Canada To Stop Producing Pennies In 2013 362
First time accepted submitter master_kaos writes "Canada is going to stop producing pennies in February 2013 to help save the tax payers $11 million per year. Cash transactions will be rounded to the nearest nickel. Cheque/Credit Card transactions are not affected."
Re:Bad move. (Score:2, Interesting)
while it is entirely conceivable (and probable to occur) to rig prices to always cause a round-up, even with taxes... that really only applies for single item purchases where the final price can be exactly determined.. and then it's only for the cash transactions. overall, that combination of a single item and cash sale is probably pretty small. multiple item purchases will balance out, as their totals and whether they will round up or down can't reliably be determined ahead of time. and of course, non-cash transactions are unaffected.
and there really isn't a point to rounding the prices on the shelf... except at places that actually manually key each price on the register (no automated scanner or simple item/sku to key in). all but the very smallest retail stores have bar code scanners. and consider that prices rounded to the nickel, when taxes are added.. probably won't end up ending in a 5 either.
if a store really wanted to reduce the small change handling of cash transactions.. AND they primarily sold non-taxed goods, they'd be better off with 10c increments up to $2-3 prices then 25c increments after (then 50c over $10 and a dollar for over $20). but how many stores do a high percentage of untaxed, cash sales?
It's all about zinc (Score:5, Interesting)
The US has pennies only because of lobbying from the zinc industry. [pennies.org] The U.S. Mint pays $0.011 [pennies.org] for a penny blank.
Re:Excellent; (Score:3, Interesting)
Damn straight! As an American expat in Canada, I truly truly hate returning to the states and getting a wallet full of ones. Having $1 and $2 coins makes money so much easier to deal with. I say let's go the next step now: throw out the nickel and quarter, and give us a $.50 piece.
Re:Meanwhile, in the USA, Gasoline at 9/10s (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't remember the last time I paid cash for gas in Canada. In fact, I think the only time in my life I paid cash for gasoline was in Florida when the pump wouldn't accept my Canadian credit card. I had to go in, give $50, buy my gas, and then go in again to get my change.
Re:Excellent; (Score:3, Interesting)
Here in Switzerland we have done away with them since a very very very long time ago
This is because in Europe the value-added taxes are built into the price, whereas here in Canada they are added to the price. As a result, you end up with an item priced at $6.99 costing costing $7.83 when it comes time to pay. You rarely see prices like that in Europe, so there's little use for a 'penny' or a 'nickel.'
I do question cashier's ability to cope, though. Even today, if I'm buying an item that is $7.83 and I present $8 and say "keep the pennies" the cashier becomes VERY confused. S/he's very used to counting out all the change, and leaving change in her drawer is puzzling to them. I guess once there are no pennies in there, the problem will go away.