OT: Use your pennies!

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

Hi,
With the recent news surrounding the possible demise of the penny, I'd like to encourage people to actually USE them.  I know that it creates a bit of hassle in long lines at the stores but if it's not so busy, then why not take the time and spend them?

Pennies are also a great way to get young kids involved in coin collecting, for next to nothing. 

In the new year, I will be conducting a penny drive for charity at my school.  There are many things we can do to raise the profile of this neglected denomination. 

remember, pennies ARE money, we need to think of them as currency again!

Dean

I agree with you 100%!
It would really suck not having pennies anymore, but the problem is the fact that people just don't use them, they throw them into a big container and let them accumulate for years and years. Okay i understand its very costly to circulate a penny but do they really need to circulate THAT many? Take 2006 for example over 1.2 Billion were issued for circulation and another 1B in 2007. Did we really need all that? So in my opinion they should not scrap the 1¢ but instead reduce the production rate... and stick to ONE coinage composition!

Most people don't use 'em, so get rid of 'em.  Oddly enough, I use them, but I wouldn't miss them if they were gone.  I'm not going to shed any tears when my transactions get rounded up to the nearest .05.  In fact, I've started telling cashiers "Keep the pennies", and they are usually quite appreciative because they know they need all the pennies they can get for you penny hawks.

Now, does anyone want to verbally reprimand me and the previous two posters for calling those coins pennies?  Don't you purists out there want to remind us that the correct term is "one cent coin" and that "penny" is a throwback term to the English Imperial system when shillings and crowns roamed the Earth? LOL 

Just my eight farthings.

I happen to like pennies personally. Collect 'em is what I say If they get rid of 'em someone will pay more than a penny in a few years for them. Besides if I have to play cards with nickles instead of pennies I owe my wife  even more money

I agree with you 100%!
It would really suck not having pennies anymore, but the problem is the fact that people just don't use them, they throw them into a big container and let them accumulate for years and years. Okay i understand its very costly to circulate a penny but do they really need to circulate THAT many? Take 2006 for example over 1.2 Billion were issued for circulation and another 1B in 2007. Did we really need all that? So in my opinion they should not scrap the 1¢ but instead reduce the production rate... and stick to ONE coinage composition!

Yes...a reduction in the number of coins produced would certainly create an interesting collecting environment...Also, some PR could help to revive the cent...reminding people to use the coins could do a lot to get them out of jars and back into circulation.  I wonder why the major charities have not capitalized on the recent debate on the penny?  It could raise millions!

Dean

I am one of those impatiently waiting for the end of the penny. What a waste of resources! It's not just the cost of the metal and minting of the coins, it's the transportation costs and the time to count the coins at banks and stores, adding altogether to hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money lost every year.

The reason RCM mints so many 1 cent coins every year is because so few of us return them to circulation. Who likes it when the person in front of you in the line starts counting them? When I pay with cash I almost never bother looking for the exact change. I like getting coins in change and look for varieties, errors and new issues. Once in a while I get free coin tubes from my bank, roll the coins and return them to the bank. However, rolling the cents takes too many tubes and too much time, so I bring them to the nearest Coinstar machine and pay the ridiculous 12% fee to deposit them.

The cent simply outlived its usefullness and the sooner it disappears, the better.

I think that its time has long past.   Nobody in 1907 had any use for a 1/20th of a cent (1/2000th of a dollar) coin Ridiculously small amount.   But that's what today's penny is worth, after adjusting for inflation.  Same ridiculously small amount that's practically useless, and yet we spend millions every year on coins for that amount, only for them to end up in jars.

If this proposal actually goes anywhere I'll be doubly pleased - that the penny is gone, and that a Senate committee is doing something that is actually having an effect!

