap fuse replacements in older homes. (I'm kidding of course). As it is, I hate when McD's charges .07 on a $1 item and I have .93 cents in my pocket... But that's better than losing .03 cents per meal... After ~33 more meals (37 if you include tax again), I can get a free dollar menu item!

In Korea, they still have 10 Won coins being used. However their exchange rate is ~1135 to $1USD. So in US dollar terms, they are using .01 pennies... AND their highest bill is 10,000 Won (~$9 USD)

I'd like to see something larger than a $100 bill in the US though. Maybe $1,000? $500 might be too "in the middle".

That isn't likely to happen any time soon (other than when $500 becomes the same as $100 after inflation) as I understand large denomination notes are frowned on as they allow easy transportation of large sums of cash by criminals. Restriction of large notes means they can't easily move their ill gotten gains by suitcase.

I believe there was a big problem with the € Euro being issued with €200 and €500 notes. Perhaps this is why it's now the currency of choice for some criminal gangs and dodgy dictators?

Why should books have to be made of dead trees? A few years ago I started having a hard time reading books due to my deteriorating eyesight and my arthritis. My Kindle has allowed me to start reading again. Please don't discriminate against people for whom print books are no longer a viable way to read.

I've now got this image in my mind: After the zombie apocalypse, there are seven people left alive, and one of them digs up the money he buried before the zombies came, and tries to convince the other 6 that they should sell him their hoarded food for cash from a nation in ashes.

Plastic, my friend. Plastic!

The Tesla Roadster is not a perfect car. Its major shortcoming is that any change in my pocket will fall out, and will land in an inaccessible place under the seat. As a result I've had to quit carrying change in my pockets. I now use plastic for all purchases.

I've seen them here, also, though they are not common.

When it comes right down to it, the choice of the smallest denomination is arbitrary. The same argument for keeping the penny could be applied to a half-penny coin. I find pennies a nuisance. On the rare occasions when I do use change, I generally dump the pennies into the tip jar (along with a real tip) or into the nearest charity-begging jar. Otherwise, change that I accumulate during the year winds up in the Salvation Army kettle (along with a real donation also). The exception is that I keep a few quarters on hand for the parking meters downtown. But I don't go there often.

Well for one, if we lose the penny, gas will go up in nickel increments... That would really suck!