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The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

(www.cnn.com)
460 points andrewl | 7 comments | 12 Nov 25 16:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | 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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bbarnett ◴[12 Nov 25 18:51 UTC] No.45904256[source]▶
I know you're referencing more than pennies, but to speak to pennies, I find the current rounding noise in the US to be weird. Likely, it's just more of the media, talking heads, and youtube personalities trying to turn a nothing into something, story.

Back when we did it in Canada, I don't recall a single person I knew concerned about penny rounding. Everyone was sick of pennies. No one cared. Everyone was happy. And the math seems fair enough:

https://www.budget.canada.ca/2012/themes/theme2-info-eng.htm...

Basically, if something is $1.01 or $1.02, you round down. If it's $1.03 or $1.04, you round up. Rounding is to be applied after all taxes are paid, etc.

Of course, there was also central guidance and, well, everyone just followed it. It's called "having a society".

People blathering on about stores fixing the rounding are morons, there's no way to do so if you buy more than one item. No one gets ripped off with the above method. In the end, it just works out.

And really, who cares?! It's a penny.

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simpleguitar ◴[12 Nov 25 19:00 UTC] No.45904436[source]▶
As the article points out, there are laws that say people who pay via SNAP debit cards "cannot be charged more than others".

If cash payments are rounded down, but debit card payments aren't, they are in violation of state law.

The article also points out that rollback of pennies in Canada and other places were planned, addressing these kinds of issues. USA is doing it with no such planning.

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1. wat10000 ◴[12 Nov 25 19:32 UTC] No.45905085[source]▶
So, round down debit cards too? This seems like a really easy problem to solve.
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2. emodendroket ◴[12 Nov 25 19:46 UTC] No.45905343[source]▶
SNAP is a major source of revenue for grocers so it seems like you wouldn't have to prod them very hard to do that.
3. meandthewallaby ◴[12 Nov 25 19:46 UTC] No.45905346[source]▶
They're all easily solvable problems. The issue, as GP mentioned, is that the pennies are just stopping without the thought through these problems and planning for the solutions. This was done via a social media post, not a well thought out transition like Canada had.
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4. thaumasiotes ◴[12 Nov 25 20:09 UTC] No.45905733[source]▶
> The issue, as GP mentioned, is that the pennies are just stopping without the thought through these problems and planning for the solutions.

That's not an "issue". That's the way things that actually happen, happen.

5. wat10000 ◴[12 Nov 25 20:34 UTC] No.45906206[source]▶
If they're easily solvable then why do you need planning?

Changing the currency on a whim by executive fiat is stupid, but that's just principle. In practical terms, I really have a hard time caring about the problems this specific change creates.

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6. jakefromstatecs ◴[12 Nov 25 22:49 UTC] No.45907996{3}[source]▶
> If they're easily solvable then why do you need planning?

Easily solvable problems still need coordination. Do you want to go to one store and have your change rounded up then go to another and have it rounded down?

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7. wat10000 ◴[12 Nov 25 22:59 UTC] No.45908109{4}[source]▶
Sure, who cares? This could already be happening today with rounding fractional pennies. I have no clue if stores round up, or down, or split at .5, or what. But obviously they're doing something, since there aren't physical fractional pennies and my card statements never show more than two decimal digits, so it's not a new problem. This would make the problem five times worse, but five times insignificant is still not something I'm going to worry about.