Abolish the Penny? (nytimes.com) 261
schwit1 shares a report: If you are reading this and live in America, or used to live in America, or maybe just went to America one time many years ago, then you are almost certainly performing unpaid labor for the U.S. government and have been for years. How? By storing some of the billions of pennies the U.S. Mint makes every year that virtually no one uses.
Why are we still making tons (many thousands of tons) of pennies if no one uses them? That's a sensible question with a psychotic answer: We have to keep making all these pennies -- over $45 million worth last year -- because no one uses them. In fact, it could be very bad if we did.
When you insert a quarter into a soda machine, that quarter eventually finds its way back to a bank, from which it can be redistributed to a store's cash register and handed out as change -- maybe even to you, who can put it into a soda machine again and start the whole process over. That's beautiful. (Please be mindful of your soft drink consumption.)
But few of us ever spend pennies. We mostly just store them. The 1-cent coins are wherever you've left them: a glass jar, a winter purse, a RAV4 cup holder, a five-gallon water cooler dispenser, the couch. Many of them are simply on the ground. But take it from me, a former cashier: Cashiers don't have time to scrounge on the sidewalk every time they need to make change. That is where the Mint comes in. Every year it makes a few billion more pennies to replace the ones everyone is thoughtlessly, indefinitely storing and scatters them like kudzu seeds across the nation.
You -- a scientist of some kind, possibly -- might think an obvious solution now presents itself: Why not encourage people to use the pennies they have lying around instead of manufacturing new ones every year? We can't! Or, anyway, we'd better not. According to a Mint report, if even a modest share of our neglected pennies suddenly returned to circulation, the result would be a "logistically unmanageable" dilemma for Earth's wealthiest nation. As in, the penny tsunami could overwhelm government vaults.
That's not great, but at the end of the day we're talking only about pennies. How much could a penny cost to make? A penny? If only we lived in such a paradise. Unfortunately, one penny costs more than three pennies (3.07 cents at last count) to make and distribute! When I learned this, I lost my mind.
Why are we still making tons (many thousands of tons) of pennies if no one uses them? That's a sensible question with a psychotic answer: We have to keep making all these pennies -- over $45 million worth last year -- because no one uses them. In fact, it could be very bad if we did.
When you insert a quarter into a soda machine, that quarter eventually finds its way back to a bank, from which it can be redistributed to a store's cash register and handed out as change -- maybe even to you, who can put it into a soda machine again and start the whole process over. That's beautiful. (Please be mindful of your soft drink consumption.)
But few of us ever spend pennies. We mostly just store them. The 1-cent coins are wherever you've left them: a glass jar, a winter purse, a RAV4 cup holder, a five-gallon water cooler dispenser, the couch. Many of them are simply on the ground. But take it from me, a former cashier: Cashiers don't have time to scrounge on the sidewalk every time they need to make change. That is where the Mint comes in. Every year it makes a few billion more pennies to replace the ones everyone is thoughtlessly, indefinitely storing and scatters them like kudzu seeds across the nation.
You -- a scientist of some kind, possibly -- might think an obvious solution now presents itself: Why not encourage people to use the pennies they have lying around instead of manufacturing new ones every year? We can't! Or, anyway, we'd better not. According to a Mint report, if even a modest share of our neglected pennies suddenly returned to circulation, the result would be a "logistically unmanageable" dilemma for Earth's wealthiest nation. As in, the penny tsunami could overwhelm government vaults.
That's not great, but at the end of the day we're talking only about pennies. How much could a penny cost to make? A penny? If only we lived in such a paradise. Unfortunately, one penny costs more than three pennies (3.07 cents at last count) to make and distribute! When I learned this, I lost my mind.
cash? (Score:5, Insightful)
At the rate I use cash, it would take me about 10 years to end up with enough pennies for a roll to take to a bank. So, they can abolish the penny or not, I don't care, and neither should you.
Re:cash? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not sure what problem you are trying to solve (Score:3, Informative)
Lopping zeros off a currency is typically done when everyday things cost thousands or millions of times as much as they did a few years ago.
US annual inflation hasn't been over 20% a year since at least 1914, and it's rarely been over 10% (source [madisontrust.com]).
