1c and 2c both. Now the lowest denomination is 5c, lots of rounding up/down.
RIP the Canadian penny
- Thread starter 23skidoo
- Start date
When they brought the $1 coin in, they took the $1 bill out, which encouraged use. I'm guessing the US$1 bill hasn't gone out of circulation.
I'm thinking the majority of coins enter circulation as change retailers buy from their bank. The retailer's cashiers make change from the compartments in the cash register trays. Since those trays don't have compartments for dollar or half dollar coins the retailers don't buy them. Discontinuing the penney would make a compartment available for dollar coins, although there would be a transition period until customers accept rounding their change to the nearest nickel.
Sales tax tables, even in electronic form, would probably be adjusted by the aplicable level of government to make the register total after taxes an even multiple of $0.05
I suspect many retailers will experience some reluctance to pricing merchandise at even multiples of a dollar. They are too fond of their illusion that customers think $9.99 is significantly cheaper than $10.00. Many of those $x.99 prices will drop to $x.95 until the retailers find it necessary to raise them another $0.50 or even $1.00.
Sales tax tables, even in electronic form, would probably be adjusted by the aplicable level of government to make the register total after taxes an even multiple of $0.05
I suspect many retailers will experience some reluctance to pricing merchandise at even multiples of a dollar. They are too fond of their illusion that customers think $9.99 is significantly cheaper than $10.00. Many of those $x.99 prices will drop to $x.95 until the retailers find it necessary to raise them another $0.50 or even $1.00.
When a person above lower-middle class drops a penny, they probably won't pick it up. It doesn't serve that much of a purpose until it's in a homeless person's cup. But as people are saying, it serves a great purpose in "price-shaving," since everybody knows that $X.99 is INFINITELY cheaper than $(X+1).00.
That being said, I really hope we don't lose the 'Merican penny. Honest Abe is one of my favorites.
That being said, I really hope we don't lose the 'Merican penny. Honest Abe is one of my favorites.
Yeah, I'll concede that when we switched to loonies, the change compartment in my wallet wore out faster than I'd expected, so I started cleaning out my change daily and only leaving home with enough for a couple of phone calls (this was in 1987).
Good grief, it's not like it's a mountain of them!Just the sheer number of them would make it obnoxious. Depending on the night, one server could potentially have $100 worth of coins jangling around in his pocket. As a bartender, my tip jar could have the same or more. It's just so much easier to paperclip a stack of bills than it would be to organize and wrap the same number of coins.Perhaps it's just me, but how is dealing with a coin any different than dealing with a note logistically.And I get that. But it just seems like one more thing to carry around. If we switched to $1 coin, I would simply stop carrying around anything less than a $5 bill. My $1 coins would end up in jars just like all of my other loose change.
And I almost wonder if the tipping culture in the US is another reason for why we don't switch. Most people who tip servers and bartenders leave singles. At the end of a night of waiting tables, most servers end up with a giant wad of $1 bills in their pocket. The logistics of dealing with that many coins just sounds like a nightmare to me. We literally don't have anywhere to put them!
In the case of tipping, at the end of the night you just exchange coins for notes. You get a note, and your place of work gets coins to use as change the following day.
I'm not saying it would be impossible, but it would be incredibly inconvenient.
I am, of course, biased because of the industry I work in, but we use so many $1 bills that I don't even want to imagine how annoying it would be to replace them with coins. I don't want to be counting hundreds of coins at the end of the night.
One of the first things I discovered about loonies is that I could put 25 of them in a belt pouch and wear that with my SCA and SF costumes at events and conventions. I remember that when our local group all went to a camping event together, we pooled our loonies and paid the gate fees with a pouch full of coins - the way people in medieval times would have done. It added to the atmosphere and "getting away from modern times" feel of the weekend.
Here's a suggestion: I don't know what size US dollar coins are, but in Canada, it's extremely serendipitous that you can fit exactly 25 loonies in a 35mm film canister or a standard prescription pill bottle. Larger prescription pill bottles can comfortably hold 25 toonies ($50). That makes it easy to find a place to keep the loose coins, and simple to take to the bank if you want to exchange them for paper money.
If your bank will only accept rolled coins, just get some wrappers and roll the damn things. There have been coin wrappers on the market for a long time now that don't require actual rolling and wrapping - just drop the coins in the cardboard or plastic tube, close it, and you're done.
Only 30 years? I still routinely see coins from the '70s and even sometimes from the '60s.
Well it depends on the size of the compartment(s). Yet retailers manage in countries where the 1.00 coin has replaced the 1.00 note.
Someone earlier mentioned mens wallets not being designed for coins, so what you could find happening. Instead of saying getone 5.00 and three 3.00 notes, you get one 10.00 note. Which means you give out two 2.00 coins.
Good grief, it's not like it's a mountain of them!
It is. It is absolutely a mountain. It's like the dwarf kingdom from the Hobbit. I don't want to have to fight off a dragon every time I cash out my drawer.
Keep in mind, I am opposed to all coins. They end up in jars around my house or on the floor of my car. I don't actually use them for anything, and more than anything they just make a mess.
I'll admit that I don't use my nickels or dimes much. A dime makes a handy emergency screwdriver, though, which is why I make sure to always have one around.
Loonies and toonies end up getting used in vending machines and parking meters. They often get tossed in charity cans, and they're crucial for apartment washing machines that don't work on tokens or electronic cards.
Loonies and toonies end up getting used in vending machines and parking meters. They often get tossed in charity cans, and they're crucial for apartment washing machines that don't work on tokens or electronic cards.
Not really.
The rounding rules are generall well defined. A price of $x.99 would round up to the nearest whole dollar, x3 would round upto x5, x2 would round down to x0.
don't drive or use vending machines that much but for me washing machines and bus fares are the big coin uses.
Laundry I need loonies and quarters for, bus fare takes any but it's damn tedious and slows things down if you have to drop 25 dimes in the machine (plus you're required to have exact fare)
You can mail them to me. I don't mind.Good grief, it's not like it's a mountain of them!
It is. It is absolutely a mountain. It's like the dwarf kingdom from the Hobbit. I don't want to have to fight off a dragon every time I cash out my drawer.
Keep in mind, I am opposed to all coins. They end up in jars around my house or on the floor of my car. I don't actually use them for anything, and more than anything they just make a mess.
Well, I for one think this is a centsless change.
But there isn't any regulation on what retail prices are set at. Retailers can set them at any value they please. If the government makes progress taking pennies out of circulation retailers will simply set prices at even multiples of $0.05, which, before the addition of sales taxes, will always add up to a multiple of $0.05. They've got this theory that a significant percentage of consumers perceive that last penny or nickel, makes a significant difference because it makes the dollar column bigger.
Prices at $x.95 aren't that unusual anyway. Certainly more ordinary than even dollar prices (except a places like Dollar Tree where the only things that aren't $1.00 are two or three for $1.00)
As I indicated above, any rounding will only be necessary on the sales taxes (5% tax would change a full $0.05 when the sub-total reaches $x.50).
Thing is, though, sales taxes are different from province to province. Some have the harmonized tax (provincial + GST), and others don't. My own province of Alberta doesn't have a provincial tax, so all we need to calculate is the 5% GST.
If you pay by debit or credit card, the cent-amount is exact - no rounding (since no physical pennies are involved). Only if you use cash, do you need to fret about rounding up or down.
If you pay by debit or credit card, the cent-amount is exact - no rounding (since no physical pennies are involved). Only if you use cash, do you need to fret about rounding up or down.