U.S. to stop making pennies?

[InTheSlot]

One of my teachers told me this a day or two ago in class. I don't wanna call him a liar, but I find it hard to believe, and haven't heard it anywhere else yet.

Supposedly the U.S. is gonna stop making pennies because of the simple premise that it costs more than a penny to make a penny. I guess I can see the logic in that, but how would people give exact change then? My only guess is that they'd have to round all the time now, which I suppose wouldn't be too bad...but like taxes, I'm sure they'd round all prices and costs up. :angry: So if something was 14.96 it becomes 15.00. Hell, I bet if it was 14.92 they'd still round up. Who knows.


Anyway, anyone else here this?

[transplant99]

So if something was 14.96 it becomes 15.00.

No...it would become 14.95. You round up, and round down. .96 and .97 become .95. Just as .98 and .99 become .00.

Nickels are still going to be produced.

Its an idea whose time to happen is long overdue. Nevermind the conveniance factor, the cost factor...just eliminating the making of pennies will help control pollution as a side benefit. (Article i read a couple years ago..will look)

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

I'm not sure I get the whole it costs more than a penny to make a penny. So what. A penny lasts for decades and is circulated thousands of times. It's not like the money spent to make the penny just disappears. I'm sure the net value is still there.

That being said, I wouldn't be too upset if there were no pennies anymore, as I don't usually even take them from the cashier folks anymore.

[Bleeding Red]

Originally posted by Bring_Back_Shantz@Jan 20 2005, 03:12 PM
I'm not sure I get the whole it costs more than a penny to make a penny. So what. A penny lasts for decades and is circulated thousands of times. It's not like the money spent to make the penny just disappears. I'm sure the net value is still there.

That being said, I wouldn't be too upset if there were no pennies anymore, as I don't usually even take them from the cashier folks anymore.

Pennies last a long time, but a lot are not being circulated. I bet hundreds for dollars of pennies sit in coin jars just waiting to be rolled. some charities are doing "bring-in-your-penny-jar" fundraisers. Also there is probably anywhere from $50-100 in pennies laying around on the street of any given major city - I remember reading something along the lines of the time it takes for someone to stop, bend down and pick up a penny costs more than the penny is worth.

[Bill Bumface]

Australia has been penny-less for years, and I think its great. I'd be fine with ditching pennies and nickles actually.

Heres some points discussing it:

http://www.whyfor.com/nocents/nocents.htm

[InTheSlot]

Originally posted by transplant99@Jan 20 2005, 07:33 AM

No...it would become 14.95. You round up, and round down. .96 and .97 become .95. Just as .98 and .99 become .00.

Nickels are still going to be produced.

Yeah, I know nickels still gonna be produced, but I think you're kinda naive to expect that the government will cut you a break or do you a favor and round down. But yeah, I agree rounding down is, and should be the best way to go about it. (In that situation I presented)

[nfotiu]

Originally posted by InTheSlot+Jan 20 2005, 04:31 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (InTheSlot @ Jan 20 2005, 04:31 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-transplant99@Jan 20 2005, 07:33 AM

No...it would become 14.95. You round up, and round down. .96 and .97 become .95. Just as .98 and .99 become .00.

Nickels are still going to be produced.

Yeah, I know nickels still gonna be produced, but I think you're kinda naive to expect that the government will cut you a break or do you a favor and round down. But yeah, I agree rounding down is, and should be the best way to go about it. (In that situation I presented) [/b][/quote]
Umm, when did the American government start setting prices for goods?

[Flame Of Liberty]

Originally posted by Bring_Back_Shantz@Jan 20 2005, 04:12 PM
I'm not sure I get the whole it costs more than a penny to make a penny. So what. A penny lasts for decades and is circulated thousands of times. It's not like the money spent to make the penny just disappears. I'm sure the net value is still there.

You stop producing things when you find a better use of your resoures elsewhere.

The thing is that resources now used up to produce pennies will be freed and could be used more efficiently. Lets say to produce missiles.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally posted by hulkrogan@Jan 20 2005, 03:58 PM
Australia has been penny-less for years, and I think its great. I'd be fine with ditching pennies and nickles actually.

Heres some points discussing it:

http://www.whyfor.com/nocents/nocents.htm

When I lived there it was sooooo nice not having pockets filled with pennies all the time; It was really, really convenient and is something I wish Canada would adopt. I guess they did all kinds of studies on the pennies and bills, and came to the conclusion that it was cheaper not to produce pennies, and when they rounded up or down depending on the bill amounts, the consumers came out ahead something like 55% of the time.

Their bills were also waterproof (laminated somehow I think) so if they got washed it wouldn't wreck them. They came in all different colours, and the larger denomination bills were longer in length than the smaller ones, which made it pretty easy to organise and count your money.

Way ahead in my mind.

[CaptainCrunch]

And in other news 8 million .99 cent stores are forced into receivership due to the massive law claiming false advertising

[JiriHrdina]

Originally posted by CaptainCrunch@Jan 20 2005, 11:44 AM
And in other news 8 million .99 cent stores are forced into receivership due to the massive law claiming false advertising

Along with manufacturers of "Give a Penny, Take a Penny" holders.

[InTheSlot]

Originally posted by nfotiu+Jan 20 2005, 09:40 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (nfotiu @ Jan 20 2005, 09:40 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Yeah, I know nickels still gonna be produced, but I think you're kinda naive to expect that the government will cut you a break or do you a favor and round down. But yeah, I agree rounding down is, and should be the best way to go about it. (In that situation I presented)

Umm, when did the American government start setting prices for goods? [/b][/quote]
They don't, but if pennies are taken out of circulation and are no longer made then you can bet the government will come in and dictate whether prices are in fact rounded up or down.

