Abolish Pennies

[retire@40]

I'm starting to get tired of getting and accounting for pocketfuls of change, especially dealing with the pesky penny.  At this point pennies have no significant value and are just a nuisance.  Just round everything up to 5 cents!!!

All my pocket change goes straight into the kid's 5 gallon piggy bank as soon as I get home.  I'm just glad my kid will be the one who will be sorting the pennies when the time comes.

 

[brewer12345]

I think of pennies as monetary pocket lint. They go right in the jar.

 

[Merlin]

The Post Office in my town has a stamp vending machine that accepts change including pennies. About once a month I buy stamps with my change.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Merlin:

I'd hate to be standing behind you at the post office waiting to use the machine as you put in 740 pennies for that 20-pack of stamps.
one...two...three..........................................................................seven hundred forty.   
That almost sounds like work !

This topic comes up occasionally in congress. After all the elaborate speaches everyone decdes to keep the penny because the rounding up might increase inflation. In my opinion the penny's time has passed.

 

[justin]

You could round down if the change ends in .01, .02, .06, or .07, and assuming a random distribution of prices, we would not have any net change in spending.

Of course, you would have the retailers who game the system. They would price products such that they end in .03 or 0.08 cents, just to get that extra 2 cents profit on a single item sold.

I know in Mexico, the 10 centavo piece (=USD $0.01) is frequently not given as change, and instead the change is rounded to the nearest 50 centavo piece (5 US cents).

 

[Nords]

I'm starting to get tired of getting and accounting for pocketfuls of change, especially dealing with the pesky penny. 

I bet you're a real barrel of laughs with a half-baht coin...

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

Pennies still serve a useful purpose as long as we continue to use cash as a part of our economic system. Once we switch over fully to an electronic debit and credit system, those pesky pennies won't be of much use.

In the interim, keep saving them and then take them over to a bank that offers the use of a free coin counting machine. You'll be amazed at how pennies add up over time.

 

[retire@40]

I bet you're a real barrel of laughs with a half-baht coin...

Well let's see, what does a half-baht equal?? Hmmmm??  I don't know, could it be 50 SATANg?!?!

 

[preben]

There are 25 Satang coins too - so a bit more than HALF a penny. Cheers!

 

[soupcxan]

You'll be amazed at how pennies add up over time.

Is it wrong to pick up spare change that you see on the floor? Because I do, even pennies, and I think it looks strange, but I do it anyway. The best places seem to be airports and parking lots. I'm sure it can't add up to more than a few dollars a year, but if you come across free money, why not pick it up?

 

[Dawg52]

Counting and wrapping up my pennies will be one of my first projects when I retire. Might be enough to cover a round of golf when I take my first trip as a retiree. 

 

[AltaRed]

Can't be bothered with pennies whatsoever. Take them out of circulation.

I leave them behind at cash registers particularly if they have a penny "box" there for that purpose, and sometimes shopkeepers who have authority at the till will round off a purchase to the nickel (in customer's favor).

Europeans have gotten a lot smarter than North Amercia and most places now round off pricing to the nearest 5 or 10 cents. And for most things over 20 euros, items are priced to the nearest euro. Makes shopping during my business travels considerably more pleasent.

 

[Nords]

And for most things over 20 euros, items are priced to the nearest euro.

Yeah, right. Next higher euro, sure, but I doubt any businesses are giving up those pfennigs for the sake of our shopping convenience.

 

[BUM]

"Change is the essence of life"....Churchill

Abolish the penny? What would happen to all those metal detectors?

 

[MJ]

Is it wrong to pick up spare change that you see on the floor? Because I do, even pennies, and I think it looks strange, but I do it anyway. The best places seem to be airports and parking lots. I'm sure it can't add up to more than a few dollars a year, but if you come across free money, why not pick it up?

When I ride my bike around the city, I must pass 40 to 70 pennies. In NY, the streets are definitely paved with copper,nickel, zinc(?). If I had to stop to pick each one up, a 1 hour ride would take 2 hours.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

When I ride my bike around the city, I must pass 40 to 70 pennies. In NY, the streets are definitely paved with copper,nickel, zinc(?). If I had to stop to pick each one up, a 1 hour ride would take 2 hours.

