Why are they getting rid of Pennies? I mean, not 'why why' but why? I know they're getting rid of Pennies because people just melt them down for copper and the Mint thinks they're useless, but they're not. What if something is $3.74? I mean, what do you do about change? What about good deals? Either you lose money or they lose money, which is elegal when your buying something. So basically, that kind of 'why'.
You would pay $3.75 if you pay cash. And if you bought eight items that cost 0.99 each, you would not pay a cash total of 7.92 but 7.90 ... At least that is how it works in countries where such rounding is common. Christian
In Australia, this has been done way back 1988,9. Rounding off is simple unless you are terrible in maths. For example the following, what something may cost will now be rounded off to the right. 95cents = 95 cents 96c = 95c 97c = 95c 98c = 1dollar 99c = 1d 1d = 1d 1.01d = 1d 1.02d = 1d 1.03d = 1.05d 1.04d = 1.05d etc Difficult? No right? You never round them until everything is added up, i.e. grocery bills of 20 items will be all added up FIRST before the rounding occurs. I heard the situation in UK is quite different as everyone rounds UP there.
Hmm, why would merchants round up in the UK? They have 1p and even (XL size ) 2p coins there ... Apart from that, this kind of rounding is exactly what is done in Finland, the Netherlands (at participating stores, ie. almost every store) and Switzerland for example. The way how totals are rounded up or down is regulated; it's not that a store could say, hmm, we round all payments up. And sure, every time that issue comes up, there will be people who say that in such a case merchants will use the rounding to raise their prices. Why would they - the price of a single item is not affected by the rounding at all. But, oh well, people here in Germany are about as stubborn when it comes to keeping the 1 and 2 ct coins. As for the US, no, I have not heard of any concrete plans to do away with the penny. (I am sure that we would also hear about that here. ) Maybe in 2010 or so, who knows ... Christian
My Reply to Your Answer Yes it's easy, but still EASIER to just use Pennies, right? 'There our little friends' in the words of one of my old friends.
As a collector, I hope the cent/penny stays around. As a consumer, I don't care. Many US merchants already are treating the penny as if it does not exist. Many places I go to already informally do the rounding up/down. A number of places will even round down by more than 2 cents.
What "they" are you talking about, and what makes you think cents are being officially removed from circulation while millions more are being minted?
As far as I know, being a British coin collector, there is nothing offical about removing either the american CENTS (not pennies....) or British PENNIES from circulation.........I do know that the american goverment have lost a bit of money striking cents though...so something MIGHT happen to make it like Finland, where the 2 and 1 cent coins are only in the mint sets (and thus hard to get !)
Not necessarily do to marketing forces I think it would end up more like this. current price Future price 91c 90c 92c 90c 93c 95c 95c 95c 96c 95c 97c 95c 98c 95c 99c 95c $1 $1 Because of the psychological of being under $1. Think about it why is everything priced $1.99 or $3.98 or whatever, because $1.99 does not look the same as $2.00 thus instead of $1.99 I think most would gp to $1.95 instead of $2.00 or $49.95 instead of $50.00! That's just my two obsolete cents worth! Hey, I can't round down from there, so I'll give you my NICKELs worth!
Side note - yes, those are cents. Problem is, when you specifically refer to the 1 cent coins, as we do here, the word "penny" is quite common. Just as "nickel" is used for the 5 cents piece. Another side note - that is just an urban legend. The Finnish mint wanted collectors to believe that. In fact, 40 million 1 cent coins, and almost as many 2 cent coins, were made between 1999 and 2005 ... Christian
Could happen in the long run, sure. But why would merchants in the US change the prices of single items anyway? "2.99" or "1.98" looks like a nice threshold price, so they could simply keep those. Christian
Here in New Zealand,we withdrew the 1c. & 2c. coins from circulation back in 1990.Since then,we have used what is called the Swedish Rounding System.Since last year,we pulled the 5c. coin from circulation,along with the old 10c.,20c.,& 50c. coins.When we pay cash,the rounding is to the nearest 10c.If a price ends in 5c. or below,it is supposed to be rounded down,but if a price ends in 6c. or up to 9c.,it is rounded up. I have never liked the Swedish Rounding System,as it causes too much confusion.Edited to conform to forum rules. I believe very strongly that it should be illegal to have a price ending in a number below 10c..Traders should be forced to display the proper price,then there would be no need for rounding at all,because it would be in the dustbin of history. Aidan.
Theoretically, if the mint would just stop minting the cents, (but not devalue) and convince the U S and the world that they were going to officially stop minting the cent the collectors around the world would grab them up and hoard, wouldn't that for the most part get them out of circulation?, I have probably spent less than .50 cents in the last 18 yrs. just bring them home and throw them in the jar, not that I'm keeping them for anything, they're a hassle to use, imo John
Easy solution, mark the items price, have the tax already figured into the price of said item on the shelf and have it end in a 0 or 5, wow what a concept, but polis and beauracrats will never figure it