[Bill Bumface]

InTheSlot.. no offense, but how old are you?

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally posted by InTheSlot+Jan 20 2005, 12:45 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (InTheSlot @ Jan 20 2005, 12:45 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Umm, when did the American government start setting prices for goods?

They don't, but if pennies are taken out of circulation and are no longer made then you can bet the government will come in and dictate whether prices are in fact rounded up or down. [/b][/quote]
Why would the government care? And what benefit does the government get from doing that anyway. Okay great, shops now get up to 4 cents more per perchase. Benefit for the government = Nothing. Unless you really think the government is going to care about the infentesimal ammount of extra taxable income that a store makes.

[InTheSlot]

Originally posted by Bring_Back_Shantz+Jan 20 2005, 01:23 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Bring_Back_Shantz @ Jan 20 2005, 01:23 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

They don't, but if pennies are taken out of circulation and are no longer made then you can bet the government will come in and dictate whether prices are in fact rounded up or down.

Why would the government care? And what benefit does the government get from doing that anyway. Okay great, shops now get up to 4 cents more per perchase. Benefit for the government = Nothing. Unless you really think the government is going to care about the infentesimal ammount of extra taxable income that a store makes. [/b][/quote]
They probably wouldn't care per se, but it's the government -- God knows they do stuff for no reason that most often just ends up p*ssing people off.

The only reason I'm saying they would step in and moderate the way the rounding was done is because there has to be some official standard. Who else is gonna determine whether stores round up or down? Ya know, it's gotta be uniform throughout the entire country. You can't have one store saying "we round to the nearest nickel (4.96 becomes 4.95) and another store saying "we just always round up" (4.96 becomes 5.00).



@hulkrogan: I'm 18...how old are you?

[Daradon]

Originally posted by Tron_fdc+Jan 20 2005, 11:35 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Tron_fdc @ Jan 20 2005, 11:35 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-hulkrogan@Jan 20 2005, 03:58 PM
Australia has been penny-less for years, and I think its great. I'd be fine with ditching pennies and nickles actually.

Heres some points discussing it:

http://www.whyfor.com/nocents/nocents.htm

When I lived there it was sooooo nice not having pockets filled with pennies all the time; It was really, really convenient and is something I wish Canada would adopt. I guess they did all kinds of studies on the pennies and bills, and came to the conclusion that it was cheaper not to produce pennies, and when they rounded up or down depending on the bill amounts, the consumers came out ahead something like 55% of the time.

Their bills were also waterproof (laminated somehow I think) so if they got washed it wouldn't wreck them. They came in all different colours, and the larger denomination bills were longer in length than the smaller ones, which made it pretty easy to organise and count your money.

Way ahead in my mind. [/b][/quote]
I was going to mention this...

However they got the one and two dollar coins down there too, so it doesn't really cut down on the immense amount of change people carry around, not to mention their 2 dollar coins are about the size of a dime, just much thicker. To easy to lose I think for something worth that much.

Lol you should have seen the persons face when I askd for two toonies and a loonie for a five though...

As for the lengths of bills, the higher the denomination, the longer the bill, so that's good for those who are visually impaired, but I remember a blind person here in Canada saying you could do the same thing with Canadian currency if you folded it a certain way.

As for it being washable, well I try not to wash mine. I know U.S. bills don't come apart in the wash either as they are made from a type of (or have a certain percentage of) cotton. I don't know about Canadian bills.

I wouldn't mind if we got rid of the penny though. I got about 60 (seriously) bucks in them that I'd have change in before they became worthless. Or would I then actually have more in metal, if the weren't currency anymore...?

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally posted by InTheSlot@Jan 20 2005, 04:31 PM

Yeah, I know nickels still gonna be produced, but I think you're kinda naive to expect that the government will cut you a break or do you a favor and round down. But yeah, I agree rounding down is, and should be the best way to go about it. (In that situation I presented)

What's the government got to do with it?

They don't set prices.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally posted by InTheSlot@Jan 20 2005, 08:41 PM
God knows they do stuff for no reason that most often just ends up p*ssing people off.

They sure do. They do stuff like spending millions on congressional committees and regulatory agencies and enforcement offices for irrelevant stuff like making sure all businesses uniformly round up (or down) a couple pennies here or there.

[Gravitykillr]

actually had a store in the area of the city I live in try to do it, he was sick of having to buy pennies to have pennies and got angry and decided he was going to set his til to round up and down and he found it was just way too complicated to do it so he kept the pennies I realize that if the government decided to stop making them there isn't much you can do but live with it, but I think there is also a down side to getting rid of pennies, I work in 7-eleven and most of our charity donation bins are filled with pennies granted they don't amount to much but people are way more willing to donate a few pennies than they are to donate a few dollars, the odd person will just toss all there change in but it's rather rare usually they take the change sort out the silver from copper and toss the copper in the bin, I think alot of charities would be losing out on these donations if pennies where to be erradicated...........................mind you this is about the usa not making pennies anymore.

[InTheSlot]

Originally posted by RougeUnderoos+Jan 20 2005, 11:17 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (RougeUnderoos @ Jan 20 2005, 11:17 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-InTheSlot@Jan 20 2005, 08:41 PM
God knows they do stuff for no reason that most often just ends up p*ssing people off.

They sure do. They do stuff like spending millions on congressional committees and regulatory agencies and enforcement offices for irrelevant stuff like making sure all businesses uniformly round up (or down) a couple pennies here or there. [/b][/quote]
That's not what I was referring to as p*ssing people off for no reason. Actually, you helped demonstrate my point as to why the would step in and set prices.

Thanks. :wave: