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Canada getting rid of the penny
13 years ago
General
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStorie.....ennies-120329/
OTTAWA — It's the end of the line for Canada's humble penny.
The government has decided our lowest denomination coin is more trouble than it's worth, so the Royal Canadian Mint will stop distributing the penny this fall.
"It's a currency without currency," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Thursday.
In his budget speech, he said the only surprise is that the penny survived for so long.
"Pennies take up too much space on our dressers at home. They take up far too much time for small businesses trying to grow and create jobs," he said in prepared remarks.
"It costs taxpayers a penny-and-a-half every time we make one. We will, therefore, stop making them."
Cash transactions will soon be rounded to the nearest five-cent increment. So if a coffee costs $1.27, it will be rounded down to $1.25. If it's $1.28, the final cost will be bumped up to $1.30.
Round down: cash transactions that end in one, two, six or seven cents.
Round up: Cash transactions that end in three, four, eight or nine cents.
All cash transactions will be rounded on the final bill of sale, after taxes have been added. But transactions involving debit or credit cards, or cheques, will still be done to the cent.
So if you pay for that $1.27 coffee with a debit card, it won't be rounded to the nearest nickel.
Unless you want to hang on to your pennies as collector items, the government says Canadians can continue to use them indefinitely. If you want to return them, you're advised to roll up the coins before redeeming them at a financial institution.
Each penny costs 1.6 cents to produce, for a total of about $11 million per year. The penny's worth has also been steadily eroded by inflation -- it has retained one twentieth of its original value.
The government anticipates that cutting the penny could lead to fundraising drives where charity groups focus on Canadians trying to dump the often-maligned coin, and said it will collaborate with those groups.
Flaherty encouraged everyone to give their pennies to those in need.
"Free your pennies from the prisons of home, and those jars they're in, and give them to charity," Flaherty said.
The Conservatives say countries like Australia that cut their lowest coin did not see price inflation.
Countries that have or plan to eliminate their own version of the penny also include Britain, Norway and Switzerland.
Canada is also reducing the cost of manufacturing its other coins, by switching from metal alloys to plated steel cores. One- and two-dollar coins are the last to have their metal composition changed.
...
This is one of the better ideas in Canada's 2012 budget. I'm surprised it hasn't been done sooner when the penny started to cost more money to produce than what it was worth.
OTTAWA — It's the end of the line for Canada's humble penny.
The government has decided our lowest denomination coin is more trouble than it's worth, so the Royal Canadian Mint will stop distributing the penny this fall.
"It's a currency without currency," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Thursday.
In his budget speech, he said the only surprise is that the penny survived for so long.
"Pennies take up too much space on our dressers at home. They take up far too much time for small businesses trying to grow and create jobs," he said in prepared remarks.
"It costs taxpayers a penny-and-a-half every time we make one. We will, therefore, stop making them."
Cash transactions will soon be rounded to the nearest five-cent increment. So if a coffee costs $1.27, it will be rounded down to $1.25. If it's $1.28, the final cost will be bumped up to $1.30.
Round down: cash transactions that end in one, two, six or seven cents.
Round up: Cash transactions that end in three, four, eight or nine cents.
All cash transactions will be rounded on the final bill of sale, after taxes have been added. But transactions involving debit or credit cards, or cheques, will still be done to the cent.
So if you pay for that $1.27 coffee with a debit card, it won't be rounded to the nearest nickel.
Unless you want to hang on to your pennies as collector items, the government says Canadians can continue to use them indefinitely. If you want to return them, you're advised to roll up the coins before redeeming them at a financial institution.
Each penny costs 1.6 cents to produce, for a total of about $11 million per year. The penny's worth has also been steadily eroded by inflation -- it has retained one twentieth of its original value.
The government anticipates that cutting the penny could lead to fundraising drives where charity groups focus on Canadians trying to dump the often-maligned coin, and said it will collaborate with those groups.
Flaherty encouraged everyone to give their pennies to those in need.
"Free your pennies from the prisons of home, and those jars they're in, and give them to charity," Flaherty said.
The Conservatives say countries like Australia that cut their lowest coin did not see price inflation.
Countries that have or plan to eliminate their own version of the penny also include Britain, Norway and Switzerland.
