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Save the penny?

Stampyhead

Stampyhead

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 3, 2004
2,294
30
London, UK
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/economy/penny.html

Interesting article from the CBC website on whether or not Canada should keep the penny or follow after Australia and New Zealand and eliminate it. They also draw an interesting comparison to the British farthing and its eventual demise in the 1950's. I've always been a proponent of eliminating the penny here in the U.S. I think we could easily adopt the Swedish rounding system and come out even, saving the U.S. Mint loads of money in the meantime. Of course, this would probably take a huge bite out of the copper industry, but there is always a good and bad side to every situation. Thoughts?
 
Well, I'm not in Canada, but I've always found it a bit pointless having a penny- what can you honestly buy these days with a penny? (especially in the UK) To me, it just seems like a legacy from a bygone age.

Maybe it would stop people selling stuff for £0.99. What's the point? I'm not stupid- 99p is essentially £1 and you're not fooling me into thinking it's anything less by advertising it as 99p. And then, once I've brought something that's 99p, I'm then given a 1p coin that I don't want anyway.

Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant! :p
 
Kill the penny!

It is time to rid American society of the blight that is the penny. I can never seem to keep my pocket from filling up with the vile things.

Oh, and the modern one cent piece is only copper plated any way.
 
I just can't see it being good for the economy. It would drive prices up.

My employer would do their best to round my pay check down, and the grocery store would round everything up.
 
Well then I suppose it would be hard to pay for gas, you would always have to round to the nearest .05.

I hate pennies a lot though. If I go to a gas station and buy a $1.19 bottled water that comes out to $1.26. Its like seriously I do not want $.74 in change, thats 2 quarters, 2 dimes, and 4 pennies. It would be much more convenient to get 3 quarters back.

I must say I like american money more than Euros. As someone that doesn't like to dig for change I find myself with a full pocket of coins at the end of the day. Although coins last longer, they are a lot easier to lose.
I think they have too many coins in the Euro
.01
.02 (unnecessary IMO because of the .01)
.05
.10
.20
.50
1.00
2.00

I know that us Americans are criticized because because our bills are all the same size. I must say I like it, it makes a wad more neat.
 
kwood said:
I just can't see it being good for the economy. It would drive prices up.

My employer would do their best to round my pay check down, and the grocery store would round everything up.
Click to expand...

Not if we follow the Swedish rounding system. I think it makes a lot of sense.
CBC article said:
Since the rounding is symmetrical, sellers would not be able to gain money by always rounding up, Desjardins says. It would be similar to the situation now, in which transactions are symmetrically rounded to the nearest cent. Over time, neither the buyer nor the seller benefits from the rounding.
Click to expand...
rounding.gif
 
Prices wouldn't go up those couple of cents. A $.99 item looks cheaper than a $1 item, even though they would cost if you bought it by itself.

And if you bought a 3 $.99 items, you would get a $.02 discount, obviously (but useless). But it makes no sense to keep a denomination that is basically worthless, and it probably COSTS businesses since time would be wasted counting out coins to give as change.

Unless you pay with a CC.

And, btw, plastic money is the way to go.

Thats my 2 pennies.
 
Get rid of the penny and round it.

If the total is $XX.X1 or $XX.X2, round down to $XX.X0, if it's $XX.X3 or $XX.X4, round up to $XX.X5. Likewise, round 6 and 7 down to 5, round 8 and 9 up to the next 0.
 
yeah but then where would honest abe go on. wouldn't be fair for one of our greatest presidents to just have the five dollar bill.
 
Actually, based on cost alone you'd probably have to kill the nickel also since it its cost has been skyrocketing with the cost of metal increases.
 
I am all for getting rid of the penny. I accumulate large quantities in my car coin holder and I hate rolling them to take them to the bank. It just takes way too much time.

I did have a chance to get rid of a bunch the other day. I pulled into a parking lot and a beggar came up to my window asking for spare change. I didn't have any cash and the only coins I had were pennies. I told him such and he was glad to take them off my hands. He walked away with probably $5 in copper and a smile on his face.
 
Just get rid of it...

Ask yourself this; if you were to drop a penny, and you didn't need it for a purchase in the immediate future, would you bend over and pick it up? (also pretend that you're not superstitious and landing heads or tails doesn't matter to you).

I, maybe, will bend over to pick up a dime... I will certainly pick up a quarter, but a dime is the limit (again, unless i needed it for an immediate purchase)
 
The penny costs more than it's worth. Time to get rid of it. Also, pennies are useless. I get a kid at the toy store paying with a handful of pennies almost everyday, and guess who gets to count all of them.
ME. Rgh!
 
Jaffa Cake said:
If you find a penny and pick it up, then all day long you'll have good luck.

So by getting rid of the penny, we'll be depriving people of the opportunity of having a lucky day. Do we really want to do that?
Click to expand...

Well it does seem a tad harsh...
 
Kill it!

How about a poll?


I really don't see the point, they're thrown on the street, nobody cares about them anyway. And tax, just include that with the price. When I buy something, I want to know what the price is. I want to look at a shirt and know it's $24.00, rather than scrambling to find $23.76. :rolleyes:
 
I'm a fan of the penny. My friend mindlessly saved all his pennies in jars, starting about 10 years ago. He cashed them all in a few months back for £443.

I've got a little jar going too with about £60 in so far. Again it's not much but to say it's leftovers...
 
Reminds me of last week when some convenient store gave me a Canadian quarter in my change. :)

My parents saved pennies for 20 years. Took 'em to the bank, and got $163 out of it.

Thats alota pennies! :eek:
 
I think the 2p piece is a little pointless now, along with the £2 coin (as purdy as it may be). They could go.
 
ErikCLDR said:
Well then I suppose it would be hard to pay for gas, you would always have to round to the nearest .05.
Click to expand...

Gas is already priced at $X.xx9 at every station I've ever seen. I can't think of a way to hand the cashier $3.139 cash for the gallon of gas I've just bought. We're already rounding, I say get rid of the copper devils. The only thing is, would stores ever round down?
 
depending on the rounding system. yeah get rid of it. no use for it anymore as most people pay via debit cards these days from what i see.
 
I used to work in a little shop once, cash was the most popular by far. coins and cards were sort of tied for second place. stealing was third :D
 
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