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The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

(www.cnn.com)
334 points andrewl | 4 comments | 12 Nov 25 16:10 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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nayuki ◴[12 Nov 25 16:41 UTC] No.45902294[source]▶
We eliminated pennies in Canada in 2012 and the transition was a non-issue. The vast majority of retailers would round cash transactions to the nearest $0.05, but a few would round down to the nearest $0.05 in favor of the customer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_of_low-denomination...

Canadian cash is better than American cash in several ways: No penny, durable polymer banknotes (instead of dirty wrinkly cotton paper), colorful banknotes (instead of all green) that are easy to distinguish, $1 and $2 coins in wide circulation (instead of worn-out $1 bills).

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simonw ◴[12 Nov 25 16:42 UTC] No.45902306[source]▶
The linked article raises a few problems that the US could have with that solution:

> Four states - Delaware, Connecticut, Michigan and Oregon - as well as numerous cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Miami and Washington, DC, require merchants to provide exact change.

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ianferrel ◴[12 Nov 25 16:53 UTC] No.45902457[source]▶
This seems like a non-issue as long as they round the price down. Because there's no law that the store can't discount their total by a small amount and then provide exact change.

"Congratulations customer, we have a special coupon today for $0.03 off your purchase. Here's your change :)"

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1. MostlyStable ◴[12 Nov 25 16:57 UTC] No.45902522[source]▶
I don't see why you couldn't do it in either case. If you modify the actual price, then you are giving exact change. Why wouldn't round() be as valid a price modification as floor()?
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2. simonw ◴[12 Nov 25 17:33 UTC] No.45903024[source]▶
Maybe sales tax makes that harder?

I guess you could calculate all of your prices such that, once sales tax is added, they round to a 5 cent value.

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3. SoftTalker ◴[12 Nov 25 18:08 UTC] No.45903533[source]▶
You don't need to do that. Compute the total sale, then figure the tax, then round. You don't need to round per item.
4. ianferrel ◴[12 Nov 25 20:11 UTC] No.45905788[source]▶
Presumably "increase the price a small amount to avoid giving exact change" is exactly the sort of thing that laws requiring giving exact change were designed to prevent.

There will surely be some customer pissed about the extra 2 cents they were charged who will raise hell over the exact change law.

But what customer is going to be upset over a small discount?