The Last Day of the Canadian Penny

[kwanfan1818]

I just read this article in salon.com:

Canada says goodbye to the penny

While people may still use pennies, the government has issued guidelines urging store owners to start rounding prices to the nearest nickel for cash transactions. Electronic purchases will still be billed to the nearest cent.

The article mentions that "Google is marking the passing of the penny with a dedicated doodle on its Canadian home page." Also that other nations have phased out the penny. I remember when country-specific Euro coins were released in 2002, and by the time I visited Helsinki in Fall 2003 on a trip to Estonia, one- and two-cent Euro coins were already being sold at a premium.

[KatieC]

How is one supposed to play Rumoli without pennies? I like the penny.

[kwanfan1818]

Start hoarding now

[genevieve]

I have plenty of Canadian pennies if anyone wants to make me an offer

[kwanfan1818]

Considering how many US and Canadian pennies are mixed together and used interchangeably, the US government should just buy up Canadian pennies at face value, since it's costing them more than .01 to mint. The Canadian government could have done the same, especially since the exchange rate has been slightly favorable to Canada, and Canada could have bought in bulk.

[Cloudy_Gumdrops]

I wish the US would phase out pennies too. I hate those damn things. I like my change to be in multiples of 5.

[Really]

[kwanfan1818]

That only works where tax is included in the price or everything is priced so that when tax is added, the total is even. Otherwise, you end up with 5% of 5.75, and the total is 6.04.

[cygnus]

I love pennies! This makes me sad.

Pennies have the longest history of the coins we use today, and they seem to last the longest. (Which is why the fuss over the manufacturing cost makes no sense to me, after all the coins are used over and over again- thousands of times, so the 1.6 cent cost is rather meaningless). I loved finding 50 year old or more pennies among my change. One rarely finds dimes or quarters that old.

[Buzz]

I have to figure out what to do with the stash I have at home.

[Habs]

I have to figure out what to do with the stash I have at home.

Roll 'em and cash them in.
My dad rolled the change in his penny jar(s) over the weekend and cashed in $150. That's A LOT of pennies.

[quartz]

I saved all my change for 2 years to pay for my ticket to Worlds; $40 was just in pennies. It all adds up!

[mackiecat]

You don't have to roll them- RBC has a $25 penny bag availible for clients- just fill up to the line and get $25

[Artemis@BC]

Start hoarding now

I've been hoarding for years.

No need to roll & take them to the bank, though, if you're looking to get rid. They're still legal tender, you can still use them to buy things. And yesterday was just the day of end of circulation, no new pennies being minted or given out by banks.

The interesting thing I found about this when they were covering it on the news last night is that the rounding up / rounding down is just a guideline, not a rule. So if something comes out to 6.02, while the govt is advising to round that down to 6.00, the store can if it chooses round up to 6.05. Funny the govt isn't ]that ambiguous when it comes to calculating their tax! Other stores are choosing to go the public goodwill route and rounding down all amounts, both the 6.02s and the 6.04s will be rounded down to 6.00. Hmm, I wonder which strategy will pay off better in the long run!

I pay for the vast majority of my purchases by credit card (Airmiles!), so this won't be affecting me very much. But I'll be interested to watch how stores' policies play out.

[manhn]

This morning, I got charged whatever dollars and 34 cents, so the cashier charged me whatever dollars and 35 cents. So, I used my credit card instead, which charges the business owner. Oh well, that's what happens if you're gonna charge me one or two cents more.

[genevieve]

That only works where tax is included in the price or everything is priced so that when tax is added, the total is even. Otherwise, you end up with 5% of 5.75, and the total is 6.04.

yup, and in the US at least, people freak out about this - I'm not sure if that's a culture driven by business (don't want to back out tax from the price they want to advertise) or customers (don't want to have taxes "hidden"), but I LOVE going places where the tax is included, so the price you see is the price you pay. Or, you know, states with no sales tax (go Oregon! ).

I am a bit sentimental about pennies, but mostly I'm convinced that if we eliminate the penny, merchants will go out of their way to price things so they come to x.01, and then round up to the next $.05.

[GoldenLady]

I just got back from shopping at the supermarket, and I was surprised to see that they were using pennies, just as they always have. I mentioned it to the cashier, and she said they hadn't heard anything from store management yet, so they're continuing to use them in the meantime.

I've been feeling bit sad about the loss of the penny, so it was kind of a nice surprise (at least for now).

[kwanfan1818]

yup, and in the US at least, people freak out about this - I'm not sure if that's a culture driven by business (don't want to back out tax from the price they want to advertise) or customers (don't want to have taxes "hidden"), but I LOVE going places where the tax is included, so the price you see is the price you pay. Or, you know, states with no sales tax (go Oregon! ).

In European Consumer Protection Law, for a consumer, the price must include VAT, but the customer has to be given a breakout of the product or service and the VAT. I would love it if tax were included in the price in North America, but, alas. A tax department person I once worked with told me that in at least some states, it's illegal to show a tax-inclusive price. Some legal people joined the discussion and said that while there are some things that can be priced differently "in state" and "out of state" or members of a coalition -- i.e. five states charge in-state tuition to residents of all five states -- but that to have the same type of customer -- i.e., all customers who purchase five or more, all customers with promo code X, all teachers -- receive a different product price they thought could violate the Commerce Clause in the Constitution, while charging the same product price plus tax does not. We all just nodded and didn't pursue it further, since we weren't going to build a system around the states that would allow tax-inclusive pricing.

Example:
Tax-inclusive, DVD sold for 59.95
Seattle: Tax Rate = 9.5%, Tax = $5.20, Product Price = $54.75
Oregon: Tax Rate = 0%, Tax = $0.00, Product Price = $59.95
New York City: Tax Rate = 8.875%, Tax = $4.89 Product Price = $55.06

I just got back from shopping at the supermarket, and I was surprised to see that they were using pennies, just as they always have. I mentioned it to the cashier, and she said they hadn't heard anything from store management yet, so they're continuing to use them in the meantime.

They're still legal tender; the government just stopped making them. I don't think they'll stop accepting them with a lot of warning, and we'll hear about it, being here.

I suspect at some point it will be up to businesses to decide whether to accept pennies or the old 20's without the plastic, but banks will likely accept them for a long while after that.

[Erin]

Considering how many US and Canadian pennies are mixed together and used interchangeably, the US government should just buy up Canadian pennies at face value, since it's costing them more than .01 to mint. The Canadian government could have done the same, especially since the exchange rate has been slightly favorable to Canada, and Canada could have bought in bulk.

Of course, the one problem with this would be the occasional American vendor or cashier who has seriously told me that they would not accept Canadian pennies, handed them back to me, and made me fish out American pennies before accepting them. I only wish I were making it up. The same thing happened to me in Canada with American dimes, which I thought was almost as ridiculous, given that it was back when the USD was much stronger than the CAD.

I won't miss pennies, and wish the US would follow suit.

[Skittl1321]

Of course, the one problem with this would be the occasional American vendor or cashier who has seriously told me that they would not accept Canadian pennies, handed them back to me, and made me fish out American pennies before accepting them. I only wish I were making it up. The same thing happened to me in Canada with American dimes, which I thought was almost as ridiculous, given that it was back when the USD was much stronger than the CAD.

I won't miss pennies, and wish the US would follow suit.

I've never been in a US store that takes Canadian money on purpose. When I worked retail we HATED it because we couldn't deposit it at the bank, and so we just lost money. People would try to hide them with American coins to trick us into taking the money they got stuck with from another store. Vending machines always just spit them out, so you can't use Canadian coins for the most part. (However, I've never lived anywhere near Canada, so no border towns.)