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    The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

    (www.cnn.com)
    460 points andrewl | 19 comments | 12 Nov 25 16:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.002s | 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.

    replies(24): >>45903659 #>>45903693 #>>45903694 #>>45903838 #>>45903851 #>>45904015 #>>45904115 #>>45904186 #>>45904256 #>>45904307 #>>45904339 #>>45904467 #>>45905217 #>>45905224 #>>45905752 #>>45906029 #>>45906082 #>>45906214 #>>45906243 #>>45906547 #>>45906579 #>>45907421 #>>45907466 #>>45908008 #
    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.

    replies(17): >>45904397 #>>45904436 #>>45904481 #>>45904577 #>>45904655 #>>45904939 #>>45904978 #>>45905151 #>>45905303 #>>45906043 #>>45906076 #>>45906641 #>>45906694 #>>45907379 #>>45907889 #>>45907918 #>>45908132 #
    1. pwg ◴[12 Nov 25 20:26 UTC] No.45906043[source]▶
    > Likely, it's just more of the media, talking heads, and youtube personalities trying to turn a nothing into something, story.

    It's not. Some US states have laws on the books that make it illegal for retailers to round up. The turmoil is that if the retailer can only round down to the nearest five cents, then they stand to lose from one to four cents per cash sale for any sale that is not a multiple of five cents. Add those one to four cent losses up over a large enough number of transactions and the retailer stands to lose a considerable sum over the course of a year. And many retail shops already operate with thin margins anyway, so the loss from "always round down" could erase whatever thin margins some shops already operate under.

    replies(6): >>45906141 #>>45906160 #>>45906179 #>>45906181 #>>45906185 #>>45907098 #
    2. IncreasePosts ◴[12 Nov 25 20:31 UTC] No.45906141[source]▶
    They can add a "total not divisible by 5" fee, ranging from 1 to 4 cents
    replies(1): >>45907519 #
    3. ◴[12 Nov 25 20:32 UTC] No.45906160[source]▶
    4. philipallstar ◴[12 Nov 25 20:33 UTC] No.45906179[source]▶
    If it means shops stop charging $4.99 and start charging $5.00, I will be ecstatic.
    replies(1): >>45906450 #
    5. rtkwe ◴[12 Nov 25 20:33 UTC] No.45906181[source]▶
    If your shop can be wiped out by losing that little on each transaction it wasn't long for the world anyways... Retail margins are thin by industry preference but they're not 1-4 cents per transaction thin.
    6. bjourne ◴[12 Nov 25 20:33 UTC] No.45906185[source]▶
    Er... So just adjust prices to whole multiples of 5 cents? Helps math-challenged cashiers too...
    replies(1): >>45906245 #
    7. jcranmer ◴[12 Nov 25 20:36 UTC] No.45906245[source]▶
    Prices in the US are not tax-inclusive, so the effect of sales tax ruins that plan.
    replies(4): >>45906316 #>>45906759 #>>45907341 #>>45907473 #
    8. dmoy ◴[12 Nov 25 20:40 UTC] No.45906316{3}[source]▶
    And sales tax varies a loooooot, and change constantly

    There's 12000+ distinct sales tax regimes in the US

    https://sovos.com/content-library/sut/state-by-state-guide-t...

    replies(1): >>45907168 #
    9. bluGill ◴[12 Nov 25 20:49 UTC] No.45906450[source]▶
    Problem is it isn't just the $5.99 rounds to $6.00 it is tax. If the end cost is $6.36 will the state be happy with that one penny less? For any state 1 penny per transaction is millions of dollars per year! (note that I had to change your price from 4.99 to 5.99 - 5.00 times any tax rate is an even multiple of 5 and so cannot make the point).
    10. kelnos ◴[12 Nov 25 21:11 UTC] No.45906759{3}[source]▶
    I wonder if this could encourage retailers to start advertising tax-inclusive prices. That way there's no rounding in the customer transaction (if they set all their tax-inclusive pricing at multiples of 5 cents), and then the sales tax would just be calculated in aggregate, and paid electronically with no rounding.
    replies(1): >>45907747 #
    11. coryrc ◴[12 Nov 25 21:37 UTC] No.45907098[source]▶
    > then they stand to lose from one to four cents per cash sale for any sale that is not a multiple of five cents

    Which is much less than they're paying the CC companies on card sales.

    12. ryandrake ◴[12 Nov 25 21:42 UTC] No.45907168{4}[source]▶
    Individual stores generally only have to deal with one. Set the prices at the store, and make them tax-inclusive while you're at it. This isn't rocket science.

    Companies serve billions of web pages per second. We can't handle 12,000 tax calculations?

    replies(1): >>45907539 #
    13. throw20251101 ◴[12 Nov 25 21:56 UTC] No.45907341{3}[source]▶
    Is the tax unknown at the time of setting the price? If that's the problem, set the final price at price + tax, deduce tax, display that. What's the matter?
    replies(1): >>45908043 #
    14. 1718627440 ◴[12 Nov 25 22:06 UTC] No.45907473{3}[source]▶
    So they just make the price with tax a multiple of 5 cent and still show the price without.
    15. gus_massa ◴[12 Nov 25 22:09 UTC] No.45907519[source]▶
    The other direction avoids a lot of stupid complains. Nobody will complain if the shop gives them a $0.04 gift.
    16. jandrewrogers ◴[12 Nov 25 22:11 UTC] No.45907539{5}[source]▶
    If only it were that simple. Some sales taxes are conditional at the point-of-sale. Different customers may pay a different tax rate. This creates a situation where the display price will be incorrect part of the time and may not round to 5c or whatever the legal quantum is.
    17. flymasterv ◴[12 Nov 25 22:28 UTC] No.45907747{4}[source]▶
    That’s illegal in a lot of places.
    replies(1): >>45908146 #
    18. evilkorn ◴[12 Nov 25 22:53 UTC] No.45908043{4}[source]▶
    I doubt that most people in the US know the local sales tax. Let alone any change that may occur due to laws changing or traveling. I'd like to see the out the door price listed but that throws the 99 cent game off retailers like. Also I don't shop very often but Aldi US is the only place I've seen the eink price displays, the rest still have paper.
    19. degamad ◴[12 Nov 25 23:03 UTC] No.45908146{5}[source]▶
    Advertising the tax-included price is illegal? Where?

    (No snark - serious question, as I'm not from the US, and would love to see the legislation and justification which required that...)