[Tuoder]

I think that it should be phased out. It is nearly worthless. The dollar is worth far less than what it was when the penny was invented. I personally can't think of anything that is worth (or costs) one cent.

[Dakar]

I'd like to see it go. We waste time manufacturing them because people horde/forget about the ones they have because no one likes them.

Only problem is it will seriously screw with the sales tax system.

[zmcgill]

I took a tour of the Dever mint several years ago and they mentioned that it costs them 3/10 of a cent to produce each penny, and it's their most profitable coin to manufacture. So they don't plan on getting rid of it.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Tuoder

I personally can't think of anything that is worth (or costs) one cent.

My opinion is worth that. Some other folks might have an opinion which costs twice that much but they're just trying to rip you off by over-inflating the market.

That'll be $0.01 thanks.

[Dark Helmet]

It is completely pointless and I don't know why they didn't do it 20 years ago.

[BRussell]

Don't stop with the penny, get rid of the nickel too, so prices would be rounded to 10 cents.

[Dakar]

Originally Posted by BRussell

Don't stop with the penny, get rid of the nickel too, so prices would be rounded to 10 cents.

Yeah, I'd LOVE to deal with fluctuating gas prices then.

[sek929]

If they got rid of the penny I wouldn't have anything to flick at my roomates as they exit the bathroom.

I vote no.

[production_coordinator]

The thing is, prices could stay the same... simply round to the nearest 5¢

If the bill is 17.52, it becomes $17.50.

Gas could still be 273.99¢ per gallon. If you purchased 20 gallons... 273.99 * 20 = 5479.8 (New System = $54.80)

That being said, what would happen to all of the fractions of a penny? [enter Office Space theme music] Also, many other countries maintain their "penny" (AKA pence or euro penny) even if the value is higher than the US 1¢

[Chuckit]

The penny is worthless, but if you get rid of the penny, then there would be monetary values that would be impossible to pay, which is stupid. If we eliminate the penny, we need to eliminate the nickel as well, define a dime as beign 1 cent (or rename the unit) and have there be 10 to a dollar.

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally Posted by Dakar

Yeah, I'd LOVE to deal with fluctuating gas prices then.

gasoline prices are actually priced to the 1/10th of a cent. i.e. 1.99 9/10th a cent per gallon etc. (they do that because 1.999 sounds bettr than 2.00 a gallon..it started as a gimick and took hold).

doing away with the penny would not do away with pricing items to the penny, or even to the tenth of a cent as gasoline is priced. the rounding only happens when the final price is computed.


And I agree, get rid of both the penny and nickel... do away with them both at the same time.

[Dakar]

Originally Posted by NYCFarmboy

gasoline prices are actually priced to the 1/10th of a cent. i.e. 1.99 9/10th a cent per gallon etc. (they do that because 1.999 sounds bettr than 2.00 a gallon..it started as a gimick and took hold).

That's common knowledge.

Doesn't change the fact that I don't want to see gas go from 2.50 to 2.70 rather than from 2.57 to 2.63

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally Posted by Dakar

That's common knowledge.

Doesn't change the fact that I don't want to see gas go from 2.50 to 2.70 rather than from 2.57 to 2.63

It won't...pricing will still be in pennies or fractions of pennies despite the elimation of the physical penny.

[BRussell]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

The penny is worthless, but if you get rid of the penny, then there would be monetary values that would be impossible to pay, which is stupid.

Everything would just be rounded, just like gas prices are rounded right now. I don't see any problem with that.

[Dakar]

Originally Posted by NYCFarmboy

It won't...pricing will still be in pennies or fractions of pennies despite the elimation of the physical penny.

I missing something. How will you paying if the total comes to $13.73?

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally Posted by Dakar

I missing something. How will you paying if the total comes to $13.73?

When you buy gasoline it is rounded right now... from the tenth of a cent to the nearest cent. with the elimination of the penny it would be rounded to the nearest 5 cent increment.

