No more new pennies

[SEWIGuy]

I just don't think that the idea that a coin costs more to create than its value should have any bearing on that decision.

In antiquity, coins were worth their weight in the precious metal they were made of.  This means it cost more to produce them than they were worth:  the metal itself + the cost of production.

Cool.

[kalvado]

I just don't think that the idea that a coin costs more to create than its value should have any bearing on that decision.

In antiquity, coins were worth their weight in the precious metal they were made of.  This means it cost more to produce them than they were worth:  the metal itself + the cost of production.

Cool.

Some wise man choose to issue coins by the piece, but collect them by weight to account for wear and tear of the precious metal. That's how the "pound of sterlings" came to be.

[mgk920]

I just don't think that the idea that a coin costs more to create than its value should have any bearing on that decision.

In antiquity, coins were worth their weight in the precious metal they were made of.  This means it cost more to produce them than they were worth:  the metal itself + the cost of production.

Cool.

Some wise man choose to issue coins by the piece, but collect them by weight to account for wear and tear of the precious metal. That's how the "pound of sterlings" came to be.

such 'discounting' of coin deposits was a major issue in prior centuries.

Mike

[Road Hog]

I'm a manager at my store and every so often I'll unload my car cup holder into the register tills in exchange for a $5 or a $10. Still have coins left over.

I save quarters but use them regularly at the laundromat.

[mgk920]

Earlier this evening, during my routine weekly trip to the local grocery store, the checkout clerk informed me that because their armored courier was no longer able to get pennies from their bank, they were now rounding the bottom line on all of their cash transactions down to the nearest nickel (5¢).  My receipt from that trip has the line "Penny Adjustment Total  -$0.03".

Finally.   

Mike

[Scott5114]

I have had no problems getting pennies from vendors in Las Vegas.

[LilianaUwU]

I had a comment about the US vs Canada that was very relevant to the conversation, but it was deleted by the mods before I even posted it.

[oscar]

Earlier this evening, during my routine weekly trip to the local grocery store, the checkout clerk informed me that because their armored courier was no longer able to get pennies from their bank, they were now rounding the bottom line on all of their cash transactions down to the nearest nickel (5¢).  My receipt from that trip has the line "Penny Adjustment Total  -$0.03".

The Harris Teeter in north Arlington VA, where the self-serve checkouts still take cash (other local stores don't), makes a similar penny adjustment, though in my case the rounding to the nearest nickel went up rather than down. That is consistent with how it's done in Canada for non-cash transactions.

The Safeways in my area that still take cash at their self-checkouts (some don't) don't do rounding, yet. When I want to spend down unwanted pennies, that's where I'll go.

McDonald's stores can round to nearest nickel, if they are short on pennies. That has happened sometimes, even before McDonald's formalized that as corporate policy.

[Rothman]

It's getting harder to remember when the last time I used cash was...

[Road Hog]

Prices at the register should be rounded to the nearest nickel soon. I guess Orange Julius has bigger fish to fry with trans people, food stamp queens and crypto-grifting.

[Scott5114]

Prices at the register should be rounded to the nearest nickel soon. I guess Orange Julius has bigger fish to fry with trans people, food stamp queens and crypto-grifting.

Mall food courts are weirder places than I remember them being.

[1995hoo]

I went to Giant (a local grocery store) on Wednesday to pick up a prescription and there was a sign at the self-checkout that said something along the lines of, "Because of the national penny shortage, please use exact change if paying cash." (I used Apple Pay.) So I guess theirs aren't programmed to round per se, except that the self-checkout always asks if you want to round to the next dollar up by donating the difference to some charity (e.g., if your total is $25.46, you'd donate 54¢, and if you paid with a $50 you'd get $24.00 change).

[thenetwork]

I don't quite get the stores that acknowledge the penny shortage by posting signs that ask for cash-paying customers to use exact change only...

Sounds good on paper, but how am I to know what taxes are on certain items and what other fees or tax rates they throw on at the end as well.  It's not my responsibility to have a pocket full of pennies every time I go shopping.

[kalvado]

I don't quite get the stores that acknowledge the penny shortage by posting signs that ask for cash-paying customers to use exact change only...

Sounds good on paper, but how am I to know what taxes are on certain items and what other fees or tax rates they throw on at the end as well.  It's not my responsibility to have a pocket full of pennies every time I go shopping.

You would never need more than 4 pennies. And the register would tgive you exact number at the end of scanning.

[GaryV]

You would never need more than 4 pennies.

But you might also need a quarter or two or a couple dimes or a nickel. You don't know what the exact change will be until you check out.

[jeffandnicole]

You would never need more than 4 pennies.

But you might also need a quarter or two or a couple dimes or a nickel. You don't know what the exact change will be until you check out.

