No more new pennies

[epzik8]

I barely use cash anymore, so I have no real reason to care.

[kphoger]

Getting rid of $1 bills should be next.

This would be illegal—the company that makes the bill paper got their Senator to pass a law that prohibits the government from changing the $1 bill in any way. (This is why its design doesn't match the other denominations.)

The bill (888-page .pdf warning) only prohibits redesigning the dollar bill.  It doesn't say they can't stop printing them or remove them from circulation.

Public Law 114-113 — 114th Congress

Division E — Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2016

Title I — Department of the Treasury

Administrative Provisions — Department of the Treasury

Sec. 117 — None of the funds appropriated in this Act or otherwise available to the Department of the Treasury or the Bureau of Engraving and Printing may be used to redesign the $1 Federal Reserve note.

[mgk920]

I'd get rid off all coins except nickels, quarters and dollars. You can make every combination from $0.05 up through $1.95 with only 8 coins.

If only nickels weren't an even bigger money-sap to produce than pennies are.

Getting rid of $1 bills should be next.

Count me in.  I've wanted that for years.

As I have said in here before, I'd go with a slate of coins for 25¢, $1, $2 and $5 and banknotes for $10 on up (subject to further inflation-related changes).

Right now, 'Pennies' and Nickels  cannot be made at a profit by the feds and the local coin laundry (the perfect place to get ones' money cleaned!) would LOVE the higher-valued coins.

Mike

[kphoger]

I doubt anybody would care if the price of any product they purchase were changed to nearest 25¢.  In fact, I suspect most of them wouldn't even notice.

[mgk920]

I believe it was one of our senators from Massachusetts who saw to it that no changes could come to the dollar bill.  The paper is manufactured by the Crane Paper Company in Dalton.

The (late) Teddy Kennedy?

Mike

[hotdogPi]

I've had two local pizza/sub places of the "mainly takeout/delivery" type round down to the nearest 50¢ when I pay cash, even if up is closer. The owner of my local Magic: the Gathering store also rounds to the nearest dollar when I pay cash for events, although it's sometimes the opposite direction if the rounding has gone up or down the last few times I've paid.

I support rounding to the nearest 25¢. It might be a bit too much of a gap; I would prefer 10¢ rounding, but this is impossible because we have a coin that's not a multiple of 10¢.

Most things that have a price difference of less than 25¢ are fairly arbitrary; for example, if a 48 oz tub of yogurt is $2.89 and a 48 oz tub of applesauce is $2.79, they could both be made $2.75 or $3.00, or even $3.00 for the yogurt and $2.75 for the applesauce, without much of an issue. This assumes prices are rounded per item, too, which they might or might not be.

[kphoger]

I'd get rid off all coins except nickels, quarters and dollars. You can make every combination from $0.05 up through $1.95 with only 8 coins.

As someone who worked with large amounts of cash on a daily basis, you're a monster. You must be stopped.

And yes, I fully expect a detailed reply from you on this, but...

Will you please explain how that would be bad?  I get that 45¢ would be one quarter and four nickels instead of one quarter and two dimes, but that doesn't really seem like a big deal to me—certainly no worse than 44¢ right now being seven coins.

(By the way, Google AI thinks you can make 44¢ with only six coins:  1 quarter, 1 dime, 1 nickel, 3 pennies.)

[hbelkins]

I wonder if perhaps the next administration of a different party than the current administration would reverse that decision and start minting the penny again?

Sorta makes me wish I hadn't cashed in all those pennies I had saved a couple of years ago.

[NWI_Irish96]

I wonder if perhaps the next administration of a different party than the current administration would reverse that decision and start minting the penny again?

Sorta makes me wish I hadn't cashed in all those pennies I had saved a couple of years ago.

I know just about everything today is partisan, but I don't think this is. The only people truly in favor of still minting pennies are those from Illinois, regardless of party.

[kphoger]

Sorta makes me wish I hadn't cashed in all those pennies I had saved a couple of years ago.

Why?  Do you imagine they'd be worth a fortune soon?

[hotdogPi]

Canadian pennies haven't seen a spike in value the way, say, wheat pennies in the US have. The same is true with pretty much every recently discontinued coin.