Re: Not sure what problem you are trying to solve (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Not sure what problem you are trying to solve (Score:4, Funny)
He was using binary.
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100% inflation would mean prices have doubled.
To have to add a zero (10 x price) would be 900%
(Americans can't do maths, in fact they think there is only one of them (it is mathematics))
Re:Not sure what problem you are trying to solve (Score:4, Informative)
Cumulative US inflation from 1965 to 2024 is 100%.
Cumulative inflation since 1965 is 800%.
There's no reason to revalue the dollar. I've lived in Japan and the Philippines, where the currency unit is right around the minimum that anything costs (such as a single bite of candy). It's nice because you never need to deal with decimal points, and normal people can understand numbers like a million.
Countries like Indonesia and Vietnam, where the currency unit is a hundredth or thousandth of a US cent, need to revalue.
If a shopkeeper in Indonesia tells you the price of an ice cream cone is "100", that obviously means 100,000. They drop the extra "000" when speaking.
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You appear to have no idea what you're talking about. The U.S. Government has a deliberately inflationary policy. No one else has ever managed to be confused about that.
Sure, cash has continuously lost value to inflation over centuries. The results can be dramatic. On the one hand, you can't get a new car for under $2,000 any more. On the other hand, you expect to be paid more than $20/week.
Your proposal for "newbucks" would instantly cut everyone's apparent income to a tenth of what it was. There would be
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Cent is the subdivision of the dollar. The one cent piece is often called a penny.
Re:cash? (Score:5, Funny)
"The one cent piece is often called a penny."
It must be a hangover from when US was still a colony of the UK.
Anyway the plural of penny is pence.
And they got rid of Pence because he followed the constitution instead of the Donald.
Re:cash? (Score:5, Informative)
While I'm at it, the U.S. does not have "pennies". We use "cents".
The rest of your post is on point, but really you're going to claim the USA doesn't have pennies in an article about pennies in the USA, a country where the official government Mint lists the Penny as a circulating currency? https://www.usmint.gov/coins/c... [usmint.gov]
Re:cash? (Score:4, Interesting)
The US government refuses to acknowledge the inflation it creates.
The fuck you talking about. The US government (and every economist with a brain on the planet) have as a core policy an inflation target above 0. The target is 2% +/- a bit and you can find that right on the Federal Reserve website.
The dollar should be replaced with a 'new dollar' at a 10:1 ratio but the government will never do that because doing that forces them to acknowledge the inflation.
Errr no that would be dumb. There are some legitimate reasons to redenominate a currency, but 10:1 achieves nothing. Every country which has done a redenomination that low caused an economic crisis due to the economic chaos it caused along with the cost of the activity - and to be fair most of the 1:10 redenominations were due to the fall of the soviet union. Some redenominations have been successful but they are usually in the range > 1:1000
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If the fed has a target of 2%, why are they talking about cutting rates
Inflation is 2.9% and falling rapidly. A rate cut's effect has a lag, so the Fed expects inflation to be at or below 2% by the time the effects kick in.
the stock market is at all time highs?
The stock market has been climbing in anticipation of the rate cut.
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If the fed has a target of 2%, why are they talking about cutting rates when inflation has been roaring since covid and the stock market is at all time highs?
Because inflation and rates are not strongly correlated and have a myriad of market factors sitting between them. Under specific local conditions raising rates can bring inflation under control. The current inflation experienced in many parts of the world is nothing to do with local conditions and can't be stopped just by raising the cost of capital - especially since cost of capital isn't the source of the inflation which should be obvious to anyone who has seen a graph of inflation vs rates for the past d
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Canada already got rid of the penny. Everyone rounds down to the closest nickel. Problem solved. If you don't like that, use the debit card or credit card to get exact value.
Re:cash? (Score:5, Informative)
We round *up or down* to the nearest 5 cents:
Amounts ending in 1 cent and 2 cents are rounded down to the nearest 10 cents;
Amounts ending in 3 cents and 4 cents are rounded up to the nearest 5 cents;
Amounts ending in 6 cents and 7 cents are rounded down to the nearest 5 cents;
Amounts ending in 8 cents and 9 cents are rounded up to the nearest 10 cents;
Amounts ending in 0 cent and 5 cents remain unchanged.
