[NGTM-1R]

Which people will actually use, thereby making your point moot.

(In theory.)

[Mongoose]

Yeah, I never understood the cost argument either.  I think some people have the idea that we're spending physical money to make that physical money.

[Wobble73]

the cost to produce vs. what the denomination is irrelevant.  we're not "losing money" by minting pennies at 1.5 cents each.  i'm just saying trying to get rid of the smallest denomination because people don't like using it is dumb.  all that makes is a NEW smallest denomination.

In the UK, the 5 pence piece is actually smaller in physical size than the penny. People hate them more than the penny!

[Sushi]

i really don't get the point of removing pennies.  i actually use them.  if they are gone, now we just have the same problem with nickels.  there has to be a lowest division.  good luck getting the entire economy to stop using cent increments.

The real issue is that the actual price of things has been steadily increasing, so the "purchase power" of a single penny has continued to decrease. Practically speaking, there's nothing you can get for a penny. You'll need a whole bunch of them to be useful, and that makes them painful to carry around and exchange at sale time. It's more granular than is practical, so you might as well get rid of it. As a side bonus, it makes checkout math a bit easier.

Also, you don't have to stop using cent increments in the economy, just for cash transactions.

[Black Wolf]

The Canadians are just doing what we did years ago (getting rid of one and two cent pieces - they're still technically legal, but banks I believe send them off to the mint when they get them, so they stopped circulating pretty quickly). And it didn't cause any real problems. Most stuff is rounded to 5 cents, or, if it's not the final bill is rounded (three 7 cent items become  20c, four become 30c etc. etc.).

And yeah, the 5 cent piece is now the annoying, useless piece of change that nobody uses.

[Mikes]

But there is a use for pennies!

Almost every time I visit the US I spend 50c to let one of those machines make a penny into a token with a picture of some landmark on it!!!

I have over a dozen (flattened) pennies with picture on them now and I want more next time I visit!

[Mongoose]

See, Mikes knows what I'm talking about!  Those things are (apparently) our greatest tourist attraction!

[Trivial Psychic]

Pennies are also useful for sneaking with you when you visit tall landmarks and then drop over the side and hope no-one's walking below. 

[Nuke]

all hard currency should be power of 2. see we would have a 2 cent penny, a four cent nickle and an 8 cent dime. the quarter would be 16 cents. there would be a rarely used 32 cent half dollar and a dollar would be 64 cents. bring back the $2 bill and make the $5 bill a $4 bill. your $10 would be replaces with an $8 and your $20 would be replaced with a $16 bill. you would then have a denomination for $32, $64, and $128. after that point its all snob notes (money that normal people never get to see), like the $256, $512, $1024, $2048, $4096 and so on. it would be a much better system than we have now. if you ever want to eliminate a denomination, say the 2 cent penny, then the next denomination is only twice as big. and so theres less of a rounding gap.

also no one pointed out that only about 3% of all money is actually in hard currency, and that will change as more people move to electronic transactions.

[Mongoose]

Pennies are also useful for sneaking with you when you visit tall landmarks and then drop over the side and hope no-one's walking below. 

Unfortunately the Mythbusters proved that the person down below won't get more than a bruise.

[deathfun]

Pennies are also useful for sneaking with you when you visit tall landmarks and then drop over the side and hope no-one's walking below. 

Unfortunately the Mythbusters proved that the person down below won't get more than a bruise.

I use penny rolls

[Klaustrophobia]

that might do it.  especially if you can get it to stay vertical the whole way down.

[S-99]

Rounding is fine, but as one who deals with consumers, if the price gets rounded down in their favor, they're all for it, but if the price is rounded up, they'll scream bloody murder and demand to speak with the head of the company, even if the law supports such rounding.

Round down the amounts, or round them up. Why not just round them up. Unfortunately, you know that's going to happen. Irate customers because that 3.99 deal is now 4.05 because stores won't like 3.95.

[Black Wolf]

Erm, that'd be 4.00. And stores do still use 3.95 - that psychological trickery ('It's less than 4 dollars!) is worth more than the 4c they're losing.

[Grizzly]

Erm, that'd be 4.00. And stores do still use 3.95 - that psychological trickery ('It's less than 4 dollars!) is worth more than the 4c they're losing.

I can hardly believe it, but I actually fell for that one once. Somehow I read 4.99 instead of 9.99 .

[redsniper]

Except that's not at all the same as what he was talking about...

[Colonol Dekker]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennying

[S-99]

Erm, that'd be 4.00. And stores do still use 3.95 - that psychological trickery ('It's less than 4 dollars!) is worth more than the 4c they're losing.

I was talking about the stores that do 3.99 wont like doing 3.95 in the future. You know, because with stores with prices set in the x.99 range wont like rounding it down.

[Scotty]

So then they do 4.00.  And gain a cent.  Because it would round to the nearest, not down.

[bigchunk1]

Pennies still have their uses.