[skippy]

"Geoff, Thanks for the info. Amazing that you it was 17 years ago that you guys got rid of the penny."
Hi Dave, (re Australia) that was the 1 and 2 cent pieces that went in 1992. The pounds shillings and pence went on 14 February 1966.
cheers
Phil

[Glidergider]

All this conspiracy chat is way beyond the penny. In fact, it doesn't even apply because a penny is actually worth more then a penny. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/22/bu...rssnyt&emc=rss That article was from 2006 too.

So by your standards, our penny actually meets your requirement for the value of the currency to be based on real metal. Sure it's not gold, but it does contain equivalent wealth.

For me to be talking this way, I must be filthy rich. But I'm not. I work for a living and my wife does too.

When I get change at the grocery story, I count the quarters and sometimes dimes. I don't count the pennies. Why bother, they just won't buy anything. I remember many years ago learning of a scam where clerks (20 years ago), would purposely short change a customer and pocket the ill gotten gains. I was appalled back then. But not so much anymore, they can have the pennies.

Walking by the bubble gum machine at the movie theater last week. Believe it or not, it costs 50 cents for a small handful of treats. I'm certainly not going to feed 50 pennies into that little machine. That's about the smallest item to be purchased at the movie theater.

[Glidergider]

Here's picture that illustrates my thinking. Here's a great picture of a gallon of gas costing $4.39 9/10th for a gallon. I wonder how many folks are demanding their 1/10th cent of change. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-w...3dc9645335.jpg

[skippy]

"perhaps a good basis for electronic money is population: when you are born, so and so many credits are issued in your name, when you die, they are cancelled....."

So under this scheme the family with more children would receive more money from the government and when you die your money gets taken from you. Like for example, when you die your family would have to sell your assets to pay the inheritance tax leaving just a small amount to actually be inherited? But wait, isn't that the system we've already got? (just joking!)

[HuFlungDung]

All this conspiracy chat is way beyond the penny. In fact, it doesn't even apply because a penny is actually worth more then a penny. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/22/bu...rssnyt&emc=rss That article was from 2006 too.

So by your standards, our penny actually meets your requirement for the value of the currency to be based on real metal. Sure it's not gold, but it does contain equivalent wealth.

For me to be talking this way, I must be filthy rich. But I'm not. I work for a living and my wife does too.

When I get change at the grocery story, I count the quarters and sometimes dimes. I don't count the pennies. Why bother, they just won't buy anything. I remember many years ago learning of a scam where clerks (20 years ago), would purposely short change a customer and pocket the ill gotten gains. I was appalled back then. But not so much anymore, they can have the pennies.

Walking by the bubble gum machine at the movie theater last week. Believe it or not, it costs 50 cents for a small handful of treats. I'm certainly not going to feed 50 pennies into that little machine. That's about the smallest item to be purchased at the movie theater.

I don't say that the penny is useful, but dropping it does not solve the fundamental problem of why it has become worthless. Inevitably, the nickel, dime, quarter...will all become relatively worthless as inflation continues over time.

I'm not saying that there need be an explicit conspiracy going on that promotes inflation, which devalues paper based currencies. However, there is a conspiracy to pass inflation off as the 'norm' of economic activity. Well, perhaps it is the norm for the systems that have been tried up to now. They all are found wanting.

[steve323]

All this conspiracy chat is way beyond the penny. In fact, it doesn't even apply because a penny is actually worth more then a penny. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/22/bu...rssnyt&emc=rss That article was from 2006 too.

But you have to sort out all the older copper pennies to weed out the worthless copper plated zinc ones. Any idea how to do that?

Steve

[Karl_T]

I have a retail store. I set up the electronic cash register to round to the nearest nickel. Not one person has noticed or complained in five years now.

Any merchant can do this.

Karl

[Glidergider]

Karl_T,
You are my hero. I mean it. That's just what I wanted to hear. Now tell me the whole truth. DO YOU ROUND DOWN AT 2 PENNIES?

What ever you do, it must make your end of the night counting routine a bit faster.

[Glidergider]

Steve,
You got it wrong, the zinc ones are worth 1.4 cents. Who knows how much a real penny is worth. Don't worry about collecting the real copper pennies. The coin collectors will figure that out.