From here: https://www.canada.ca/en/reven... [canada.ca]
There are certainly some weirdos who wish we'd never gotten rid of the penny but I can't imagine any logical reason for keeping them. In fact, we should be getting rid of the nickel next. I say we have 10, 20, and 50 cent coins and call it a day.
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In fact, we should be getting rid of the nickel next. I say we have 10, 20, and 50 cent coins and call it a day.
Agreed - we don't need no stinkin' nickels. But additionally, I really wish we'd go back to $1 and $2 bills instead of having Loonies and Twonies. I understand why the Mint moved to coins - but dammit, between coins and keys in my pocket I need to cinch my belt tighter just to stop my pants from falling down! And it's crazy how fast mere 'pocket change' can add up to twenty bucks.
By the way, to all of you who are about to say "I use cards or my phone almost exclusively and have little use for cash" - thanks
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I'm the other way around on the loonies and twonies. I *love* having them in my pocket. Much easier than dealing with bills for quick purchases for me.
It also had a nice side effect for me. I would habitually empty my coins into a change bucket every time I got home. I would rarely grab money from it at the start of the day though (ie. I'd start the day with only bills). At the end of a couple weeks I would have a *ton* of coins saved up and would blow it on pizza or whatever. Didn't really help me s
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If we are going to bother to make a change, I would get rid of both the penny and the nickel at the same time.
I would rationalize things to deal with $0.10 as the increment. Keep the dime. Make a $0.20 coin instead of the quarter. Emphasize $0.50 coins and $1 coins, and ditch the paper $1 note. A $2 coin would be reasonable to add, too.
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Canada also has $1 and $2 coins as well. Paper versions aren't printed anymore since quite a while.
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Canada already got rid of the penny.
Yup. In 2012. And since then I have missed them exactly never. Even beggars don't want pennies.
MonkeySphere (Score:2)
I don't use something, I can't think of why anyone would use something, therefore nobody needs that thing.
Just because you can't fathom a use for something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
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I don't care, and neither should you.
You should care precisely because they are pointless to you. It's a perfect example of waste in society. Think about that next time someone complains about a food stamps program costing 10s of millions of dollars.
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At the rate I use cash,
What is this "cash" of which you speak?
In the before times, I used to carry change with me and use it to round off purchases. Now I find myself using plastic for everything and often don't even have folding bills. Yes, I know the financial privacy people cringe at this but it sure is convenient.
Bringing it back to the topic, absolutely, get rid of pennies and nickels too. I would say bring back dollar coins and get rid of $1 bills but I think that idea's time has come and gone.
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Not quite sure what you mean with the CNN article. Was biden lying or was the government official stat lying? The article posted says that Biden claimed the inflation rate was about 9%, but the official number was 1.4%. In fact, Biden's number was a lot closer to the truth than 1.4% for all practical purposes. For most families the overall, practical cost of living has increased at a way higher rate than the official inflation rate. So yes the government does pick their statistics quite carefully to lo
Australia's result - consumers pay more (Score:5, Informative)
Simply look at Australia how prices rose and were not rounded 50% in favor of consumers. This is a stealth tax and way to increase the GDP. Which by the way, when you pay credit card interest, you are increasing the GDP.
This is about making it more convenient for businesses and making it one step closer to government saying 'well, let's use government trackable digital currency now that 95% of the transactions are electronic'.
The penny may be used less than it was in the past, and keeping it is keeping more freedom. Once they start phasing out forms of payment, what's left will be a new form of payment, central bank digital currency. And the government can write all new laws on tracking it, taxing it, and using the power to label people/organizations as 'public dangers' to debank them.
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https://www.moneymag.com.au/pr... [moneymag.com.au]
Why prices will rise if five-cent coin is scrapped
By Sharyn McCowen
Published on November 23, 2016
Consumers will foot the bill for changes to Australian currency, with prices tipped to rise if the five-cent coin is abolished.
That's the prediction of Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman, who warns prices will be rounded up if the coin meets its rumoured demise.
"The big issue will be around smaller products that sell for less than a dollar," he says.
