I am fairly certain you’ve all discussed this topic before, before I was afflicted with the sport and climbed aboard. I have learnt some, not much but some. The one thing I have noticed, above the sum of the other many things is, Canada and the United States of America, have a similar experience with their coins. It really isn’t all that surprising, being such close neighbours and all but, it is interesting that we have fallen into the same sort of groove in some instances. Examples: Silver and copper composition changes and the years surrounding them. Correct me if I err... ‘82 USA lost its copper and ‘97 Canada did. Silver got axed by both in the late ‘60’s. I’m certain there are other footsteps our mints followed that I am unaware of. 2012 Canada’s 1 cent piece died... is Lincoln on his deathbed? He’d probably roll in his grave knowing he’s now made of zinc anyways. I can almost guarantee, it’s gonna happen... when’s it gonna happen? Not a pleasant thought to some but I believe it’s a realistic inevitability.
Nothing but my opinion here.. And it ain't worth much...... I believe the massive machine that controls such decisions is a very slow moving machine. One day perhaps. But not in the foreseeable future.
I agree with Randy, Americans fight change to anything for as long as we can. One day I'm sure it will happen but it will take many years. I just turned 65 and I plan on being around for many more years. I'm not convinced that this change will occur in my lifetime but I am convinced it will happen one day.
My opinion, if we do away with the cent (by far the most collected) everything goes up (rounded) How do you charge tax, when % is calculated, Ok easy round it up, but is it easy, a corporation buys 3.5 million units, their software cost them 100 thousand (example) every corporate body in business would have to recalculate everything down to the last nickel now instead of %, re evaluate cost of goods, employee pay, it would be a disaster. im sure they would do it slow and its not that big of an issue for the ones prepared. But I don't see it happening anytime soon.
In Canada... if I make a thousand purchases (goods and services) in a year and let’s say, each purchase price ends with a 9, $ 9.99 for example, I, as a consumer, give, apparently, out of the generosity of my heart, multi billion dollar companies $10 every year just because they’re good people and deserve a gratuity (extreme sarcasm here folks). Now, times that by every Canadian consumer... that multi billion dollar corporation has just been turned into a multi trillion dollar company still selling garbage that doesn’t last and getting tax breaks and government kickbacks. With that in mind, let’s say my purchases are $9.96, I lose 4 cents on every deal if the seller doesn’t round down. “They’ve” been soaking billions out of us for 7 years now, but, that’s the way of the world isn't it? Buy low sell high don’t forget to wear stilettos when walking on the backs of your customers.
It is all just speculation of course. It’s just a minor fascination, maybe an intrigue I have in some of our country’s’ similarities and differences when it comes to coins and currency. As for fights. I’m pretty sure the Canadian collectors balked and grumbled their way onto the government’s porch when the 1 cent died, just as the 1 and 2 dollar bills died leaving us with an ugly loonie and toonie. I don’t think the America collector nor consumer will have any more success at saving these precious playthings especially if the government is unable to pay the mortgage on their luxury liners, third and fourth seasonal homes, island retreats, jet airplanes yadda yadda etcetera.
The value of your opinion is only limited by your own self devaluation of it. I didn’t make this post to not include you. I was just making conversation.
Ugh. As long as these old fallacies keep coming up, we'll never get rid of the cent. When I buy gas, it's priced per gallon, with a fractional-cent component (for example, $2.749/gal). Does this mean the dealer is making an "extra" tenth of a cent on each gallon, rounding it up to $2.75? Of course not! The pump multiplies the price per gallon (2.749) by the number of gallons I buy (also not a round number), then rounds the total to the nearest cent, up or down as appropriate. If I buy a dozen lemons at 3/$1.00, the store doesn't round up each one to 34 cents, charging me $4.08. They charge me $4.00. If I buy $99.98 worth of groceries, and pay with a $100 bill, I get two cents back. If we dropped the cent, I'd get no change back -- and I'm perfectly okay with that. Because the next time my bill came to $100.02, I'd give them another $100 bill, and take the rounding in my favor. If you're really, really obsessive, and you want to buy things priced at 99 cents, buy three of them at a time, so your $2.97 total gets rounded down to $2.95. Stick it to The Man! At this point, one cent represents a few seconds of labor for most people in the US. The time you waste counting them out is worth more than the money you're counting. Retire them already.
I only hope that the U.S. Mint, when the penny is no longer made for circulation, remembers all the collectors out there and continues to make UNC and proof pennies at a profit (surcharge by the Mint). This would continue the Lincoln cent for posterity (and collectors) while the Mint would be making money on each penny produced. Makes sense, so I don't see that happening because of bureaucrats and politicians. Hope I'm wrong about that.
If they're still making half-dollars and dollar coins without releasing them for circulation, I'd think they could do the same thing for the cent.
All electronic transactions would remain the same, no need to round anything there. Only cash transactions would be impacted. And only once the cents are completely gone from circulation. It would take longer in some areas of the country than in others. I dont see the government actually recalling cents in circulation.
Considering how people in the U.S. react to something being taken out of circulation, they will start hoarding the pennies, unless the government makes it worthwhile to turn them over to banks.
Maybe all the special W Lincoln cents in sets this year is a sign of the discontinuation of the circulating Lincoln cent...or not. I think as long as we have circulating coinage we’ll have cents. TC
I am not in favour of this happening. I look at our Canadian mint sets beyond 2012 and they look so... incomplete! I’m not even sure these contain the large dollar coin anymore either. The toonie and loonie are horrible! As for, “making it worthwhile”, wasn’t it illegal at one point to have silver and gold? Maybe a border penny wall could be made out of seized copper assets, lol.
Yep. We really are heading toward a point where electronic transactions (and the hardware to support them) are cheaper and more reliable than physical ones. (I'm pretty sure there are already lots of people around me who spent more on their pocketbook than on their phone; heck, I can get a burner phone that costs less than a nice wallet.) I don't think the people raising privacy objections will be able to stop it. Once it happens, there may still be a cash black market, but even that will face competition from Bitcoin and similar schemes.
I think the Mint is just trying to energize collectors since there has never been a "w" penny. Same as the past few years when we saw the first "p" mintmark, first "enhanced" unc, and first reverse proof.