So pricing can still be in tenths, or on pennies. But the total amount you pay would be rounded just as it is now.



If the total was 13.73 the price would be 13.75.

if the total was 13.72 the price would be 13.70.

That is if you are paying in cash. If paying via plastic the price could still be paid in pennies?

[Dakar]

I get it. Rather than rounding to the nearest dime each gallon, you wait until the total is made. Slightly better.

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally Posted by Dakar

I get it. Rather than rounding to the nearest dime each gallon, you wait until the total is made. Slightly better.

yup... still confusing, but it would be worth the hassle to elminate all those darn pennies being made and being stored in jars at home or thrown on the streets. (in nyc people don't even bother to pick up pennies anymore).

[Dakar]

Oh, I'm guilty of throwing a few away on occasion.


Imagine if vending machines took pennies...

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally Posted by Dakar

Oh, I'm guilty of throwing a few away on occasion.


Imagine if vending machines took pennies...

a few do. U.S. Post office vending machines take pennies. (as well as the dollar coins).

In Illinois the toll booths take pennies, and politicians in Illinois get very upset when you talk about doing away with the penny just because of the publicity for Abe Lincoln I suppose.

He's on the 5 dollar bill. that should be enough.

[Dork.]

Do you all actually think that there's a chance in hell that prices would ever be rounded down? I can easily see New York State adding a supplemental sales tax that makes merchants round up pennies to the next 5 cent increment and hand over the cash. That is, if the Feds don't beat them to it!

[Dakar]

Originally Posted by NYCFarmboy

a few do. U.S. Post office vending machines take pennies. (as well as the dollar coins).)

Kudos on both counts.

[BRussell]

Originally Posted by Dork.

Do you all actually think that there's a chance in hell that prices would ever be rounded down? I can easily see New York State adding a supplemental sales tax that makes merchants round up pennies to the next 5 cent increment and hand over the cash. That is, if the Feds don't beat them to it!

What about the ever-present $19.99-type prices? If they want to keep them below the next dollar amount, they'd have to round down, wouldn't they? So it would become $19.95 rather than $20.00 even.

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by BRussell

What about the ever-present $19.99-type prices? If they want to keep them below the next dollar amount, they'd have to round down, wouldn't they? So it would become $19.95 rather than $20.00 even.

They would do they same thing they do now, price to the closest increment to a round number. 19.95, as you say. My inspiration for this thread comes from my dad explaining how they handled money on the ship he was on on the Navy. They would just round. I think that gas prices would be stated in cents instead of tenth-cents. Gas prices would be like $2.74/gallon or $2.79.

[Dork.]

Originally Posted by BRussell

What about the ever-present $19.99-type prices? If they want to keep them below the next dollar amount, they'd have to round down, wouldn't they? So it would become $19.95 rather than $20.00 even.

That would be the vendor changing his price, though, which is different. I'm saying that if you buy a bunch of items, and the total (after local sales taxes) turns out to be $25.61, in a penny-less world I'm 100% certain that you'll end up being charged $25.65, with the extra $.04 being snapped up by one government or another, in addition to whatever sales taxes are levied.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Yup, I'm with Dork. They'd just figure out a way to rip you off a penny or two every time you buy something.

greg

[Tuoder]

I disagree, The state neighboring mine that I live quite close to is Illinois. They have changed their sales tax over and over, more than once it was a fraction of a percent. They rounded appropriately. Okay, they got a few pennies on the whole "round up one half" thing, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

[Millennium]

Here's what I, personally, would like to see:

• Remove the 1-dollar bill from circulation.
• "Promote" Washington to a 1-dollar coin, JFK to the quarter, Jefferson to the dime, and Lincoln to the nickel.
• Start using the penny as the big "commemorative" coin, much like the dollar is now.

Nobody uses the dollar coin right now, and I think that there are three big reasons for this. One, there's already a bill in circulation, and this little incentive to use the coin when the bill is more familiar. Two, because it tends to change at the drop of a hat, people don't take it seriously; it's seen as the commemorative "collector" coin which it frankly is.