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You're right, prices will increase by a couple of cents, maybe.
I say maybe because, here in the US, gas prices are still listed to the 1/10 of a penny. They're literally *always* some price + 0.9 cents. One could argue that this is just the type of price increase we're talking about, if we get rid of pennies. But in the end, the new pattern becomes normal, competitors will compete, and it all comes out in the wash.
Even if prices do rise (one time) by 2-5 cents, I think the net effect is positive, not having
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It costs more in labor to count the pennies out in change in most locations today than the pennies are worth. It would literally save companies money to round down to the nearest nickel or even dime in cash transactions.
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Lots of establishments price their merchandise so that, with tax, they end up a multiple of dimes or nickles. Some places even price it to a dollar.
It's not new, and it's not rocket science.
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*nickels, naturally.
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The USA had a penny shortage in the early '80s
Some businesses started pricing things "with sales tax included"
The government got their taxes, the people got their goods, the businesses didn't have to deal with nearly as many pennies, people were happy.
I remember a very brief period about 1982 when a few businesses tried advertising (e.g. on the menu signboard at the ice cream shop) "price includes taxes". A few months later, they had to stop doing that because the state made it illegal. So, apparently not everyone was happy.
And living in several different states, I have never seen "includes tax" listed again. (Well, once in a decade or so, at some odd Mom and Pop store. But after about a week, they stop it. I am guessing because someone walked in and not
Canada's result - not much change (Score:5, Informative)
Canada got rid of the 1-cent coin 2012 and... nothing much happened. Prices are rounded to the nearest 5 cents if you pay with cash and life goes on. (Though, pennies are still legal tender here, so if you still have pennies and insist on using 4 pennies to make up your 94 cents, you can.)
The USA shows a peculiar resistance to change for such a dynamic country. Still using the Imperial system of units; still stubbornly clinging to an electoral system that is by any objective measurement completely stupid; and so on. I don't get it.
Re:Canada's result - not much change (Score:5, Funny)
Canada got rid of the 1-cent coin 2012
What? That's just loonie!
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But Canada has $1 and $2 coins. I believe that makes a difference in how you view the change in your pocket. I know when we lived there, I'd empty out my pocket and there'd be $10 there. Plus the Looney and Twooney coins were useful in vending machines and parking meters.
Now you could well argue that coins/cash are obsolete for things like vending machines and parking meters, and I'd probably agree with you.
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Room in cash drawers (Score:2)
The argument I've heard against the widespread use of the US $1 coin is "no room in cash drawers." If US ditches the penny, that problem is solved.
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The US is full of stubborn old fucks. The only way $1 coins would gain any traction is to cease printing $1 bills. Even then people would still hoard them because of FREEDUMZ or some argument.
Fewer coins, please (Score:2)
I would gladly swap out all of the pennies we have stored up for the equivalent value in raw copper and zinc, or even somewhat less to cover the cost of smelting/recovery of materials, provided that it's more than the face cost of th
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I remember handing a $2 bill to my (Korean heritage) dry cleaner. It took me -a lot of convincing- before she'd accept it as real.
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Re: Canada's result - not much change (Score:2)
But Canada has $1 and $2 coins
Same in the UK, but what we really need is the £0.99 coin.
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The US has never used the Imperial system. We use the US Customary system, which is similar to the Imperial system, but not the same. In particular, the units of volume are quite different. The US actually has two gallons, for example, the wine gallon and the corn gallon, and neither is the same as the Imperial gallon. It's bizarre. Some units are the same, however, like feet and miles, which adds to the confusion. Except that even that's not really true, since there are two definitions in the US system for
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Why do all Canadians love to watch the 'Terrance and Phillip show', I too don't get it.
Re:Canada's result - not much change (Score:5, Informative)
The electoral system is only "stupid" when you try to make it something it is not. People forget, or were never taught, that the States were completely separate entities and that smaller states were purposefully given extra authority relative to their population as a means to entice them to join the union where they were justifiable afraid that they would lose their autonomy to the more populated states.
The only fair way to take away the extra electoral votes would be a unanimous decision to include those very states. You can't say "Here are the rules for the nation if you would like to join", followed up 250 years later with "hah, gotcha bitch".
