Pretty interesting story. Wonder if it will start a trend? Im all for it. http://consumerist.com/2010/10/a-lone-dunkin-donuts-sort-of-abolishes-pennies.html
"To speed up service"? I would take my time and ask for those couple of cents to be given to me. That would eat up a lot of time and make this whole experiment a wash if 50% of the people did this. Oh, I am not for it. Jon
Wouldn't surprise me if it did start a trend. Kind of disappointing because I like pennies. I've kind of been waiting for individual businesses to do that though. It will cost them time in the long run, and save them time in the long run. I wonder if people will like it or not.
Totally slanted article of course. However, one cent coins are a dinosaur that needs to be put down. Any time you have a coin incapable of buying the tiniest piece of anything means that inflation has destroyed the need for it. Unfortunately our incompetent, anemic government is incapable of doing anything for the publics benefit. Think about what a cent used to buy versus today. Heck, a dollar barely buys anything let alone a cent. The US just needs to have no 1 or 2 dollar bills, just coins for those, and redesign 25, ten, and 5 cent coins. This should have been done 30 years ago when the rest of the world did it, (look at Canada). The 5 cent coin can look like a one cent now, just a different denomination. The politicians have devalued our dollar, so they should be responsible enough to reform our coinage. Sorry, end of rant. Chris
I hope it does start a trend as the cent is probably the least important of all our coinage. It buys nothing, costs twice as much as its face value to produce and literally has "No Value". Ever see a "Leave a Buck Take a Buck" tray at the local convenience store? Probably not since a buck has value whereas they'll give you all the cents you need meaning, they have no value to most places of business. Many countries have done away with the cent coin along with the paper one and two dollar bills and those countries are doing quite well. "Just because I like it" or "Just because thats the way its always been" are just not valid excuses for wasting money.
"Bacteria-ridden"? More so than any other coinage? I don't know, how many here have jobs that come payday round up or down to the nearest dollar when they pay you? Would you like that? If I pay 53 cents for a doghnut, I want to pay 53 cents, not 55. Thats sounds petty, but not when added to the multitude of things I buy daily. I guarantee they won't be rounding down in the customer's favor either. Guy
They're "taking a stand against the bacteria-ridden zinc disks of suck that are pennies" ? Man o man, I would hate to live inside that girl's head. "bacteria ridden zinc discs of suck". R-i-g-h-t. That woman got issues.
Around here they round in quite a few stores, always to the customer's benefit. I really do not care if they round up or down, just tired of having pocketful of valueless coins.
The European Union still makes one cent coins. So does Canada, and their cents are worth less than ours.
I decided to hit the link about "bacteria ridden zinc discs of suck". The over-caffeinated dude claims "we could save taxpayers billions if we got rid of them". Oh really ? Did the Rant Master bother doing the math ? Does anyone ? Assuming 8 billion pennies a year, and a cost 1.6c per cent, how long would it take to save the taxpayer $1 billion ? Almost 21 years. Any third grader should be able to "do the math". The dude is getting sanctimonious over that ? Look guys... I'm neither pro nor con on this issue. As far as I'm concerned, it's "much ado about nothing". It's a shame that people get so hyperventilated.
If you're tired of "valueless coins" send them all to me. No coin is valueless, unless you just refuse to use them.
The billions lost every year has nothing to do with minting costs, it is the lost efficiency due to handling large numbers of coins that slow everything down. That cost is 100x mintage losses. Coleguy, my point is that transactions should be rounded to the nearest nickel, meaning I would keep my money thank you, but would simply have them in nickel denominations not in one cent pieces.
I'm with coleguy on this issue.. And if I see 'em on the street, I do stop to pick them up. 100 of them makes a buck; and yet I have seen people just toss them. Very indicative to me of how much we have changed and how spoiled we are.. No wonder we're in the mess we're in. Just my "two cents"!
I would be willing to beat a worn wheatie that he sat down and figured out the average sale would be under the .03 cents and it would increase is profits. And for those that hate the cent, what you going to say when the politicians want to levy a tax increase. Lets say for a new Stadium, conference center or whatever and the normal tax is 1/10 of a cent now they will get 1/10 of 5 cents. it will cost you more. Same with gas 9/10ths of cent. no 9/10ths of a nickel. Also if so many dislike it why are most of the take a penny give a penny usually empty?
It doesn't work like that. 1/10th of a cet tax increase on a $10 purchase would be $.01. If your bill was $10.51 it goes up to $10.52, and is still rounded down to $10.50 if making change. MAYBE some vendors would game it so that buying one item would round up to the next nickel, but on combined purchases there is no way to do that. I still say the economy would be better off with a roundup or down rule. If it weren't for sales taxes most stores would price everything right now putting pennies out of existence. Sales tax is the number one generator of penny change.
"metallic value" might be $2.25, but face value, which is all you can spend them at, is still "100 makes a buck."