But you have to sort out all the older copper pennies to weed out the worthless copper plated zinc ones. Any idea how to do that?

Steve

[Karl_T]

Karl_T,
You are my hero. I mean it. That's just what I wanted to hear. Now tell me the whole truth. DO YOU ROUND DOWN AT 2 PENNIES?
...

Certainly. You got to treat your customers better than your freinds. I can afford to lose a few freinds.

Karl

[ImanCarrot]

How to tell the difference between the two pennies- they weigh slightly different, but by the time you'd weighed them you'd have made them worthless since your time is money

Also, when you drop them on, say, a metal plate they make a slightly different sound.

[thkoutsidthebox]

Is it true that its illegal to melt down coins? PS. I know that Karl rounds up!

[martinw]

Dear All,

Worthless small coins are great as improvised washers when you are out on site and have run out of your supply. They are really easily drilled, and if it saves you a trip to the store, they are mighty cost effective. They tend to be rust-resistant as well.

I think it is actually against the law to deface currency in the UK, but hey, who is going to knobble you?

Best wishes,

Martin

[Glidergider]

Last week I took a trip home to visit my 86 and 88 year old Mom and Dad. They still live in the same small town in which I grew up.

Back when I was 10 years old, I remember a little store, my favorite, called Ben Franklins Five and Dime. I remember, 45 years ago, actually buying something with a penny. I would leave that store with lots of items (read candy) purchased with just a penny each. That was an age when a penny could indeed purchase something. I remember that if I saved 10 pennies, I could buy a balsa wood glider. 5 pennies would buy a pack of bubble gum and a baseball card.

The Ben Franklin's are long gone, replaced with the Dollar Store, or Dollar General. So it seems our retail entrepreneurs have figured it out the smaller coins don't have any marketing power. I'm wondering why our government hasn't figured it out the penny has lost it value too. Maybe they're concerned that removing the penny would alert us that inflation has run rampant in the last 50 years. Over 1000%. I'm not ragging our leaders about inflation, I'm just proposing that we eliminate a useless coin from our daily transactions.

[thkoutsidthebox]

You see, you have to remember that while in the USA the $0.01c is worth little, and even less in Europe, in Thailand its worth 25 cent and even Russia its worth 33 cent. In Zimbabwe your 1 cent is worth $16,000. So your 1 cent coin has value, just not right now where you are!

[Glidergider]

You know, its tax time in the US again. I love it that the
auditor encourages you to round to the nearest
dollar.

Thats all that im really proposing, round all your
purchases to the nearest nickel. it'll all even out in the end.

[steve323]

Maybe they're concerned that removing the penny would alert us that inflation has run rampant in the last 50 years. Over 1000%.

It would take a 4.7% inflation rate "running rampant" over 50 years to add up to 1000%

Steve

[Glidergider]

I'd rather see inflation at 1%, but you got me, 4.7 is not so big a number. That's why I'm not ragging on our government for inflation. I'm just wanting to retire the penny. It served valiantly for over 200 years. But it's unit of value is so small compared to our current day earnings, that we really don't need it any longer.

[thkoutsidthebox]

You should make this a poll. I'd like to see how many other sensible people are out there who realise the penny should not go.

[harryn]

Perhaps taking this idea a bit further - we really only need 2 coins to do our transactions.

Examples
- Nickel and quarter
- Nickel and dime

The rest are not needed and only add to clutter and cost.

For the countries where the US penny still has a real need, there are plenty of them in circulation now, or they can make their own. If the EU feels the need, they can keep making all of these coins.

I was in Germany on the day that they switched to the Euro - pretty amazing acceptance level, and it certainly has made my life easier on business trips in Europe.

The part I just don't get - why so many coins ? 1,2,5, 20 cents, then 1 Euro and for some reason I think there was even a 5 Euro coin - cannot remember. In any event, the net result was that people stopped using "real" currency and started using this silly "money on your card" system that no one wanted until the mass of coins in their pockets became overwhelming.

Don't get me wrong, I like the concept of the Euro, just ditch 1/2 of the coins. Same advice for us.