RIP...US Mint

Here in New Mexico, yes it is a state, I've always received the exact change, using cents and nickels, on any purchase I've made with cash. More and more, I tend to use a debit card in lieu of cash. I have never, other than from a coin dealer, received a dollar coin as change in a cash transaction. More and more vending machines are accepting debit/charge cards for purchases (I don't see how they make a profit on a $1.25 soda purchase using a charge card).

To the person asking about thee one year only 2017-P mint marked Lincoln Cents I bought 5 rolls on eBay for twice face, Considering the fact that I'm west of the Mississippi, I'll never find "P" mintmarks at my bank and it was worth the extra charge.

 

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Are you saying retailers where you live are "penny pinchers"?

 

The manhole covers are the Kennedy's and Ike's.
The other quarter sized dollar coins were never accepted by the public.
They make money on a $1.25 soda purchase because down the line that soda costs less than a dime.
I haven't found a place that won't give (or take) pennies.

 

Heh. Every single retailer charges and changes to the cent.

 

Again, the number rounding down is now increasing noticeably where I am. Maybe you need to be somewhat close to the Canadian border to know the world won't end.

 

Same here, although every once in a while an overworked teller will round in order to get rid of me faster. Nothing consistent, though.

 

That tactic can easily backfire on old Apu. A lack of rapid math skills will have more people than not asking why their change isn't right.

 

Well my state literally has a border crossing with Canada and state wide still uses cents everywhere. Also generally Canadian coins simply trade at the equivalent of U.S. ones as they are so common around here.

 

Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you. At the present exchange rate, merchants are losing a WHOLE BUNCH more accepting Canadian coins than they'd ever do rounding down.

 

Talking about the soda machine accepting charge cards:
Yes, the soda may only cost a dime, but that's to the original maker of the soda. I'm sure the person who stocks the machine pays a higher, while wholesale , pays a much higher price for the soda. Again, with the credit card company charge to the retailer, I don't see how they make a profit letting the public use a credit card to buy a $1.25 soda. Just look at the different prices coin companies charge- one lower price if you pay by check/bank transfer, a higher charge if you pay by Debit/Credit Card.

They say that cash may be on the way out and electronic, debit, charge are going to eventually replace cash, but here small retailers still encourage the use of cash to save the 4 or 5% or higher, cost of credit cards. By the way, when you use a Debit/Credit card you are paying right down to the cents for any item purchased. Even if the merchant tries to charge an amount to avoid cents or nickels, sales tax will add it in.

 

The big banks want cash to go away. They do not need people to process electronic transactions. It costs banks money to process cash. Tellers, vaults, branch buildings, transporting, and building security to name a few.

 

It's because even that 20oz bottle of soda only costs them about 60¢

 

They just circulate freely from the quarter down to even still the Canadian cent. It's really those sneaky Canadians abusing the exchange rate paying less for their goods than they should. Even cent, nickel, dime and quarter rolls from banks will have intermixed Canadian coinage. I guess it's the price we pay for being hospitable to our neighbors. Although strangely enough no where except the very border towns will ever except Canadian bills and they factor the rate correctly and often add a surcharge for the convenience of converting the bills either way. But really most of us hate getting Canadian coinage in change as they don't work in vending machines. I think merchants would round but our meals and hospitality tax makes that a non starter as merchants aren't going to start eating the tax rate as well if they round.

 

There's even a bank advertised on TV that doesn't have any branches. They're offering a higher interest rate on savings. because of the lower overhead.

 

What's their interest rate, 0.2%?

 

Cash is also the least secure (easiest to pilfer) of the items that they trade.

 

I have paid for parking in NYC with my debit card. No more meters accepting coins. I pay a dollar from my debit for an hour of parking.
Actually this is the cost in the outer boros. NYC is much more costly to park.

 

True they won't disappear, they will just sit there in those nice little jars. And as it becomes harder and harder for merchants to get cents to make change people will start hearing about how scarce cents are becoming, and people will start hoarding every cent they get "because they are going to become rare and valuable" making the shortage even worse. It will go through the usual stages of businesses requesting people to please try to pay with exact change. That won't work. So they will start offering a premium to buy rolls of cents. That won't work either. Back in 1974 they got up to the point of offering a 25% premium and that didn't shake the cents loose. One thing they won't do that they did in the past will be to use pieces of candy to make change to substitute for the cents. Because the candy cost more than the cents now. So the merchants will start rounding simply because they can't get enough cents to conduct business. Once enough businesses start doing that requests for cents at the banks will fall off. With no requests, any cents that do come in will start piling up and the banks will start shipping them back to the Fed.

 

People don't just have jars of cents at home, they have large jars of change. I'm guilty, when I get home at night I just put any change I have in my pocket into the jar. My bank doesn't have a coin machine and the only way they will accept change is if I roll it. Being lazy, I don't bother to roll the coins so the jar just keeps getting fuller and fuller. Recently, my daughter told me that her Credit Union has installed a machine similar to Coinstar. You dump your change into it, it makes a lot of noise and a piece of paper comes out with the total amount of money the coins added up to. You bring the slip to the teller and you can either have the amount added to your account or take it in cash.

I've told her to stop by the house. pick up my jar and bring it to her Credit Union. Any money she gets she can spend on my grandchildren. If more banks installed these machines maybe there would be less of a cent or any other change shortage.

 

Y'all are missing the point!!!

Today's cent is worth less than 1/10th of a cent in 1967...why wasn't this a problem in 1967? Holy crap! ...it's like I'm talking to a bunch of children.