Switching the commemorative coin to the penny preserves the ability to use a commemorative coin while switching it to a coin that already sees most of its use from collectors. It also allows for a useful dollar coin, while avoiding the need to "demote" any of the current Presidents: Washington stays on the dollar (albeit as a coin instead of a bill), while the other Presidents get moved up a step. Interestingly, this also puts Lincoln on both the five-dollar bill and the five-cent coin.

[NYCFarmboy]

I personally think they should remove all presidents from the coins and go back using metaphorical images of liberty.

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by Millennium

Here's what I, personally, would like to see:

• Remove the 1-dollar bill from circulation.
• "Promote" Washington to a 1-dollar coin, JFK to the quarter, Jefferson to the dime, and Lincoln to the nickel.
• Start using the penny as the big "commemorative" coin, much like the dollar is now.

Nobody uses the dollar coin right now, and I think that there are three big reasons for this. One, there's already a bill in circulation, and this little incentive to use the coin when the bill is more familiar. Two, because it tends to change at the drop of a hat, people don't take it seriously; it's seen as the commemorative "collector" coin which it frankly is.

Switching the commemorative coin to the penny preserves the ability to use a commemorative coin while switching it to a coin that already sees most of its use from collectors. It also allows for a useful dollar coin, while avoiding the need to "demote" any of the current Presidents: Washington stays on the dollar (albeit as a coin instead of a bill), while the other Presidents get moved up a step. Interestingly, this also puts Lincoln on both the five-dollar bill and the five-cent coin.

I really don't see the relevance of the denomination of currency and the value of the president on it. I just see it as an honor no matter what. But besides that it doesn't seem that bad. The only thing is, I think that collectors, whether they be casual or otherwise are more likely to collect a coin with more intrinsic value. The other thing is that that requires the redesign of alot of currency, which aint all that cheap. I would just put Washington on the dollar coin for the second go-around at a dollar coin. I would also make it the same size/weight so that it would work in any existing Sacajawea-accepting machines. I also wouldn't make it "golden". I think that people thought that it had gold in it, so they hoarded it. I'd be all for making it copper-colored, perhaps by plating. That way it would be distinguished from the quarter easily. (not to mention the lack of ridges.

[production_coordinator]

NOTE: Looking at gas. It wouldn't really "round" anything... the machine would simply count by 5¢ increments. 10.00, 10.05, 10.10, 10.15, etc. etc.

That being said, the Pound and the Euro also have the units of 1. To make it even more annoying, the English also have the 2 pence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, 1 pound and 2 pound coins.

(we have four coins in real circulation... the English have 8)

What we really need is a $2 and $5 coin in regular circulation... but that's a tall order.

It was nice when I was in Wales being able to buy a beer with two coins.

[Millennium]

Originally Posted by Tuoder

I really don't see the relevance of the denomination of currency and the value of the president on it. I just see it as an honor no matter what.

I agree with you, but not everyone will. Might as well bypass the silly arguments completely.

The only thing is, I think that collectors, whether they be casual or otherwise are more likely to collect a coin with more intrinsic value.

This would be the intuitive thing, yes, but it turns out that the penny is already the most popular coin to collect in the US, and one of the most popular in the world. My guess is that the one-cent intrinsic value actually helps here, because it means that the cost barrier to entry is very low.

[Ω]

In NZ we got rid of the 1c and 2c coins long ago (over 10 years). We still have products that are $XX.99c, and it is only the final figure that gets rounded.

Where I am currently working we round down to the nearest 5c. This costs the firm about 0.1% of the total cash sales. However due to people finding the 5c piece 'worthless' the till are typically up each day, so the actual cost is nothing.

Soon we are going to get rid of the 5c, as stated above, it is 'worthless'.

I should also point that in NZ we have a very high uptake of EFTPOS. Nearly every retail store you go to has an EFTPOS terminal, so the use of cash is very much in decline.

