Elon's looking at the penny

Actually all of the commonwealth countries I think (not sure about Canada eh). As an abbreviation of mathematics it makes sense, since it's plural.

 

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...not that making sense has ever been a requirement for English constructions!

 

what should happen

Eliminate the cent

Make useable sized half dollars maybe a nice bi-metal so they stand out

make $2 coins(or you could even do base metal quarter eagles lol) with Lincoln (I would rather have a nice liberty but whatever).

Eliminate the one and two dollar bills to support the use of more effectent coins

Having a $2 coin would be close to the value of a quarter in 1964 (a new quarter eagle would be exact)

I also think this support the main use of cash which is vending machines

 

As long as rich people get richer wasting resources we will waste resources. It's what the government is for. Instead of "LIBERTY" and "In God We Trust" on the penny it should have "waste" and "greed".

 

I can’t imagine how there would need to be an increase in production of other denominations due to the decline of use of cash of any kind.

 

There's no point making a usable or unusable 50 cent piece.
Make dollar and 5 dollar coins. Yes I know we make dollar coins but no one uses them and machines don't take them, and clerks don't know what they are. A dollar coin will last 30-100 years. A dollar bill lasts 6 years.
We also don't need the cent. There are enough in circulation to last 20-30 despite people claiming they will be hoarded once they stop producing them, and the round up or down to a nickel isn't going to cost anyone anything in the long run.
The number of people who profit or lose a dollar in a year because of the round up and round downs will equal each other out. What's the difference? People don't like to use change anyway and many of them just leave the change in the cup of the self serve stations at the grocery.
Eventually there will be no cash. People will just use cards, or digital currency.

 

I have always wondered what would happen. I realize that the Fed would have to have a plan as to take them out of circulation. Would the cent be hoarded because of a run on circulated examples?
If the coin is not demonetized, then a store would be forced to receive it as payment. I have a hard time seeing congress writing such a bill. I would like to see the mintages slow to a minimum and that the store piles of coins in warehouses. Are pushed upon the public. Months and months of having access to less paper would force the public to accept coinage again as a daily commerce.
We print and make way too much money.

 

I'm glad I'm getting old. I don't want to live in a world where all of my money is stored on silicone diodes.

 

Me either. Especially with the abysmal state of computer security. My personal data has been stolen more times than I can remember. There will be strong resistance to the elimination of currency. The elimination of the cent or the dollar bill has faced stiff resistance for a long time.

You're assuming companies are going to round at all. I contend that they won't - everything will be priced at the next 5 cent increment. 1-4 cents more on every item you purchase adds up to a lot. As I said earlier, all other things being equal. Of course they will still play the $2.95 instead of $3.00 psychological games, but at WalMart for example a lot of the prices don't conform to that, it's $2.77 or $2.82 instead. You can bet those prices will become $2.80 and $2.85, and not $2.75 and $2.80. There is no incentive for them to strive for a break-even on the elimination of the cent.

 

I've assumed that Walmart uses random prices because they calculate exactly how much they can charge to (a) undercut the competition and (b) maintain a profit margin. And then, of course, beat down their suppliers a few more cents per item, and repeat the process.

There's no reason to expect them to pick nearest-five-cent prices. As I've said, most people don't buy just one item, and most people don't use cash. Accounting will still be to the nearest cent, until the country as a whole rolls over, acknowledges reality, and resets the currency to reflect actual purchasing power. And I'm currently trashing any bingo card I'm dealt that has "country acknowledges reality" as a key square.

 

This presumes they will follow the gas station model and use increments that never existed or no longer exist in currency. Gas stations get away with it because it's impossible to purchase exactly one gallon of gas. If WalMart still charges $2.77 for something, if you only buy one item how are they supposed to give you change when there are no cent coins? Legally they would have to give you correct change, right? Thus pricing will be in 5 cent increments, unless "don't worry about correct change" becomes legal and acceptable.

 

Swedish Rounding basically for cash transaction if it ends in a 1,2 go to 0 end in 3,4 go to 5 prices that end in 6,7 go to 5 prices that end in 8,9 go to 10. The idea being that over time with its pretty much neutral

However for electronic transaction it would still be to the nears 1

Canada did it and if you go into the grocery store many prices still end in 7,9,3. see at this link below this weeks flyer from the primary chain I shop at


https://www.saveonfoods.com/sm/planning/rsid/6690/circular

 

Four pages of discussion and not one mention of our overlord. Let's say all pricing is adjusted fairly and all product pricing ends in either $.00 or $.05.

I know not all states have sales taxes, so this analogy varies by locale. But here in NYistan our sales tax varies by county. Where I reside we generally are charged sales tax at the rate of 8.125%. This would take the good intentioned $1.00 product price and make it $1.08125. We've never had to pay the fractional cent total, and therefore the cash register price would total $1.08

My point is, sales tax, where collected, is going to undo the possibility of good intention product pricing rounding.

The cent denomination won't be going anywhere, IMO.

As for the elimination of cash entirely and converting to a total digital currency, no way. What happens to commerce and the ability to tender transactions when there is a natural disaster? Unfortunately we have experienced a plethora of this exact scenario recently. With hurricanes and wildfires taking out the electrical and communications grid regionally, how would people pay for gas to evacuate, in the most severe of circumstances? No cash, no gas, no leaving for safety?

A totally cashless society is a loooong way off. My prognostication is that even the youngest of CT members today won't see totally cashless in their lifetime. Forget about us old fogies.

 

It makes no difference what the price on each individual item actually is. When the cash register, whether at Walmart or Costco, rings up the total THEN they do the rounding to the last "cents" amount. Here in Canada, they've done it for 3 years or so, and no complaints. Again, since Lincoln is on the coin, the penny will be with us forever.

 

What happens today? Are there really places that will take your cash (but not your checks or credit) when there's no power? Around here, if the power goes out and the cash registers don't have backup power, they kick you out of the store. And the last time I checked, none of our gas pumps have hand cranks to get the gas out of the underground tanks...

 

In our town it's 7.5%. So if those evil, greedy corporate overlords kept trying to deceive us by pricing something at 99 cents when it really would get rounded to $1.00 -- well, if I bought that item, sales tax on it would be 7.425 cents, making my total $1.06425, which would get rounded down to $1.05. Joke's on them!

Some say "well the stores will always round up". They don't! Next time you see something listed at 3/$1.00 -- sorry, forgot what century I'm in, 3/$10.00 -- look closely at how things ring up. One item comes up at $3.33, two at $6.67, three at $10.00. And tax is applied at the end, on your order total, not on each individual item. If a store tried to squeeze out extra profit by always rounding up, they'd be pilloried on social media.

 

Flashback, 2011, Super Storm Sandy. Gas pumps went inoperable for weeks on end.
Legislation in NY passed. Filling stations are required to have backup generators to mitigate that exact scenario from happening again.

It would behoove other disaster prone areas to consider similar legislation.

 

I think about this and the regular pile of cents I accumulate from time to time and the difficulty I have going to a bank to exchange for cash. I am leaning to ending cent mintage, but I want more frequent dollar coin usage.

 

I wasn't talking about direct variable cost that increases the total bottom line expense based on production volume(such as direct raw materials).