O Canada! > Canadian > Canadian Chat > Canadian Mint: Most Favour Getting Rid Of The Penny

Canadian Mint: Most Favour Getting Rid Of The Penny

quote:

---

Canadian Mint: Most Favour Getting Rid Of The Penny

Thursday October 11, 2007
CityNews.ca Staff

It's not so much a case of a penny for your thoughts as it is a thought for your pennies. And it appears many agree that when it comes to the copper coin, most of us could live without it. A study by the Royal Canadian Mint shows the majority of people in this country would like to see the almost worthless entity eliminated.

It costs more to make the currency that it's actually worth and many Mint mentors believe most of us would be better off without all that change cluttering up our wallets and purses. It asked Canadians for their two cents on the issue and discovered that 42 per cent of consumers would like to get rid of the pocket change, while 63 per cent of retailers consider it a nuisance that would be better off banished.

Restaurants, grocery stores, entertainment venues and gas stations are especially in favour of sentencing the cent to a not-so early grave. And consumers also expressed their distaste, noting the penny takes up room in their wallets, can't buy them anything - and some worried they're full of germs.

Paula Virany collects the near-worthless wonders but believes if they're abandoned, she'll be able to make - yes, a pretty penny. "Pennies are the only thing left that are the real metal. They're really copper," she gushes. "My collection would be worth so much more, so I say do it."

But wouldn't dumping the disc mean that businesses could raise prices? Most speculate that retailers would round things off to the nearest nickel, but it wouldn't change all that much, the experience they found in Australia and New Zealand when they got rid of their small denomination.

"There aren't very many things that you can buy for a penny or even two cents or three cents any more so it's kind of a redundant thing any more," concedes Mary Ellen Lowry of Nabor's Paint. "Most people pay by debit card or Visa here anyways."

In the end, the federal government will get to decide the issue. The Mint isn't recommending that the penny be banished one way or the other, just taking the national temperature to see if it's a feasible idea - or not worth a red cent.

And that may be in the works. Even though the government has no current plans to end the penny's historic reign, a private member's bill is trying to put it out of our misery. It's the third time since 1993 that it's been introduced and it's failed all previous times.

But even if it succeeds, the battle over the minute money may not be over. There's an estimated 20-25 billion pennies in circulation - or about 600 for every man, woman and child in the country.

Penny Death Pros:

Consumers

-Wouldn't have to carry so much change
-Pennies useless/worthless
-Pennies an annoyance/inconvenience
-Costs more to make them than they're worth
-Pennies don't buy anything
-People discard them, don't want them
-People save them and don't return into circulation
-Prices rounded to exclude pennies
-Pennies dirty, smelly, germ ridden
-Pennies heavy as rolled coin when cashing in at the bank

Business

-Less change/coins to count, carry, handle
-Easier to count change/less counting
-Time savings
-Price rounded off/even
-Easier, less hassle
-Faster service/transactions
-More room in the till
-No need to roll coins
-Less trips to the bank

Penny Death Cons:

Consumers

-Prices will go up/things cost more
-Part of our heritage, sentimental
-Need pennies to make exact change
-Part of the currency/all coins of value
-Like the penny
-Good way to save
-No reason to discontinue
-Would lead to inflation
-Children like them/learn to count
-Penny is the base unit/not everything divisible by 5

Business

-Prices rounded up/down
-Prices would have to change
-Consumers pay/see higher prices
-How to handle GST/figure out tax
-Couldn't make proper change
-Customers want exact change
-Use pennies a lot, pennies needed for the business
-Have to reprogram cash drawer
-Possibly reduce margins/lose revenue
-Disgruntled customers