Im always using pennys lol

The reasoning for getting rid of the penny based on its tiny to non-existent purchasing power is not sound.  The same argument could be made for the nickel, the dime, and probably even the quarter.  Individually, these coins can't buy you much of anything, but multiplied and combined, they are very useful.  Saying that its a nuisance to use pennies to pay exact change for anything can be extended to all cash transactions.  Why wait for someone to count up cash when they can use debit or credit?  The penny is simply obsolete (like the Betamax machine and the 286 computer).  Even if the Mint stopped making them tomorrow, there will be enough pennies in existence to engage young collectors for the next century because it will take that long for all those jars full of pennies sitting in basements and attics and closets to be hauled out and cashed in.  So if you're afraid your 8-year old nephew will be deprived if not shown a penny before he hits puberty, don't worry, I'm sure you're one of the millions of people with a jar of pennies stashed somewhere!

I don't want it to go.  If people don't want them, give it to me 

The reasoning for getting rid of the penny based on its tiny to nonexistent purchasing power is not sound.  The same argument could be made for the nickel, the dime, and probably even the quarter.  Individually, these coins can't buy you much of anything, but multiplied and combined, they are very useful.

Yes,let's consider what else would be lost if the 'penny pincher's' have their way.
What of the expression "A penny for your thoughts",or,"penny-ante"Mom was a "penny pincher"

Remember penny loafers,they came in and out of style.
James Bond had a secretary Miss MoneyPenny.In retrospect,I do not think Miss MoneyQuarter has the same 'ring' to it,but perhaps that is just me.
Don't forget the Beatles famous song Penny Lane.

Some of the old-timers may remember penny candy.I think it's been renamed quarter candy?

The penny is usually the coin used to introduce children to the adult world of currency and savings.Collect enough of them and it's called savings and they learn quickly that saving pennies buys them the candy/things they desire.
Is a penny saved a penny earned any longer?

For the adults a penny is a handy screw driver when the toolbox is far out of reach!
The penny is also good for making inexpensive wishes.
Pennies are useful in the garden.They change the PH balance and repel slugs.

For or against the demise of the penny?
I will let you know,my coworker just popped in to my office,complaining that after this holiday season, he is penniless!
He would like to borrow $2.00 for a cup of coffee.Hmmmm...maybe the penny is obsolete?

You forgot: "A penny saved is a penny earned!"  Does Canadian Tire still have the "Give like Santa, save like Scrooge" campaign?

There is nothing quite like looking at a bright shiny newly minted orange/copper penny  , and nothing worse than an brown/oxidized penny that has run its course through circulation  .

I am neutral on the demise of the penny.  I'll spend them if they are around, but won't cry if they become non-existent.  I always use two of them when I buy my XL double-double from Tim's.

But I think there is a need for some change, to reduce overall cost.  Whether it's reducing the number produced, to continually changing the composition make up of the coin  They have done it before when the 5-cent coin changed from the smaller-than-dime silver piece, to the current nickel size of today.  They also converted all circulating silver coinage over to nickel to reduce costs.

Interesting fact.
In Canada, the Currency Act says: "A payment in coins … is a legal tender for no more than … twenty-five cents if the denomination is one cent." No one is legally obligated to accept more than 25 pennies at a time.


Keeping the penny may seem ridiculous. Bear with me.

Now, in principle, you wouldn't lose any money at all, because some transactions would round up, some would round down, and they would cancel each other out. But, let's assume a worse case scenario: 5 cash transactions per day, 3 of which round up, 1 rounds down, and one falls on an increment of 5. (-6)+(2)+(0)= -4 cents. Over the course of the year, that's a loss of $14.60.

You now have 1460 pennies. Off to the dollar store to buy some rolls, waste about an hour rolling 29 rolls of pennies, bring them to the bank to trade for some real money, and you have enough left to buy, I don't know, a cheap shirt at Zellers.
Keep in mind,Zellers is not obligated to accept more than 25 pennies for your purchase.That was the reason for your trek to the aforementioned bank.
Get the meds out if Zellers invoked that clause,and you were unaware of it prior to shopping with your new found wealth.

Now, was that really worth all the aggravation?