Canada stops distribution of penny coin

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

4 February 2013 Last updated at 19:33 GMT

Canada stops distribution of penny coin

The Canadian penny is being withdrawn from circulation because production costs have exceeded its monetary value.

The Royal Canadian Mint will no longer distribute the coin to financial institutions around the country, but it will remain legal tender.

The government has advised shop owners to round out prices to the nearest nickel (5p) for cash transactions.

Other countries that no longer use the penny include New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21328892

[Blues Heron]

1. cosidering that a nickel now buys what a penny bought in the 70s

Maybe we should do the same.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Wonder if US is planning the same.n/t

[surrealAmerican]

14. It seems unlikely.

The US still prints dollar bills. Canada has widely circulating one and two dollar coins, and no paper money in those denominations.


Our coinage is kept for mostly sentimental purposes. Most countries are more concerned with the practical use of their currency.

[graham4anything]

3. US should get rid of all coin/paper.Antiquidated in 2013.

It wouldn't bother me.
I charge everything but a lotto ticket already anyhow.
Can't remember the last time I used coins. Been years.
(they would just have to allow c/c for lotto).

[Gidney N Cloyd]

4. I pay cash for a lot of things. I hate having every little purchase go into the Great Database.

[BadgerKid]

5. Credit-card and clearing companies approve.

They get a cut every time cash is not used. Probably the next best thing is store-specific credit cards?

[graham4anything]

6. without cash, robberies and muggings would become almost non-existent

thereby making yet another NRA soundbyte disappear completely.

8 tracks were great, but I can't recall the last person I know to have listened to one.

[derby378]

15. Until this little hacker pushes a single button and cleans out your bank account

We have a habit of worshiping technology as though it was our new god. Sometimes low-tech just works better.

[graham4anything]

20. people evolve.

People used to use charcoal too. there are more modern ways to light a BBQ

and people used to have wooden tennis rackets.

And the NY Jets once were in the Super Bowl.
(yes, it was still the only good Super Bowl, but it was like 45 years ago now and won't ever happen again,alas to a NYer like me).

live evolves.

How this is an "authoritarian" issue, I don't know.

and I am against 100% of hacking. Which is indeed why we need mega security to do all that we can to stop that.
But what that has to do with coins and money I don't know.

[derby378]

21. Sure, you can try mega-encryption and security measures - but you can't hack a dollar bill

You can try to counterfeit a dollar bill using a lithograph and various ink-paper combinations, but that's also illegal, and our government is usually pretty good at chasing down counterfeiters.

[graham4anything]

22. what do the two issues have to do with anything anyhow?

when was the last time you listened to an 8-track tape?

why is everything "big brother" or 'authoritarian"?

It is like the dumb argument Ron Paul makes about the fed.
and sorry, if Ron or Rand Paul say something, I will say the opposite
(except in a once in a million rare time when they would say something polar opposite each other and give both answers, then one of the answers has to be right and one correct.)

[Earth_First]

7. Ahhh, yes...DU's very own Authoritarian chiming in with their latest piece of Big Brother Theatre...

Tell us more, please!

[graham4anything]

9. How in the world is this an authoritarian Big Brother issue???

every single person I know uses a discount supermarket card to get things as cheap as possible in the supermarkets

(now, note, I am in the NY/NJ area and we have real supermarkets in NY/NJ and are not forced to go to WalMart which of course doesn't do sales or discounts, as they have one price always.

But, people who also go to BJ's, Kosco and any other discount, also have a special card they need to show to get the discount at those stores.

So how in the world is this an authoritarian issue?

And 8tracks,cassettes and LPs were once common place, but time marches on.

So what is there to be afraid of from debit or credit cards?

Did barter system places use any coins or cash?

What in the world is cash/coin needed for in an internet society?

[EastKYLiberal]

12. Agreed. There's very little I buy without using a debit card... nt

[energumen]

8. taxes

will play havoc with trying to make everything come up to an even nickel. and you can guarantee prices wont be rounded down to the nearest nickel. However, i think they should do away with the dollar bill and use a dollar coin. makes more sense. a five dollar coin would be tempting and then go to paper at 10, or just make it a 10 coin and go to paper at 20.

[SidDithers]

10. Stores will be rounding to the nearest nickel...

In fact, Home Depot in Canada has announced they will always round down to the nearest nickel.