---

Why are they worried about pennies when we have much bigger problems, literally? Why do we put up with having to wander around with pockets bulging with loonies and toonies, clinking like the moneybags of a medieval tax collector? Paper money was invented for a reason, people! Let's get back to civilized currency first, and worry about the poor penny later. The U.S. tried to introduce a dollar coin and the population rightfully rejected it. They still have a paper dollar. We've done in the dollar bill, the two-dollar bill, and will no doubt soon replace the five-dollar bill with a coin the size of a medium pizza, and Canadians will meekly accept it. Therein is the problem, not pennies. The mint is worried about the wrong things. If I don't want pennies I just put them into the Timmy's charity box, problem solved.
--
"Against stupidity, the very gods themselves contend in vain" -- Friedrich Schiller

reply to Happyrat6
Dealing with both Canadian and American money on a good basis, I find that it's the loonie and toonie that fill up my pockets, and not pennies. I agree with bringing back the dollar bill, then pockets wouldn't get so full.

reply to Happyrat6
I read a similar article this week. In that one they mentioned Australia and New Zealand, if I remember correctly, had gotten rid of theirs. Which surprised me a bit.

I don't mind keeping the penny. And if you ask me, any study put out by the Mint has to be taken with a grain of salt. They have their own interests. And no doubt businesses would like to get rid of the penny as well, for obvious reasons.

reply to Happyrat6
I don't mind pennies. If you don't like carrying around a lot of pennies I found a good way to get rid of them. Spend them. Works well for me I rarely have more than a couple in my pocket.

reply to Happyrat6
Without the penny I'm curious how they would pay out money when you go and exchange money, ex. american to canadian, with the dollar at 1.02 who would get the two?

Better idea to get rid of the loonie and toonie and replace that with paper money, save me a lot of space in my pocket!

reply to Dark Shoes
Not to mention the Government.

Since prices would be, on average 2.5 cents more expensive, if we are round to 5cents, they get to charge more tax on the item.

If with tax it comes to 0.43... guess who's going to eat the extra change...

Over a year that's a lot of cents.

if it wasn't for pennies, what would i pick up off the ground?

reply to Wolfie00

reply to Happyrat6
Something tells me gas companies won't be too happy: pricing their product to a fraction of a cent will make them seem even more ridiculous than it does now...
--
The User formerly known as Desi StYlE

reply to Happyrat6
It'd be an automatic profit increase for Tim Hortons. Medium $1.24>$1.25, Large $1.39>$1.40

reply to Happyrat6
Not that Tim Horton's doesn't already make enough profit with there liquid crack. The worst thing about the loonie and the toonie is how quickly they build up in your pants pockets. One day you go fishing around in there and you have 20 dollars in coins...it's weird and heavy.

I don't have the issue of to many Loonies and twoonies...

I just look in my change first before I break a paper bill.

though I did discover $19 a few weeks ago in my pocket. But that was mostly in dimes... Change from Tim Horton's is always 1 dime, 1 nickel, and 1 penny.

reply to Happyrat6
I don't really see the problem with the dollar coins. I mean, at worst, you have two 2 dollar coins in your pocket, or one of each.

I miss them, I hate the 1 dollar bills...
--
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you

Meh! I don't know, maybe it's because I worked as a cashier in high school, but I always know how much money I have on me. When waiting in line I always get all my change from my pocket and when I know exactly how much it's going to cost I just give the right amount to minimize the number of coins I'll receive.

The cashiers often look at me weirdly when I give them some combination of coins, punch it in and realize that it works out as a multiple of 25c or something like that. Say I need to pay 6.43$, I might give 11.18$ so that I'll get 4.75$ back. So I got rid of 1 1$, 1 10c, 1 5c, 3 1c (6 coins) and got back 2 2$, 3 25c (5 coins), so I have 1 less coin. If I had simply given a 10$, I would've received 3.57 so 1 2$, 1 1$, 2 25c, 1 5c and 2 1c (7 coins). Everyone's happier! Just make sure to pre-calculate it (takes like a second or two) so as not to waste people's time.

So the biggest amount of coin you can have on you is:
4 1c
2 10c
3 25c
2 2$

11 coins max. Of course if someone gives you 4$ of loonies that kinda breaks the algorithm but that doesn't happen very often and you'll get rid of them at your next transaction anyway.
--
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you

reply to Happyrat6
I miss the 2 dollar bill. I like the loonie.

reply to Happyrat6

reply to m0x