Canada is also reducing the cost of manufacturing its other coins, by switching from metal alloys to plated steel cores. One- and two-dollar coins are the last to have their metal composition changed.
...
This is one of the better ideas in Canada's 2012 budget. I'm surprised it hasn't been done sooner when the penny started to cost more money to produce than what it was worth.
Just 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c $1 and $2
Seriously, it's on the fucking line right above your quote.
Cash transactions will soon be rounded to the nearest five-cent increment. So if a coffee costs $1.27, it will be rounded down to $1.25. If it's $1.28, the final cost will be bumped up to $1.30.
> nearest five-cent increment
> nearest five
> five
> FIVE
> FIVE
While cutting the penny out may sound like its going to save money, this scenario of phasing out coinage is a telltale sign of inflation leading to getting people to prefer higher 'values' of 'currency', moving from expensive metals with actual value to paper that's cheap to produce and isn't backed by anything.
Although the pennies are here and by not 'worth' anything, let's be realistic and philosophic in the matter. Does a $100 paper bill really contain a material value that exceeds that of a penny? Noted, pennies today are copper-coated zinc cores worth a market value of $0.0047167 each as of the time this journal was posted (http://www.coinflation.com/canada/).
It strikes me as completely counterculture to the mentality of yestercentury in which hard assets were preferred over the federally-issued coupons that promise an exchange for wealth on a piece of paper that is nothing more than a claim to wealth. Gold and silver certificates could be brought to a bank in exchange for a pre-determined weighed value of precious metal. You wonder why prices have increased 96-fold over the last century from where they once were? It's not because things have become more expensive to produce, it's because the money used to buy it has become so worthless.
A $20 Gold piece from 1932 still has the same purchasing power now, that it did then in terms of metal weight. Silver is the same way, though it's been heavily undervalued by the creation of fiat paper bonds that promise more return on an investment than there is physical silver out there. Copper is in the same boat but even more heavily undervalued. Both silver and copper are used in chemical forms in industry and technology in ways that leave them unrecoverable once the device or chemical they are in is disposed of and flushed down the drain and into the soil. Industry has been trying to move to a cheaper alternative to copper for wiring, because it is so expensive, but there's a reason for that.
This journal response is long-winded enough as it is in defense of the penny, but I'd hope to put the metal value into perspective, as it's all I do as a profession. Centuries of coinage, removal of coinage, and watching the richest nations of the world whittling away their prosperity and worth, and cutting corners to save a few million digital/paper dollars that don't really exist is the first symptoms that inflation is swelling into a cancer. When we reach a point where (god forbid with these fucking liberals in office here) a gallon of gas costs $20, a loaf of bread is $10, a can of soda is $5, how much longer will the nickel, the dime, the quarter, and the half dollar survive?
I have a feeling people will one day regret the loss of that solid little piece of nothingness when they're passing around Zimbabwe-style bricks of money just to buy lunch, and getting paid twice a day to go shop before their money becomes worthless. Don't write this off as conspiratory, because it's happened to every civilization on the planet more than a few timesover the last 6000 years, and no fist currency has ever survived for more than 50.
Saying that I'm not seeing how relying on other people to appreciate my little metal coins enough to part with their time or assets is a step up. People can lose faith in metals just as much as paper. It happened once with gold in 1980 and I reckon it will happen again soon.
2000–2012 * 2.35 g 19.05 mm, round 94% steel, 1.5% nickel, 4.5% copper (as plating)
1997–1999 * 2.25 g 19.05 mm, round 98.4% zinc, 1.6% copper plating
1982–1996 2.5 g 19.1 mm, 12-sided 98% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zinc
1980–1981 2.8 g 19.0 mm, round 98% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zinc
1978–1979 3.24 g 19.05 mm, round 98% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zinc
1942–1977 3.24 g 19.05 mm, round 98% copper, 0.5% tin, 1.5% zinc
1920–1941 3.24 g 19.05 mm, round 95.5% copper, 3% tin, 1.5% zinc
1876–1920 5.67 g 25.4 mm, round 95.5% copper, 3% tin, 1.5% zinc
1858–1859 4.54 g 25.4 mm, round 95% copper, 4% tin, 1% zinc
Copper is becoming a rare metal, As you can see for the last decade they use it only as plating,
Furthermore, I dont have to carry boxs of pennies anymore! less work for me! WOOT!