The Great Penny Debate - Page 3 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

SoulOfTheFlame · 04-01-2008, 12:03 AM

Just my 2 pennies...

I live in Australia now, we just round to the nearest 5cents. I certainly don't miss the penny, and love not having so much useless change. In fact, I almost wish I could ditch the annoying 5 cent piece as well..

Now if only we aussies could get rid of our enormous 50 cent piece...

jolinar of malkshor · 04-01-2008, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by REDVAN

x2

I think that this is just a bad idea- it would probably cause a massive increase in inflation, and I am not sure that's what the dollar needs right now.

Really, what is the big difference if a company rounds it up or you just throw your penny's into a donation jar, throw them a way or horde them for 50+ years. The effect is essentially the same.

ken0042 · 04-01-2008, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by edn88

... and are nickels really needed? Let's go right to round to the nearest dime...

Keep in mind that if you do that, you also need to eliminate the quarter.

Personally I can't stand it when I am owed 85¢ in change, and I am handed two quarters, three dimes, and a nickel. Getting 8 or 9 dimes in change would be worse than having pennies around; at least you never get more than 4 of them back.

Burninator · 04-04-2008, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

The value of the copper in the penny is worth more than the penny itself.

If I had the means I'd be melting pennies in my basement and selling the copper!

You would need a lot of time and a lot of pennies. Just for fun, and because I am bored at work, I did the math.

A penny weights 2.35g (0.00518081lb). I assume most pennies in circulation are the newer ones (2000 and up) which are 4.5% copper. So each penny contains 0.000233136lb of copper. Copper currently sells for about $3.90 a pound. To get a pound of copper from pennies you would need roughly 22.2 pounds of pennies. Which is about 4290 pennies! That's a lot of change! So that would mean that each penny contains only about $0.0001 of copper. I would keep your day job.

SebC · 04-04-2008, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken0042

Personally I can't stand it when I am owed 85¢ in change, and I am handed two quarters, three dimes, and a nickel.

Yeah, should be 3 quarters and 1 dime.

Locke · 04-04-2008, 01:55 PM

I'm going to chime in to come to the defense of pennies!

I find pennies tremendously valuable, particularly for flicking at Hobos.

I dont want to use larger denominations because then my hobo tormenting hobby starts getting expensive, not to mention, you could cause serious damage to your hobo by flicking large denomination coins at him.

Hobos dont grow on trees ya know! Once you hurt your hobo, the word goes around and you'll be stuck flicking coins at drunks or random transients, which, I dont need to tell you, is not nearly as satisfying.

Furthermore, its a hobo, not a stripper, once you start throwing loonies or toonies at a hobo, you know you have a problem and social services should be contacted.

comrade · 04-04-2008, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

Furthermore, its a hobo, not a stripper, once you start throwing loonies or toonies at a hobo, you know you have a problem and social services should be contacted.

Ha! Strippers can make good coin as target practice. I bet the majority of hobos would be more than happy to let you throw toonies at them.

edn88 · 05-31-2010, 10:11 AM

http://www.canada.com/business/fp/3085440/story.html

I sure hope this happens. The pennies time has come. While they are at it, they should nuke the nickel.

CrusaderPi · 05-31-2010, 10:18 AM

I've got 5000+ (I counted) pennies almost filling a Molson Bubba. I'll be pissed if they get rid of pennies before that thing is full.

CaptainCrunch · 05-31-2010, 10:22 AM

They should nuke currency all together. Force the banks to drop user rates on Debit and everyone goes to electronic money.

Huntingwhale · 05-31-2010, 10:23 AM

I'm such a baller, that l consider toonies useless!

Ducay · 05-31-2010, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoulOfTheFlame

Just my 2 pennies...

I live in Australia now, we just round to the nearest 5cents. I certainly don't miss the penny, and love not having so much useless change. In fact, I almost wish I could ditch the annoying 5 cent piece as well..

Now if only we aussies could get rid of our enormous 50 cent piece...

Having a $2 piece the size of a dime and a $0.50 cent piece as big as a fist is the worst.

Im all for no pennies and tax inclusive prices as our Oceanic brethren are accustom to

Ruh-Roh, just realized this was a massive old thread bump

Jimmy Stang · 05-31-2010, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4X4

As for whether we'd get fleeced by store owners rounding up, the MP said he did a study on Australia and NZ which have both eliminated the penny and apparently it works quite well.

I was just in both Australia and New Zealand and I quite liked not having a penny. At home I used mostly debit, but still hate the penny. But when I travel I use mostly cash. Inevitably I end up with a pocket full of change to try and get rid of.

On your receipt it basically says "Rounding" and the amount of cents that got rounded up or down to balance your bill.

I'm sure that merchants could rig their prices on single items to get your two cents on rounding, but on multiple-item purchases, you'll sometimes get the benefit of the rounding as you can't rig prices to work in the storekeeper's favour all of the time.

The important thing about how AU and NZ do it, from what I recall, is that the rounding is done after everything else on your bill is calculated. So there are still items for $9.99, and your total after tax is rounded up or down. Storekeepers don't make everything $9.95 or $10.00.

After seeing it in action, I didn't feel that rounding worked against me more than it worked for me. And even if it worked against me one or two times, they can have my two cents because I don't want the pennies anyway. Yeah, over a lifetime, blah, blah, blah - but seriously - take them. If done right, you're not getting fleeced 0.04 on every purchase.

Locke · 05-31-2010, 10:49 AM

Over a lifetime you wouldnt even save enough pennies to buy a microwave that works.

Jimmy Stang · 05-31-2010, 10:53 AM

Here's a little backgrounder on the practice of "Swedish Rounding" which is what the Aussies and Kiwis do. Australia has done away with the penny, and New Zealand has even been nickel-free since 2006.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_rounding

Buzzard · 05-31-2010, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

They should nuke currency all together. Force the banks to drop user rates on Debit and everyone goes to electronic money.

Oh sure...then rebuild Temple Mount?

What next? One world government?

The end is nigh.........

Jimmy Stang · 05-31-2010, 11:14 AM

And while we're talking currency and AU/NZ in the same breath, those plastic banknotes are fantastic and I can't wait for them to be issued in Canada.

Bill Bumface · 05-31-2010, 11:58 AM

Stay ahead of the curve and nuke nickles for sure. Really, does anyone ever buy anything less than a dollar? Hack it down to just quarters.`

Azure · 05-31-2010, 11:59 AM

Cash is fine. No need to force debit.

But please get rid of the penny.

redforever · 05-31-2010, 01:14 PM

I just got back from New Zealand where they don't use the penny.

Their prices are also all inclusive. So if items are ticketed at $10, or $15.70, whatever, those prices already include their 12% GST etc. I guess the breakdown of all the costs is done by the merchants and they submit the appropriate taxes.

I never really noticed a huge difference in the change that I carried around, it was just different denominations. Their 50 cent piece is used a lot.