3 quarters, 2 dimes, a nickle and 4 pennies will always cover you. Hardly a problem if someone insists on having exact change available.

[Big John]

Kwik Trip has stopped doing pennies a month or two ago.

[vtk]

I favor discontinuing the penny, nickel, and dime, and rounding all cash transactions to nearest 25¢. No need to adjust item prices, because single-item purchases are very uncommon and the odd buyer intending to make such a purpose can easily factor the rounding into their decision. Retailers can of course round their prices to the nearest quarter anyway, but that wouldn't be mandatory. Since a retailer does not use cash to pay sales tax to the state / county / municipality, no rounding is needed there. Retailers will "eat" the difference due to rounding cash transactions, but the difference in aggregate over many transactions should be negligible.

Semi-related: prices should have no more than three significant figures in any case.

[mgk920]

I have had no problems getting pennies from vendors in Las Vegas.

Southern Nevada is quite some distance from northeastern Wisconsin.

Mike

[vdeane]

Semi-related: prices should have no more than three significant figures in any case.

Or we could go the other way and make it so that gas stations have to give back that 1/10 of a penny they take from each gallon of gas sold. /s

But seriously, I wouldn't mind if certain cash transactions were just one significant figure.  I've done ticket sales for social events at work, and one of the annoying things with it (and the only one that isn't the result of people not bothering to read, sometimes coupled with an enabler in Main Office (and pressure from management one time) who would overrule me after it became difficult to accommodate these people; the silver lining of not having a fellow steward to sign checks is that this is no longer my problem, and now Main Office's problem to wait to receive reimbursement for fronting the money) is dealing with people whose ticket prices receive a small subsidy from another organization, and thus pay $15 instead of $20 - and of course, they want me to make change for them, despite the fact that I don't have enough ticket buyers paying $15 to regularly have five dollar bills (since the ones I get tend to be given out as change pretty quickly; I'm right in the sweet spot of "too many to keep change, not enough to regularly get what I need to make change").

[kalvado]

Semi-related: prices should have no more than three significant figures in any case.

Or we could go the other way and make it so that gas stations have to give back that 1/10 of a penny they take from each gallon of gas sold. /s

But seriously, I wouldn't mind if certain cash transactions were just one significant figure.  I've done ticket sales for social events at work, and one of the annoying things with it (and the only one that isn't the result of people not bothering to read, sometimes coupled with an enabler in Main Office (and pressure from management one time) who would overrule me after it became difficult to accommodate these people; the silver lining of not having a fellow steward to sign checks is that this is no longer my problem, and now Main Office's problem to wait to receive reimbursement for fronting the money) is dealing with people whose ticket prices receive a small subsidy from another organization, and thus pay $15 instead of $20 - and of course, they want me to make change for them, despite the fact that I don't have enough ticket buyers paying $15 to regularly have five dollar bills (since the ones I get tend to be given out as change pretty quickly; I'm right in the sweet spot of "too many to keep change, not enough to regularly get what I need to make change").

I believe they were trying to deemphasize 20s in favor of 50s. How about that for $20 tickets?

[thenetwork]

Soon we will have "Give a Nickel - Take a Nickel" bowls replacing the penny bowls at the registers.

[formulanone]

Semi-related: prices should have no more than three significant figures in any case.

Or we could go the other way and make it so that gas stations have to give back that 1/10 of a penny they take from each gallon of gas sold. /s

The gas or diesel odor you take back with you is that fraction of a cent. Especially diesel.

[kalvado]

Semi-related: prices should have no more than three significant figures in any case.

Or we could go the other way and make it so that gas stations have to give back that 1/10 of a penny they take from each gallon of gas sold. /s

The gas or diesel odor you take back with you is that fraction of a cent. Especially diesel.

Gas is rarely sold by whole gallon. It's measured to 1/1000th of a gallon - thats about a teaspoon. (at least meter says it that way), about 0.3 cent billing wise
When I bought some apples today, store weighted them down to 1/100th lb (same  teaspoon, if you puree apples to go by teaspoon), or about 2 cents.
So 0.1 cent in gas prices isn't meaningless...

[Scott5114]

You would never need more than 4 pennies.

But you might also need a quarter or two or a couple dimes or a nickel. You don't know what the exact change will be until you check out.

3 quarters, 2 dimes, a nickle and 4 pennies will always cover you. Hardly a problem if someone insists on having exact change available.

If you were wanting to specifically help the store keep its pennies, you could also just pay with whatever you would normally, plus whatever number of pennies is appropriate (so for a total of $17.63, pay something like $18.03). This is sort of annoying to deal with as a human cashier, but a self-checkout would handle it just fine.