I pick up every coin I see, even pennies (found a quarter yesterday)
Most I ever found was two (2) twenties folded together, However,
I did find two (2) twenties on my morning walk on 2 consecutive days.
After that I combed the area for 100 yards in all directions.
No luck!

JG

 

[CyclingInvestor]

When I ride my bike around the city, I must pass 40 to 70 pennies. In NY, the streets are definitely paved with copper,nickel, zinc(?). If I had to stop to pick each one up, a 1 hour ride would take 2 hours.

My riding buddy and I started picking up coins in 1991. When we passed $10 we voted
to add it to my stock account instead of buying a pizza. Our "found money" account
now has 24 shares of stock and is worth over $1050 (purchases are made in conjunction
with my regular stock purchases). The most lucrative stretch is I15 heading north into
Vegas. I guess people toss out quarters for good luck, because we typically find 10-15
of them heading into town.

 

[Spanky]

In the interim, keep saving them and then take them over to a bank that offers the use of a free coin counting machine. You'll be amazed at how pennies add up over time.

I do that with all coins. Once counted, it turns out be a pleasant surprise - good enough for a nice dinner.

 

[Eagle43]

Yeah, right.  Next higher euro, sure, but I doubt any businesses are giving up those pfennigs for the sake of our shopping convenience.

Bingo. Nords, you beat me to it. They do round up and up and up. For your convenience, of course.

 

[BUM]

I do that with all coins. Once counted, it turns out be a pleasant surprise - good enough for a nice dinner.

And then some... Those pennies add up. Don't forget that someday you'll want to start the grandkids coin collecting. That'll keep 'em busy for a few hours on a rainy day.

 

[bush24]

Americans are lucky, in Canada $1 and $2 are all coins. Think your pockets are heavy?

 

[free4now]

I used to run a little candy station at work where people would take candy I bought at costco and put coins in a little box. Pennies were the bane of my existence. Banks require you to roll up coins in wrappers to accept more than $10 worth. Coinstar charges 9% which is just ridiculous.

I think I would spend on average about 20 minutes to wrap up $100 worth of mixed coins using the coin counting cups I had. When I got into the process I thought I'd just throw the pennies into the coinstar machine and wrap the bigger coins to save the coinstar fee. But it turns out that most of my time went towards separating the coins; the counting and wrapping was fairly quick. It was almost as quick to count and wrap the pennies as to make a trip to the coinstar machine with them (which also takes time).

The takeaway is that you can't save yourself much penny hassle by discarding the pennies; the time it takes you to pick through your change and leave the pennies at the store or in your penny jar is in aggregate probably about the time it takes to spend or cash those pennies in.

As far as picking up pennies, it takes me probably 5 seconds to decide the penny doesn't belong to anyone else, pick it up, pocket it, and bank it. One penny for 5 seconds work is about minimum wage, and it's literally backbreaking work. Imagine a job that would require bending down to the ground every five seconds and paid only minimum wage with no benefits... would you take it?

 

[Martha]

Americans are lucky, in Canada $1 and $2 are all coins. Think your pockets are heavy?

Yeah, I got some Loonies in my desk drawer. Every once in a while I lose one in the pop machine at work which have to be retrieved by staff.

 

[MJ]

When I ride my bike around the city, I must pass 40 to 70 pennies. In NY, the streets are definitely paved with copper,nickel, zinc(?). If I had to stop to pick each one up, a 1 hour ride would take 2 hours.

I definitely stop to pick up nickels, dimes and quarters. Although, I can usually spot them easily, even though I am riding my bicycle 15mph. Alas, except for the pennies, the other coins are not very plentiful.

 

[AltaRed]

Yeah, right.  Next higher euro, sure, but I doubt any businesses are giving up those pfennigs for the sake of our shopping convenience.

I defy anyone to know whether $10.99 is any more correct than $10.00 or $11.00. No one knows what the right price is for anything - it is what the market will bear.

It's called marketing and all the whining about how businesses will round up instead of down doesn't know if the business is already charging you too much or too little. The whole point is that $10.99 is just plain stupid.