[ghporter]

Most people here are arguing for "rounding" everything to the next 10 cent point. You all realize that that ammounts to devaluing the dollar, don't you? Insidiously, too.

The penny has plenty of uses, even if many people don't use it on a daily basis. I certainly do, and while I collect the change in my pocket at the end of the day, I roll it up and put it back into circulation pretty frequently. You'd be surprised how quickly the 20¢ or so left in yoru pocket turns into enough for dinner and a movie, and it's all about that "useless" change.

I'm not at all against changing the current U.S. coinage to something more effective and efficient-particularly a dollar coin that WORKS. The best use I've ever found for the gold Sacajaweia dollar coin is tips at Renaissance Faires-it gets attention. I should point out that I LIKE these coins; they just aren't well received in most settings. I'd like to see coin accepting machines get updates as frequently as bill accepting machines have been for the new series of bills.

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by ghporter

Most people here are arguing for "rounding" everything to the next 10 cent point. You all realize that that ammounts to devaluing the dollar, don't you? Insidiously, too.

I really don't see how it does, please explain.

The penny has plenty of uses, even if many people don't use it on a daily basis. I certainly do, and while I collect the change in my pocket at the end of the day, I roll it up and put it back into circulation pretty frequently. You'd be surprised how quickly the 20¢ or so left in yoru pocket turns into enough for dinner and a movie, and it's all about that "useless" change.

You would just end up collecting nickels in place of pennies. Your jar (or whatever you use) would just fill up more slowly, except with a similar value in it.

I'm not at all against changing the current U.S. coinage to something more effective and efficient-particularly a dollar coin that WORKS. The best use I've ever found for the gold Sacajaweia dollar coin is tips at Renaissance Faires-it gets attention. I should point out that I LIKE these coins; they just aren't well received in most settings. I'd like to see coin accepting machines get updates as frequently as bill accepting machines have been for the new series of bills.

I am not terribly well aquainted with the way in which vending machines collect money, but I would assume that while updating machines to accept different paper would be merely a software update, adding a different kind of change would actually change the hardware in the machine, involved in sorting. That is more expensive.
I like the dollar coin. I use alot when I take the train to work. The machine takes paper money up to $20s and gives change exclusively in coins, relying a great deal on the small amount of dollar coins still being minted into circulation. I regularly get 2001 Sacajeweas (spelling almost certainly wrong) and alot of Susan B. Anthonys. That sort of makes me think. Have women appeared on any regularly circulated American denomination of money except for the dollar coin? I guess that just a bit of trivia.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by production_coordinator

Also, many other countries maintain their "penny" (AKA pence or euro penny) even if the value is higher than the US 1¢

When I was in Italy, everything was rounded to the nearest 5 Euro cents. ie. The Euro cent exists but in many places nobody uses it... because it's pointless.

It's time to get rid of both the Canadian penny and the US penny.

BTW, it costs over 2¢ to produce each Canadian penny.

Originally Posted by ghporter

Most people here are arguing for "rounding" everything to the next 10 cent point. You all realize that that ammounts to devaluing the dollar, don't you? Insidiously, too.

No it doesn't. You round up and down, which keeps the value essentially the same. Anyways, I'm for rounding to the nearest 5¢ personally.

P.S. I think the US should get rid of the US dollar bill too, and replace it with a coin.

[TheWOAT]

U.S. should get rid of money entirely, and just use a man's word. Word is bond.

[Mithras]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

The penny is worthless, but if you get rid of the penny, then there would be monetary values that would be impossible to pay, which is stupid. If we eliminate the penny, we need to eliminate the nickel as well, define a dime as beign 1 cent (or rename the unit) and have there be 10 to a dollar.

As others have pointed out, there are already "impossible" monetary values. Calculate 8.23% tax on your $1.00 purchase -- you have a sub-penny total which is impossible to pay. So, we round to the nearest penny. There's no fundamental difference between that and rounding to the nearest 5 cents.