[vdeane]

I wouldn't foresee pennies being vacuumed out of circulation like in the US or prices of each individual item rounded (at least, not in most places).  Maybe if Congress passed a law that would happen, but this is just Trump not wanting to make more, so it's likely the existing ones will continue to circulate because to get rid of them would make this change permanent enough to trigger the lobbying that's prevented it all these years.  If/when pennies get scarce, businesses will likely round naturally to the nearest nickel for cash purchases since that's the same method that's used to round to the nearest dollar for taxes.  As for prices, sales tax means that everything won't be nice and neat regardless, so why should prices round when that won't mean much?  I could see maybe in jurisdictions that don't have sales tax, but not elsewhere, unless it's something priced nationally.  The countries where prices changed have their taxes built in to the listed prices, so there's no percentage applied at the end.

Getting rid of $1 bills should be next.

This would be illegal—the company that makes the bill paper got their Senator to pass a law that prohibits the government from changing the $1 bill in any way. (This is why its design doesn't match the other denominations.)

The bill (888-page .pdf warning) only prohibits redesigning the dollar bill.  It doesn't say they can't stop printing them or remove them from circulation.

Public Law 114-113 — 114th Congress

Division E — Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2016

Title I — Department of the Treasury

Administrative Provisions — Department of the Treasury

Sec. 117 — None of the funds appropriated in this Act or otherwise available to the Department of the Treasury or the Bureau of Engraving and Printing may be used to redesign the $1 Federal Reserve note.

I get why they don't want the bill discontinued in favor of a coin (like the rest of the world has done), but why keep the bill's design locked in time?

[hotdogPi]

As for prices, sales tax means that everything won't be nice and neat regardless, so why should prices round when that won't mean much?  I could see maybe in jurisdictions that don't have sales tax, but not elsewhere, unless it's something priced nationally.  The countries where prices changed have their taxes built in to the listed prices, so there's no percentage applied at the end.

Groceries are untaxed in most states.

[GaryV]

Groceries are untaxed in most states

Sure, but you buy one bottle of dish washing liquid, and there you go.

An interesting conundrum would be that if sales taxes need to round off, who would eat that? The State sure doesn't want to.

[jeffandnicole]

Groceries are untaxed in most states

Sure, but you buy one bottle of dish washing liquid, and there you go.

An interesting conundrum would be that if sales taxes need to round off, who would eat that? The State sure doesn't want to.

One of the issues is that states may have laws rounding purchases or sales taxes to the nearest penny. As with many things being pushed thru currently, either no thought or no care is being given to issues that may arise.

[thenetwork]

What will outlast the other:

US PENNY
or
JC PENNEY?

Let the betting begin...

[mgk920]

I wonder if perhaps the next administration of a different party than the current administration would reverse that decision and start minting the penny again?

Sorta makes me wish I hadn't cashed in all those pennies I had saved a couple of years ago.

I know just about everything today is partisan, but I don't think this is. The only people truly in favor of still minting pennies are those from Illinois, regardless of party.

Also Tennessee (where the maker of the blanks is from).

Mike

[mgk920]

Canadian pennies haven't seen a spike in value the way, say, wheat pennies in the US have. The same is true with pretty much every recently discontinued coin.

Common USA 'Wheaties' (1936 dated and later) in normal circulated condition are now just under 3.25¢ each - melt value for all bronzies (made until late 1982).

Mike

[kphoger]

An interesting conundrum would be that if sales taxes need to round off, who would eat that? The State sure doesn't want to.

What does the bolded phrase mean?

[mgk920]

Just set the rate card to round the final tax total up/down to the nearest increment of what is currently in circulation.

Mike

[kphoger]

I don't understand what the phrase means to begin with.  How do sales taxes 'round off'?

[Rothman]

I don't understand what the phrase means to begin with.  How do sales taxes 'round off'?

If the result is not a factor of five, round up...

[mgk920]

Well, the tax is whatever the percent rate is of the total of all taxable items, rounded up/down to the nearest 1¢.  No 'Pennies' in circulation?  then set it to round up/down to the nearest 5¢.

Mike

[kphoger]

If the result is not a factor of five, round up...

So, exactly how sales tax already rounds off?

Sales tax in my city is 7.5%.  If I go to the gas station and buy a drink that costs $1.79, the tax I owe should be 13.425¢.  But, of course, that 0.425¢ gets rounded off.  The State sure doesn't want to eat that!

[LilianaUwU]

Oh wow, the US is doing what we did back in 2012. For what it's worth, we round to the nearest multiple of 5, and this includes taxes, but nowadays people mostly use debit/credit so it doesn't matter all that often, as those aren't rounded.