Re:Australia's result - consumers pay more (Score:5, Informative)
Simply look at Australia how prices rose and were not rounded 50% in favor of consumers.
Okay. Then look at Canada how we do round off, but only when dealing with physical cash. Rounding is performed per transaction, not per item. A transaction that totals $1.01 or $1.02 gets rounded down to $1.00 while a transaction that totals $1.03 or $1.04 gets rounded up to $1.05. If you're paying with a debit or credit card, you pay the exact number.
We abandoned the penny twelve years ago for pretty much the reasons listed in the fine summary. The cost-per-penny was high, and we had to keep churning them out because everyone was shoving them in jars. It was an absolute waste to keep minting them because they were effectively being thrown away... which is not in favor of consumers.
Re: Australia's result - consumers pay more (Score:3)
Same solution in Finland with the Euro. 1 and 2 cent coins are legal tender, and they even minted them in a Finnish national version (if you didnâ(TM)t know, all Euro countries have their own version of the coins, with one side identical among them, the opposite in their own design) but they are quite rare.
Cash purchases are rounded to the nearest 5 cents, card/digital purchases are to the cent.
Three 99 cent purchases would round down from 2.97â to 2.95â. You are allowed to use 1 and 2 cent c
Re: Australia's result - consumers pay more (Score:2)
The Netherlands immediately ditched everything below 5 cents, and every time we visit another EU country it reminds me that that was an excellent decision.
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Okay. Then look at Canada how we do round off, but only when dealing with physical cash.
Don't bother. The OP was talking out of his arse, in reality most list prices in Australia *dropped* by 4c but only in stores, online shops still have the 99c. price.
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Simply look at Australia how prices rose and were not rounded 50% in favor of consumers.
Actually that's horseshit. In most cases prices dropped by 4 cents as the practice of advertising something for $9.99 turned into $9.95. Likewise if the 5c coin is abolished the prices will typically round down for most goods by 5c to be $9.90 - there's a psychological principle of not advertising the next whole number. The only exception is at online shops which aren't subject to the rounding and thus still charge 99c. (By all means go and check, note that currently Nick Cave's new album is $24.95 at JBHiF
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Which by the way, when you pay credit card interest, you are increasing the GDP.
You say that as if a higher GDP is a bad thing.
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I used to game it (Score:2)
I used to get just enough petrol so it would land on 2c or 7c and get rounded down. Actually some cashiers try to round up when they should round down to avoid having to give you a 5c piece in your change if it comes to e.g. 47c or 97c. I always call them out on it.
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card fees on all payments = tips being cut down!
Automatic tip screen on kiosks/apps == more tips!
Kidding aside, anyone know if tips are higher or lower due to more people using apps and ordering kiosks? I never would have thought to tip at Panera or Chipotle until the app started asking me if I wanted to.
Clever politicking by those who benefit from it (Score:4, Informative)
This apparently includes the monopolist creator of the dies to print them
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
It's interesting to note that the UK got rid of its £1 paper bills years ago, but the US has clung to their, less valuable, $1 bills. Sometimes democracy produces very flawed results!
Paper money is expensive (Score:2)
And doesn't last long - especially cheaper bills.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
suggests that getting rid of the $1 bill would save $4.4bn over 10 years.
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Because base metal coins are impossible to counterfeit (at least at a rate that would matter) coins are made of specific alloys, and it was always American quarters that looked like rusty coins while all of Canada's coins except the penny always looked shiny. Despite that vending machines can not tell the difference between an American and a Canadian coin, and you basically buy yourself a discount when you use Canadian coins in US vending/gaming machines. The mechanical part of the machine uses a magnet, t
No, abolish everything below the dime (Score:3)
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Or a 20-cent piece like they use in Europe, then add a $2 coin and maybe also a $5 coin like they have in Japan.
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Are you Australian or something? When I went to Japan in July, they had $1.25 and $3.13 coins, down to $0.006 coins. A one-yen coin is still worth somewhat less than a US penny, and they still get used.
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What happened to credits? When I was a kid credits were the currency of the 21st century.