The Home Depot Canada wants its customers to know that after this date, anyone shopping at its stores
using cash, will have their total rounded down to the nearest nickel. In addition, if a customer makes a
cash return to the store, it will always round up to the nearest nickel. The Home Depot feels it’s vital to
continually meet the needs of its customers

http://www.homedepot.ca/wcsstore/HomeDepotCanada/cms-content/assets/pdf/studio/english/media-release-jan31-en.pdf

Here's the Canadian government's rounding guide, which is posted in most retail outlets:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/gncy/lmntnpnny/menu-eng.html#rndng



Sid

[energumen]

13. im impressed

that some are willing to round down always. i would really expect some stores to always round up. technically, over the long run, everyone should break even if standard rounding rules are honored. and it would be a hell of a lot easier to balance the damn checkbook.

[SidDithers]

16. And it only applies to cash transactions...

debit, credit card and personal cheques will still use the exact amount.

Personally, I'm happy to see the ass end of the penny.

Sid

[energumen]

17. there goes my checkbook balancing right out the window. eom

[Recovered Repug]

11. The simple solution is to leave the prices as is

and round the total to the nearest nickel. That's what the PX did 25 years ago when I was stationed in Germany.

[energumen]

28. you are correct

i obviously did not think that all the way through. every once in a while my ADD kicks in and I run off after making it about half way through the thought

[derby378]

18. The REAL problem is a monetary system that says minting pennies is too expensive

If you let the price of making a penny become cost-prohibitive, you have nobody to blame but your own bad self.

One alternative, however, is to do what Japan did - they abolished their "penny," the sen altogether. Their only unit of currency now is the yen. The one-sen gumball machine has long been a thing of the past, but just think about that shitload of gumballs you'll get from a one-yen machine.

[Art_from_Ark]

23. Japan's sen was abolished during the GHQ (MacArthur) days

Basically, Japan's monetary system was revised by the US occupying government (known as GHQ (General Headquarters) in Japan), which cut out the sen and made 1 yen the lowest denomination coin. The 1 yen coin is still being used today, and its value is slightly more than one US cent.

[derby378]

24. True - I should have made that a little clearer

Nowadays, one yen may get you a single gumball. It still takes a little getting used to seeing the price of the latest Tatsuhiko Asano CD expressed in a price of tens of thousands of yen.

[Art_from_Ark]

26. A CD priced in tens of thousands of yens would cost hundreds of dollars

I don't know how many takers there would be at that price.

And there aren't too many Japanese gumball machines around anymore. I've seen a few trinket machines here and there that accept 100-yen ($1.10) coins.

[derby378]

27. Man, I was way off, wasn't I?

Maybe I should just stick to dollars for now until I get the hang of this.

[Art_from_Ark]

29. Today's yen isn't the same as it was back in the '60s and '70s

One person I know says that when he started working in the early '70s, his starting pay was something like 20,000 yen per month. Today, anywhere from 180,000 to 200,000 yen/month is considered to be a standard starting salary for a college-educated office worker. During the same time, the yen has really appreciated in value against the dollar, going from 360 yen per dollar before Nixon got it to start floating in 1971, to somewhere around 90 yen per dollar today.

The cheapest kid-oriented food-like product I have seen is the so-called "Umai Bo" ("Yummy Stick&quot that is sold for around 10 yen. Most of the other stuff for kids is 30 yen or higher. There are occasional sales of chocolate bars for 65 yen or so. Drinks from a vending machine start around 100 yen in some machines, but other machines start at 120 yen. Gasoline right now is running at about 150 yen per liter.

[u4ic]

19. Amen to that!

I look forward to not carrying the damn things around any more. I always tried to get rid of them soon after I got them. Most of the wallets don't have enough room for loonies and toonies, never mind a gob full of pennies; and it's a pain carrying another change purse around just for them.

[Art_from_Ark]

25. Finland and the Netherlands now use the Euro

Does that mean that they do not use the 1 Eurocent coins?

Also, Sweden hasn't had what could be called a "penny" for decades. The lowest denomination coin until recently was the 50 ore coin, but that is being phased out and demonetized. The lowest denomination Swedish coin will soon be, or maybe is already, the 1 kronor coin, which is valued at 15 US cents.