In high school, 17 years ago, I wrote a DBQ (document based question essay) for an AP test about why pennies were a huge waste to the economy. Both in cost to some, keep in circulation, and just dealing with for businesses/consumers.
It’s past time we did away with the penny and honestly the nickel shouldn’t be too far behind. Really anything less than a quarter seems like more trouble than it’s worth at this point. I would never carry change though, I barely carry cash as-is.
beAbU · 5h ago
With Trump trying his very best to devalue the dollar, you think it's wise to do this now?
RiverCrochet · 3h ago
That would mean there would be even less need for pennies or even any coinage, right?
joshstrange · 5h ago
I don’t fully understand the question. How does removing the penny factor in? I honestly don’t get or I am missing the connection.
mystified5016 · 5h ago
You very much don't understand how this works.
perilunar · 7h ago
> The phasing out of the coins will mean businesses will need to round prices up or down…
Only when paying cash, and only the total.
globular-toast · 10h ago
Australia stopped one and two cents coins decades ago. It's sad to have to live with a system where the numbers are just two or even five times larger than they should be, but I suppose worse things have happened.
perilunar · 7h ago
I don’t think it’s sad. Just the reality of constant inflation. And the $1 and $2 notes were replaced with coins, which are much better.
I’m hoping the 5c coins will go soon, and we’ll get an $5 coin.
bluenose69 · 3h ago
As mentioned in the article, we dropped the 1-cent coin in Canada over a decade ago. Nobody cares. We also dropped the $1 and $2 bills, years back. I'm guessing there will be a $5 coin soon ... but none of this matters much anymore, since people pay for so many things with contactless money transfers.
In inflation-adjusted terms, a penny back then was worth almost 3 cents now.
rightbyte · 9h ago
I am such a cheapskate that I can't not bother with pennies. I will save so much time from this.
chuckadams · 5h ago
Cool, now work on the dollar next. Think we can get a dollar coin that lasts more than a year or two? Found a Sacagawea dollar in one of my cupholders just the other day, took me a hot minute to recognize what it even was.
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kirykl · 9h ago
Replace it with a 33 cent coin
grues-dinner · 3h ago
I remembered there was some kind of "more efficient" coin system. I searched for "ternary coins" and "radix coins". Both are some crypto scams. Fun times.
Replace pennies, nickels, and dimes with a 12 1/2 cent coin. Eight to the dollar.
rahimnathwani · 4h ago
When I was a kid, a first-class stamp in the UK was 12.5 pence.
mystified5016 · 5h ago
Honestly inflation is such that any denomination less than a full dollar is almost worthless.
The only application of fractional currency in modern USA is in making every price end in 99 cents for stupid reasons. Everyone has been conditioned to mentally round up any price to the next dollar.
There's nearly nothing you can buy today for less than a dollar. There's no point in any smaller denominations.
jolmg · 29m ago
> There's nearly nothing you can buy today for less than a dollar.
Aren't most things in the fruits and veggies section under a dollar? What's a carrot or a lemon cost?
Looking at the weekly ad at Food4Less, tomatoes are 2lb/$3. I think that's like 50 cents each tomato. Onions are 89 cents/lb.
It’s past time we did away with the penny and honestly the nickel shouldn’t be too far behind. Really anything less than a quarter seems like more trouble than it’s worth at this point. I would never carry change though, I barely carry cash as-is.
Only when paying cash, and only the total.
I’m hoping the 5c coins will go soon, and we’ll get an $5 coin.
Andy Rooney complained about pennies back in the 1980s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-zcWgXu4hg . "A penny saved is a waste of time."
In inflation-adjusted terms, a penny back then was worth almost 3 cents now.
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Apparently I misremembered how it worked and it's actually 1, 5, 18 and 25 (or 29) for a 4 coin system: https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~shallit/Papers/change2.pdf
The only application of fractional currency in modern USA is in making every price end in 99 cents for stupid reasons. Everyone has been conditioned to mentally round up any price to the next dollar.
There's nearly nothing you can buy today for less than a dollar. There's no point in any smaller denominations.
Aren't most things in the fruits and veggies section under a dollar? What's a carrot or a lemon cost?
Looking at the weekly ad at Food4Less, tomatoes are 2lb/$3. I think that's like 50 cents each tomato. Onions are 89 cents/lb.