The original story is behind a subscription wall, but here's an excerpt from the recent NYTimes story revealing that a U.S. penny now costs 1.4 cents to manufacture:

What happens if a penny is worth more than one cent?

That is an issue the U.S. Mint could soon face if the price of metals keeps rising. Already it costs the mint well more than a cent to make a penny.

This week the cost of the metals in a penny rose above 0.8 cents, more than twice the value of last fall. Because the government spends at least another six-tenths of a cent -- above and beyond the cost of the metal -- to make each penny, it will lose nearly half a cent on each new one it mints.

The real problem could come if metals prices rise so high that it would be economical to melt down pennies for the metals they contain.

[Gamoe]

The penny is important for completing amounts, as others have pointed out. Getting rid of the penny is almost as illogical as getting rid of the number "1" or even "0". Sure, there are already "impossible" amounts that go into fractions of a penny, but when you're paying for an item with that kind of amount on it, and with no other fractions to complete the cent, what does the charge always default to? The entire cent of course.

I am as sure as Dork and others here that in a penny-less world, we'd all end up paying more in the end, regardless of any proposed solution. Remember, Benjamin Franklin used to say "A penny saved is a penny earned". Just because the penny is worth little does not mean that it is "worthless". Far from it!

If pennies are costing too much to make, maybe they could be made out of a cheaper material, or of less material. Even a quality plastic penny might do. But get rid of it? No. The penny is far too important for that!

[Dakar²]

You know why we have to keep making pennies? Because people keep not using them. Because people hate pennies.

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by Gabriel Morales 

The penny is important for completing amounts, as others have pointed out. Getting rid of the penny is almost as illogical as getting rid of the number "1" or even "0". Sure, there are already "impossible" amounts that go into fractions of a penny, but when you're paying for an item with that kind of amount on it, and with no other fractions to complete the cent, what does the charge always default to? The entire cent of course.

Fine, why don't we have a mil coin then?

I am as sure as Dork and others here that in a penny-less world, we'd all end up paying more in the end, regardless of any proposed solution. Remember, Benjamin Franklin used to say "A penny saved is a penny earned". Just because the penny is worth little does not mean that it is "worthless". Far from it!

We weill not pay more in the end. We will pay, on average, the same. This is the concept of rounding.

If pennies are costing too much to make, maybe they could be made out of a cheaper material, or of less material. Even a quality plastic penny might do. But get rid of it? No. The penny is far too important for that!

It makes more snese to get rid of it than cheapen it.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by TheWOAT 

U.S. should get rid of money entirely, and just use a man's word. Word is bond.

But then what would women do?

[Dork.]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

But then what would women do?

Get married so their man can speak for them, of course!

(I hope my wife doesn't read this, or else I'm in trouble....)

[Dakar²]

Originally Posted by Dork. 

Get married so their man can speak for them, of course!

(I hope my wife doesn't read this, or else I'm in trouble....)

Please, what would she be doing on the internet to begin with?

[Eug]

Originally Posted by production_coordinator 

The thing is, prices could stay the same... simply round to the nearest 5¢

That's what they do in parts of Europe. While 1 Euro ¢ coins do exist, in some areas they are basically never used. I LOVED not having to deal with pennies in Italy.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by Dakar² 

Please, what would she be doing on the internet to begin with?

Grocery shopping?

[Dakar²]

Fat chance.

[Dork.]

Originally Posted by Dakar² 

Please, what would she be doing on the internet to begin with?

Cleaning the tubes, I guess.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Tuoder 

It makes more snese to get rid of it than cheapen it.

No it doesn't. It makes absolutely no sense to have a unit of which there cannot be one.

If you want to get rid of the penny, then declare that there are 20 cents to a dollar, make the nickel worth one cent and go on from there.

[macintologist]

Originally Posted by NYCFarmboy 

I personally think they should remove all presidents from the coins and go back using metaphorical images of liberty.

I absolutely whole-heartedly agree