As someone how mostly collects 1 cent pieces I don't like this at all. though I believe (could be wrong) that it would take the approval of congress to change things. Also this would have a pretty big effect on the zinc industry. On the other hand from A financial standpoint. Yeah something should be done about the cent and nickel. We usually mint a few billion a year. They wont do that. No one wants to carry around more change then they have to anymore.
I wonder how that is going to affect prices, sales taxes, etc. No more $2.99 for a gallon of gas. Or anything that requires a penny/ cent/ nonsense .01, .02, .03, .04 for stuff is going to have to be changed. No more 1 penny for a horse rides at Meijers .... How did Canada do it ??
What will everyone do try to cash in their stock of zinc pennies or just keep them. I heard the nickel may be next because it also cost more to make than its worth. Worth .05 cost .14 to make.
That's just simply stupid. If it's even an executive order, the devil will be in the details. There is no reason to change prices - most transactions are by card these days anyway. Without legislation, it's going to be up to the individual merchants how to handle the occasional cash purchase. Could be as simple as posting a sign on the door "All cash transactions are rounded UP to the nearest 5-cent increment". or "Cash transactions are subject to a convenience fee: if the register total pre-fee ends in 0 or 5, the fee is $0.00 If the register total pre-fee ends in 1 or 6, the fee is $0.04..."
In my part of the world, South Central Texas, most operations that accept credit cards (commercial and government) are adding 3% to cover their cost. On big ticket items I have been advised by the retailer to go home and get a check or cash.
Round at the end of the transaction instead of on every individual item and this will at most cost anyone 4 cents. Plus it would only matter if you're paying cash, as anything paid by a credit card, debit card, or check can still be made out in cents.
Yep. There are plenty of studies that show eliminating cents only impacts poor people who make many small purchases over the course of a week.
Pretty sure the decision of how many of a coin is minted falls to the Secretary of the Treasury, who answers to the president, so I think the president can say stop minting any more than you already have. Permanently ceasing the denomination altogether would probably require Congress to get involved.
They impact everybody negatively and no one is more negatively impacted than poor people because they have to deal with the toxic slugs more and are more exposed to the costs of dealing with them. Everybody is poorer when one is made or used and poor people use them more.
Pennies have not yet ceased to exist or have their legal tender status revoked, and there's billions out there right now. If eliminating them is going to be a permanent thing it will be some time before they cease to be available to spend entirely. People have time to cash in pennies before they stop being spendable. Again the most this will cost anyone is 4 cents a transaction, and only if they pay cash. If anyone is so poor that they're significantly worse off for this, I'm all for some government assistant programs that can be paid for with the money we save from not minting pennies, if that's not too political to say. Government wasting money (aka OUR money) hurts everyone, not just poor people.
The copper mining industry will hardly notice the missing copper order from the Mint. They are too busy electrifying everything else in the country to care about the 3-5,000 tons of plating for the cents out of an annual production of 1.1 million tons. (estimated from online sources, but you get the point) Rick L.
When Canada eliminated their 1 cent coin, prices were rounded up or down to the closest multiple of five cents. For example, $1.02 would become $1.00, while $1.03 would become $1.05. Cash transactions are rounded to the nearest five cents, while electronic transactions remain precise. Canada stopped distributing pennies to banks and businesses, but they remained legal tender. This allowed for a gradual reduction in the number of pennies in circulation. Studies have shown that the removal of the penny in Canada has had no significant impact on inflation or consumer behavior.
In Canada, they just round cash transactions to the nearest nickel. (Canada hasn't minted a Canadian cent since 2012, but they have not yet revoked the legal tender status of the coin if anyone happens to still have some.) Prices wouldn't have to change per item or unit as it only matters when the actual payment is made, and only if they're paying in cash (credit cards, debit cards, and checks can still be made out in cents). I think we can adjust, plenty of countries have gotten rid of their 1/100 of their monetary unit coin and get on just fine.
While, I am not an advocate of digital currency, governments worldwide are pushing for digital ID's and digital wallets, it only makes cents for the cents to go first How long before all physical currency is gone? And what the Hell are we going to collect then?
Plenty of coins already minted so even if every country in the world stopped minting coins right this minute, there would be plenty to collect for at least as long as anyone reading this will live. I'm not worried.
No rounding, up or down, need be done. All the merchant has to do is set the price. Everybody pays hidden fees built into pricing already. This would be a minor adjustment, but adjustments downward would bolster public appreciation for merchant products and services. Right now you walk into any hamburger joint and decide if their prices are too high to order. If you order, they attempt to automatically “offer” you a suggested tip. If the price of the burger is high in the first place, no tip is warranted. I tip for good service not high price. This is only one example of pricing that can be implemented that avoids any question of rounding. Thousands more exist. Now, I like coin hunting better than most but the cent and the nickel need to go, and if we are being honest, probably the dime too.
I read a good article a little while ago about stopping to produce the cent could end up costing more money. As most of you know, the cost of producing the next lower denomination, the nickel, costs more to produce per unit than the cent. Eliminating the cent will most likely cause a higher demand for nickels which would force the mint to produce more of them. If the gov wants to save money, then eliminate both the cent and nickel. Of course, that would make the quarter an odd denomination.