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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: 0.232s | 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. zer00eyz ◴[12 Nov 25 19:01 UTC] No.45904467[source]▶
> 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.

The problem: the dollar is almost global in its usage. The penny may not be important to the US, but it dam well is every where else where dollars are still in use frequently, along side, or in place of the local/native currency.

Getting rid of the penny will have implications, getting rid of more coins would endanger the use of the dollar globally.

There is still a large portion of the world where 100 dollar bill and a Rolex will get you home safely.

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2. diogocp ◴[12 Nov 25 19:27 UTC] No.45904980[source]▶
Approximately nobody uses US coins outside the US. Even in countries where the dollar is widely accepted, trying to use coins will get you weird looks at best.
3. Night_Thastus ◴[12 Nov 25 19:27 UTC] No.45904984[source]▶
In what part of the world do they use US pennies?

The US currency system sure. But pennies, specifically?

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4. dpark ◴[12 Nov 25 19:30 UTC] No.45905050[source]▶
> The penny may not be important to the US, but it dam well is every where else where dollars are still in use frequently

[citation needed]

5. tiagod ◴[12 Nov 25 19:40 UTC] No.45905240[source]▶
As far as I am aware, USD is used for larger amounts in such countries. Smaller purchases are made in the local currency.
6. zdragnar ◴[12 Nov 25 19:41 UTC] No.45905250[source]▶
There are also plenty of places where flashing a 100 dollar bill and a Rolex will ensure you don't get home at all.
7. zahlman ◴[12 Nov 25 19:45 UTC] No.45905320[source]▶
Before Canada stopped using its penny, it was common to find American pennies in circulation.

It's still fairly common to find American nickels, quarters and dimes in circulation. (Probably mostly dimes if I had to guess.) They're generally accepted at par because nobody is even really looking at them and if they did it wouldn't really represent being, well, short-changed.

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8. Symbiote ◴[12 Nov 25 19:53 UTC] No.45905450[source]▶
Countries like Ecuador that use US dollars mint their own coins for local circulation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_centavo_coins

9. whycome ◴[12 Nov 25 22:07 UTC] No.45907491{3}[source]▶
I’ve found that self-checkouts in Canada are a great way to get rid of piles of change. You can pretty much dump it in. Curiously, it will reject all the US coins and spit them back out.