Praise the lord! In yesterday's budget, the federal government announced that production of pennies in Canada would cease and that the Mint would stop distribution of the cursed coin by this autumn. All pennies outstanding (hundreds of billions of the things) will retain their value but circulation of them in the economy will surely quickly end.
Can you imagine a guy coming into a Canadian SC with a wagon load of his hoarded pennies to finance an evening of debauchery?
Is there no sales tax in Canada? How does it work out that your purchase require no pennies in your change?
It now costs more than 1 cent to produce a US penny. When I was a child, you could actually buy some things for a penny, such as "penny candy." But don't look for the USA to follow Canada's lead. If one political party sponsored the elimination of the penny, the other party would demonize them to gain short-term political advantage.
We might as well cease production of the dollar, too. It's basically worthless these days. :)
@mikeya02 Sales taxes are currently rounded to the nearest penny. For example, in my area sales tax is 8.6%. The tax on $2.99 is $0.25714. The cash register rounds that to the nearest penny ($0.26).
Without pennies, taxes are typically rounded to the nearest five cents. At least that's the way they do it in places that don't have pennies right now (e.g. Australia).
Art, when I first glanced at that title, I thought it said "no more penises." Gave me a chill to think how your government might have accomplished that...
I just read more about this topic. Currently in Canada, production cost of one single penny is $0.015! The government loses 50% of the face value of the thing just producing it! There is almost no copper in the current Canadian cent and hasn't been for over 25 years. Pennies produced prior to the mid 80s are salvageable for the copper value; each one containing between 3X and 4X face value according to fluctuating copper prices.
Next on my hit list is the dime. I hate that tiny piece of metal, too!
"Without pennies, taxes are typically rounded to the nearest five cents"
Why can't we round DOWN to the nearest 5 Cents?
Nah NO government would be that NICE to its citizens!!! LMFAO
I'm old enough to remember when US pennies were made of copper, and dimes and quarters were silver. They've all been debased. The US penny is now made of zinc, and I think one cent won't even buy the amount of zinc in a penny. I hate the things and get rid of them whenever I can. Which is getting harder to do.
The US Mint lost $116.7 million last year producing the penny and nickel.
He did say "to the nearest", not "up to the nearest -- so that CAN still mean it rounds down (.01, .02) OR up (.03, .04). We need some Australians to let us know how it goes there.
Of course, around here in the USA we also stubbornly cling to our exceptionalism on another currency issue, when virtually everywhere else in the industrial world the currency unit closest to the value of a US dollar (100 Japanese Yen, 5 Israeli Shekel, 1 Euro, 1 Pound Sterling, 1 Canadian or Australian Dollar) has for years been a coin instead of a paper note. Here instead of just replacing the dollar note with a coin we issue dollar coins as mere collector curiosities, and are about to give up on them.
Of course, good luck getting this crowd to start stage-tipping in fivers at the club... the Canadians should tell us how they do it.
@Cheo_D: I'd rather have some Aussie mates tell us where to go for the best time when down under! G'day ;) After 15hrs trapped in an aluminum tub with wings, it's time to party!
Agree with farmerart about scrapping production of the penny and dime. I've already stated this opinion in 2 other threads last year.
As for rounding (up or down): Some states already do dollar rounding for filling out tax forms, what then nickle rounding for cash purchases. Which leads me to some remaining "jokers in the deck":
Interesting how those issues will be resolved.
From what I hear, in many countries that have eliminated the lowest fractional COIN ("penny"), the monetary UNIT ("cent") still exists to be employed "on paper", in electronic transactions. Think of it as the 9 mills (tenths of a cent) at the end of the price per gallon of US gasoline.
And I dunno, but having the dancer's hoohah pelted with coins seems like something quite quite less pleasant than a rain of banknotes...
Maybe we should follow the lead of strip clubs. Who needs any coins?
Ignoring the Canadian loonie toss, coins aren't generally used in clubs. Who actually keeps the coin change from a drink order? Most waitresses don't even offer it back. We don't tip coins on stage.
If we can get along without coins in a club, can't we do so in all areas? Lol
I suppose if the lowest-denomination note is a fiver, and coin tipping is viewed as declassé, you'll get a major culling of the cheap and the under-earners from the clientele. Though the true cheapskates are not even tipping dollars anyway, so... still making it rain ten fivers is not going to look as impressive as doing so with fifty singles.
BTW I looked it up and the Canadian de-pennyfication rounding WILL be in both directions (up AND down) to the nearest 5 cents.
@Che: true, but everywhere else seems able to live with the acknowledgement that one single dollar/pound/euro is low buying power while we seem to think it's some sort of horrible shame to own up to it.
I wouldn't miss the $1 for tipping. I stage tip rarely, to get a girl's attention so she'll come see me later. I usually tip $5 for the purpose already.
We could use bigger bills too. In most other countries the biggest bill is the equivalent of $500. I like cash for everything, and for example buying a car with cash when the biggest bill is $100 makes for quite a wad.
Say what! How could that be? No more - oh wait - I didn't have my glasses on - I thought it said "No More Penises in Canada - my bad!
I saw that and thought that the U.S. should do the same. It would put an end to all of the sale prices of $2.99/ea, $3.79/gal, etc.