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The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

(www.cnn.com)
460 points andrewl | 9 comments | 12 Nov 25 16:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.023s | source | bottom
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Night_Thastus ◴[12 Nov 25 18:13 UTC] No.45903609[source]▶
I'd say screw it, get rid of nickles and dimes as well. Quarters can stay, for now.

It's a complete waste of money and time continuing to mint such low-value currency. It can't be used for just about anything.

Unfortunately, I do see the problem with part of this. For a handful of items where it does matter, it will force people to use cards more if they want to avoid rounding. And the card providers already have a choke-hold on retailers, and the whole thing is basically a scheme that funnels money from the poor to the wealthy via interest and fees on the consumer, interchange fees, and rewards programs.

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1. darth_avocado ◴[12 Nov 25 18:37 UTC] No.45904015[source]▶
If the Pennies go away, you can no longer get things for pennies on the dollar.
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2. droptablemain ◴[12 Nov 25 18:55 UTC] No.45904318[source]▶
The famous little jingle "shave and a haircut, two bits"

Most people today have no clue what a "bit" is.

I imagine the future will hold something similar for the penny in all the idioms and cultural phrases we have. What the hell is a penny?

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3. mtmail ◴[12 Nov 25 19:13 UTC] No.45904708[source]▶
Soon one can no longer add 2 cents to a discussion.
4. barbazoo ◴[12 Nov 25 20:49 UTC] No.45906438[source]▶
What is a bit, a penny?
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5. dec0dedab0de ◴[12 Nov 25 21:03 UTC] No.45906640{3}[source]▶
1/8, so 2 bits is a quarter.

it comes from old spanish coins that they would cut into eight pieces, or bits.

I learned that after watching one of the pirates of the Caribbean movies and googling pieces of eight.

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6. retrocog ◴[12 Nov 25 21:08 UTC] No.45906707[source]▶
Exactly. Two bits is a quarter because the US silver dollar was modeled on the Spanish Pillar Dollar, also called pieces of eight. Hence 2/8 (two bits) = 1/4.
7. retrocog ◴[12 Nov 25 21:08 UTC] No.45906726{4}[source]▶
THIS exactly and oops, I replied too quickly :)
8. patrickthebold ◴[12 Nov 25 21:09 UTC] No.45906731{3}[source]▶
Half a quarter.
9. fstarship ◴[12 Nov 25 23:05 UTC] No.45908161[source]▶
It’s kind of like lots of imperial measurements where we use metric still have these in idioms.