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Sure, we will pay more but just think of how great it will be for businesses to make even higher record profits
You really think that many transactions these days are in cash? Latest numbers from the fed are that cash payments are just 16% of all transactions, and that number has been falling fast. Codify in law how transactions are to be rounded and you won't see any boost in profits for businesses. Sure some could structure their prices to try to take advantage but for most where customers are buying random numbers of random products in each transaction it would be nearly impossible to do that.
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Eventually cash will be seen as "dirty and gross, only poor people use that" and the mint's will stop producing new paper money and instead create financial instruments that only banks can trade (eg trading straight GIC's or something.)
Conservatives will have a fit (Score:2)
...they hate change. They blocked the metric system here also.
"...they hate change." (Score:2)
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Don't you change my change!
How about (finally) redoing the dollar? (Score:2, Insightful)
That is overdue. Independent non-private Fed, new dollar design (forge proof), perhaps reset the value to some new contemporary standard.
Optional bonus: Double-check with the EU if Euro-Dollar parity and accompanying trade agreements would/could make sense. Perhaps bring your health-care and penal system up to snuff if that makes sense
The US dollar has been around for hundreds of years and it shows. A well executed redo could fix quite a few problems associated with accumulated cruft.
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The US dollar has been around for hundreds of years and it shows. A well executed redo could fix quite a few problems associated with accumulated cruft.
You used a phrase that does not apply to government stuff... "well executed".
Re:How about (finally) redoing the dollar? (Score:5, Insightful)
new dollar design (forge proof)
Every N years, the dollar gets redesigned with the latest technology (often invented for this purpose) and is forge proof. For a while. Then, everyone else gets the technology, and we end up with really good forgeries again. Please do not think it is possible to create a permanently forge-proof design.
perhaps reset the value to some new contemporary standard
Re-basing a currency is generally viewed as an indicator of deep political instability. "New contemporary standard" like what? A gallon of milk? Fiat currencies, like the dollar, have arbitrary value. There is no standard. If you decide to re-base, which generally is a reaction to hyperinflation (at least 10x what we've had over the last few years), you then need to re-introduce the lowest denomination, in addition to all of the new currency. You have to provide a path for conversion. It's a big, big deal. I suggest doing a little research and investigating when, and under what circumstances, countries have chosen to re-base their currency.
A Penny For Your Thoughts? (Score:5, Funny)
"When I learned this, I lost my mind."
Well then, a penny saved is a penny earned.
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The thing is, a penny, once you spent it, keeps being a penny, it does not disappear in the ether. And so it is for the next hundreds of people that keep on moving it back and forth. So it makes sense that a coin would cost more to manufacture than its face value, as long as it does its job of being a fungible token. Terry Pratchett explained it pretty well in "Making Money"
Re:A Penny For Your Thoughts? (Score:5, Insightful)
But if you read the actual article, most pennies are not reused, they are given as change, then tossed in a jar or drawer. They fail as a fungible token, and are not used by hundreds of people, they go from fed to store to customer to dead. It would be a very rare newly minted penny that ever got used by 20 people. I throw them out with the receipt, as there is no way I'm ever going to use them, and saving them up and cashing them in is not worth the effort, not to mention getting in the way of keys and useful change in my pocket for the rest of the day.
Half of all US coins in "circulation" are pennies. They don't get spent, and are useless as a unit of cash. We got rid of the half cent coin 167 years ago because it was worthless, we should have gotten rid of the penny over a century ago. The half cent would be worth $0.16 today, so the nickel and dime should also have been axed, the penny still existing is idiotic.
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1.713E-07 BTC for your thoughts.
It wouldn't break my heart. (Score:2)
Losing the penny wouldn't break my heart. It's time has come and go.
Even 30 years ago, if you were military and went to a US merchant like AAFES store, there were no pennies. Costs to much to ship overseas. Every item ended in 0 or 5.
Now, losing the penny as symbol, sure. But in everyday life the penny's usefulness died waaaay back in the Carter inflation of the mid 70's.
Way I see/ feel it now, it seems the dollar's the new dime, a $10's the new dollar, etc.
