Comments on: The Penny

By: Ish

Ish — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 10:11:50 +0000

I HATE pennies they are horrible little pieces of copper.
All of you penny picker uppers chew on this.
It takes approximately 4 seconds to recognize and pick up a penny. If it is dirty you are going to have to find some way to wipe it off another 4-5 seconds.
therefore you are making at best 0.01 cents per 4 seconds or or the equivilant of $9.00 an hour and at worst $4.00 an hour.
If in your general life you make more than that it is not worth it to pick up a penny.
Plus if you have an abundance of pennys they aid in the wear of your pockets decreasing the life of your pants. not worth it
I also keep my change in a jar so I seperated the pennies that I intentionaly kept for a year from the rest of the change. (i’m canadian so there are $1.00 and $2.00 coins involved) Other change= 2681.65 pennies=18.15
and i had to roll that garbage NEVER AGAIN
Pennies are usless

By: Arnor

Arnor — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 02:01:53 +0000

Here in Iceland, the government has plans on phasing out all coins. Our largest coin sums up to about $1.50. Instead, they’ll replace our coins with some kind of a debit card, where the money is inside the card, on a secure chip. Sounds interesting but it will probably take a few years for implementation and public recognition.

By: Mike Ward

Mike Ward — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 19:39:32 +0000

The trend has started in America, well at least in US Navy bases in other countries. I just got back from duty in Italy where on the Navy base they don’t deal in pennies. Sure the price may be $1.83 but they will round up or down to suit there needs. Works for me.
I’m not a big money carrier either, instead counting on plastic, and I have a jar with about 20 lbs of pennies in my office. Anyone know how much beer I can buy for 20 lbs of pennies?

By: Praveen

Praveen — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 23:18:56 +0000

$0.01 * 30000 Days (average human lifetime of 82 years) = $300
My brand new bike cost more than $300 ($340.97 to be exact)! So basically a penny adds up really slowly!

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 19:54:17 +0000

Yes, yes I’d like to keep my change. It’s my money; after all, I earned it. It has nothing to do with amount, it’s all about the principle. How is it okay for you to keep something that is due me, that is rightfully mine? In most places we call that stealing.
Anyhoo…
I don’t like to carry change, but I’ll always stop to pick up any coin I find, even pennies.
When I get home, I place any change from the day in a piggy bank (yes it’s actually shaped like a pig). I have about $50 US right now.
…
In Oregon we have no sales tax, but we have a state income tax. Our neighbor to the north, Washington, has no state income tax, but has a sales tax. At the same tax rate, you save money by being taxed on what you spend, rather than what you earn. So, while it might be an inconvenience to add a 5-15% figure to the cost of your purchase, it might actually save you money.
But the cool part about being from Oregon and having no sales tax, is that for most purchases in Washington and California, I can show my drivers license and pay no sales tax there as well.
…
Something else interesting for all you Americans out there, you’ve noticed that while the mint has created many new designs on our currency lately (or even new coins, like the Sacajawea dollar), the penny has remained untouched for 50 years or so. Will they try to make it popular again? I actually hope so.
…
My bank just started something with check cards. When you purchase something that is say, $1.87, they charge you $2.00, transferring $0.13 from your checking account into your savings account. Not a bad idea for keeping your checkbook balanced, but can you imagine reviewing the deposit statement for your savings account?

By: Jules Manson

Jules Manson — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:07:31 +0000

Back when I was in high school I cashed my check (about $198 and change) for a small fee at a liqour store and the clerk rounded down my money by only about 2 pennies. This is the very same liqour store that I often purchased thing at and every time I was due say a penny or two it was not given as change. I wasn’t missing the penny or two but I did begin to resent the sheer unpoliteness about it
all. When I cashed a check and he did the same thing I demanded my two pennies. He got so mad that he grabbed a bat and threatened me with it. I just walked out of the store laughing at him and never returned to give him my business. Was I so wrong to antogonize him?

By: Ian Adams

Ian Adams — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 22:24:44 +0000

I read in an issue of Scientific American once that you could actually significantly reduce the amount of change in circulation just by adding a 14-cent coin into the mix. I think there was another coin that you had to remove from circulation, but I don’t remember what it was. Still, an interesting idea.

By: Aidan Maconachy

Aidan Maconachy — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 22:19:24 +0000

This is a funny story lol.
It reminds me of a time I bought some groceries in a variety store in Toronto. I gave the clerk cash and I was due a dime in change. I waited for the dime, but he wasn’t offering. Finally I asked for the change and he said …
“Oh you want the dime.”
I figure he probably tosses un asked for change in jar someplace under the counter, and regards is “a tip” of sorts.

By: Pete Boere

Pete Boere — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 12:05:13 +0000

For the last four years my part time job has been with a foreign coin dealer; the value of pennies for the weight and packing cost means they’re not even worth sending back to the US. For the last year we’ve been bagging them up mixed with the canadian 1c (the machine can’t tell the difference so we would have to sort them by hand) and selling them 4000 a bag to collectors and China, which has a custom of throwing in a coin at funerals, a good luck gesture for the afterlife.

By: Mike WS

Mike WS — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 17:44:42 +0000

Sharif is right about the reason behind the x.x9 pricing policy. It is intended to prevent cashiers fiddling the store by making them open the cash register, hence recording the transaction, in order to give change on purchases of one or two items instead of pocketing the offered dosh though those determined to do so could always take a few pennies in to work with them. I'm touched with Ryan's naive enthusiasm for plastic money. Apart from Big Brother issues, they are for the convenience of the Banks and card companies not the user. Like Roosta said in the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Second Radio series) "If I can't scratch a window with it, I wont accept it." Incidentally, here in Andorra the pricing policy is usually 'take the cost price, add the margin, that's the price' leading to price tags ending in any old amount. Also some things, like minor traffic fines, are literal conversions of the old Pesseta value. E.g. 12 Euros 02 (2,000 Pessetas) and you have to cough up the 2 though it is somewhat comforting that the amount has not risen in 4-odd years.