Just do a cash reverse split. (Score:2)
Exact change (Score:2)
I make it a point to carry my change in a small change purse when I go shopping. I always try to give exact change to the cashier. (or as close as I can)
And the majority of them express gratitude for that additional change that I provided (so that they have too many rather than not enough coins in their register)(and, I suppose, saving them from 'making change').
But, then, I'm one of those crazy people who still pays cash for most purchases.
(Interesting side note on paying with a check: when I make a large
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Besides, I already have the thrift store trying to siphon my change to the nearest DOLLAR. Not particularly thifty.
Are they trying to renegotiate the price at the till? Does it work both ways?
I use pennies (Score:2)
I order rolls of pennies from my bank and I pay local businesses I don't like with them. They can't refuse them and it annoys the living shit out of them.
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They can refuse pennies in the same way they can refuse $50 or $100 bills.
Technically, they can't. If you've incurred a debt like going to a mechanic or having some service done, they're going to have to or they don't get paid. At that point, they can't come after you through some collection agency or other shit, and even then they'd incur a net cost and you'd pay the collection agency that way anyway. If it's at the point of sale, then yes they can do that.
Get rid of it (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Practice your arithmetic by spending your pennies (Score:2)
I've been doing that since college. Pay what it takes to either completely spend pennies, nickels, and dimes or convert them to quarters. With practice, you can do do the conversion quick enough that to not impede other customers though cashiers are sometimes confused. I never have more than four pennies in my wallet. For the longest time, this was how I collected quarters for laundry. I no longer use coin-on laundry but quarters are easy to spend anyway.
Charity? (Score:2)
We still have 1p and 2p coins (1p = 1.31 cents). I do indeed meet plenty of people who complain about them and I have no idea why!
I pay for smaller transactions almost exclusively with cash and I don't gather jars full of small coins. I either use them to pay the exact value (cashiers are almost always grateful for this) or I simply throw them into charity collection boxes! Many stores have one or more of these next to the tills where you can drop unwa
I have a glass jug with (Score:2)
Not really a new take (Score:2)
I remember reading "why we should abolish the penny" stories in the newspaper back in the1970s, when I was a kid - and they contained the same reasoning as TFS.
Don't abolish the cent (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, cent, not "penny".
As a collector, I'd hate to see the cent disappear. It's one of the most collected U.S. coins and lots of kids get their start in coin collecting by collecting cents from circulation.
One think I'd like to see change, however, is new designs for all of our coins. We've had the same designs for way too long now: Lincoln cent: 115 years, Jefferson nickel: 86 years, Roosevelt dime: 78 years, Washington quarter: 92 years, Kennedy half: 60 years.
I'd like to see us go back to using stylized
Re: (Score:2)
I'd like to see us go back to using stylized representations of lady liberty on our coins rather than long-dead white dudes.
Well, there are the new Golden Dollars that you'd probably enjoy collecting, along with the limited-edition Quarters.
Maybe opt-in automatic donation? (Score:2)
Revaluation is coming (Score:2)
Nobody likes having to spend $300 for groceries every week.
Politicians will find it too tempting to not do a 10:1 revaluation so your groceries cost $40 by time it's enacted.
Enough people will feel that this is real progress.
Boom, your one cent piece is now worth 10c.
(say here how most of government isn't just a gimmick)
An upward pressure on wages might actually occur for psychological reasons.
Foreigner view (Score:2)
I live 5500 miles from the US and even I have a handful of pennies and other US coins in my drawer. The extensive use of coins there always astonishes me and I end up bringing some home, lost in the luggage.
In my country, small coins and bills were simply ditched many years ago and it was fine. Most of payments today are digital/electronic anyways. I don't even carry a wallet anymore unless I'm on the road, far from home.
Advice from a high inflation country (Score:2)
Thanks to Abe... (Score:2)
you can still use pennies to pay Illinois tolls--the only state to do so. Unless you like getting honked at, don't count them, just throw a fist-full at a time until the light turns green/boom gate goes up.
I dunno (Score:2)
Profit! (Score:2)
1. Buy $0.96 of goods (including tax). Pay with a $1 bill.
2. Get 4 pennies and some other change back.
3. Repeat.
4. Turn all the resultant pennies in for a dollar bill.
5. Enjoy screwing The Man.
6. ????
7. PROFIT!