Canada dropping penny

[Heads_Up]

New budget today, initial output shows Canada is dropping the penny:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/penny-pinch...200558962.html

Does this mean that we can mealt the pre-1996 95% copper pennies once this is in effect?

[fasTTcar]

Nope.

They retain there legal tender status and can not be melted without a license.

They can be exported though...

[Oldmansmith]

The US should have dropped the penny long ago, but that would mean that they admit that inflation has made it worthless.

[budfox]

Raising retirement age to 67 too.

That's a long time to be playing hockey eh?
The knees will be shot...

[Tbonz]

Canada had a penny??

Dirty bandits!

I thought they were hockey pucks!

[Fiat Metaler]

Nope.

They retain there legal tender status and can not be melted without a license.

They can be exported though...

you can only take 500 u.s. pennies out of the country without a license.

[em ty]

you can only take 500 u.s. pennies out of the country without a license.

I think I've got that many in my pockets right now...

[fasTTcar]

you can only take 500 u.s. pennies out of the country without a license.

Our friend SLV is partially responsible for that.

However, there is no export ban from Canada.

[Heads_Up]

With the mint putting out 95% copper pennies right up till '96, there is a high percentage still in circulation. I've got about 40 rolls of copper pennies just from taking it out of my pocket change.

[honu5050]

what would Jake gusic do ?

[samwiii]

I truly hope this doesn't happen in the US. This will only result in back-door price and tax increases. Price increases will come from rounding up prices; what merchant will round down? Tax increases will also come from rounding, and will in fact be significant on small-item purchases. So that $.96 for the cat food I picked up on my way home tonight and paid $1.02 for with tax wouild cost $1.10 with the demise of the penny. That comes out to a 4.2% price increase and a whopping 67% tax increase.

Then, what about actual increases in costs? This will just multiply the effect. If input costs for a product rise, say, $.02 per unit, it will have to be passed on at $.05. The distributor would have to tack on another $.05 to maintain their profit margin, and then the retailer would have to tack on another $.05 to maintain their margin. So what may have been a $.06 increase, or even less if the intermediates only added on $.01, would end up being $.15, or 150% more than it would have been. Yes, I know this is oversimplified, but the point is I just don't see what good would come out of it other than higher prices and higher taxes.

And really, how much money is being saved in the grand scheme of things. I'd like to see them eliminate the dollar bill first and use all those dollar coins they have stored away. That would save nearly as much without the increase in costs to the consumer. But once the Gov figures out this is a great way to raise taxes without raising taxes, they may decide it's necessary for the US after all.

[Heads_Up]

Actually, the practice to be accepted will be at 1 and 2 it will round down to 0 and at 3 and 4 it will round up to 5. Apparently in Australia, there has been no apparent increase in the cost of living using this method. You would have to ask someone from there if this is actually true.

[fasTTcar]

The round down and up works very well in Australia and New Zealand. It is a net neutral program.

[Heads_Up]

So the RCM is going to start rounding up pennies early next month from the banks (shows you who really owns them). They intend to melt them to salvage the metal. Wonder if they figured this out from SLV?

[newmisty]

I found the highlighted info interesting...

Canada is dropping its penny - will the U.S. follow suit?

TORONTO (AP) – They clutter your dresser and cost too much to make. They're a nuisance and have outlived their purpose.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was talking about the Canadian penny and why the Royal Canadian Mint will end its production this fall as part of his austerity budget.

"The penny is a currency without any currency in Canada, and it costs us 1.5 cents to produce a penny," Flaherty told reporters.

Responses Friday were mixed, with some Canadians saying it would make life easier, while others worried it would become an opening for sneaky price hikes.

David Berman, a blogger at the Toronto Globe and Mail, took issue with Flaherty calling the penny a nuisance. "For a government that has been warning Canadians against piling on too much debt, it seems like a contradiction to then denigrate the one-cent coin — hey, it's still money — as nothing more than a waste of space. It isn't."

Flaherty said a Canadian senate committee held hearings on the penny last year and not one witness came forward to say it should be spared.
A government statement said New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Sweden and others "have made smooth transitions to a penny-free economy." It said penny production cost $11 million a year, and that the coins, which feature two maple leaves and Queen Elizabeth II in profile, would remain legal tender until they eventually disappeared from circulation.

It said it expected businesses to round out the numbers on price tags where necessary.

"Our members are not opposed to the proposal as long as the proposed system of rounding is adequately explained to Canadians. That's the sweet spot. We've got to make sure people understand what's going on," said Sally Ritchie of Retail Council of Canada.

Ralph Moyal, President of the Retail Merchants' Association, said dropping the penny might speed up transactions.

"Pennies are unnecessary and no longer have any function," Moyal said. "I haven't heard any complaints from our retailers."

In Toronto, Mary Pascale, who co-owns a gourmet food shop, agreed the penny was a nuisance and said she already rounds out prices to the nearest 5 cents. Otherwise "it takes time to count all the change."

Theo Danilov, a web developer, said: "I am happy about having less change in my pockets." But he had qualms about the rounding up, saying: "It's another way for merchants to nickel and dime their customers."

Brian Grant Duff, a Vancouver coin collector and dealer, said he'll mourn the penny but acknowledged there's very little use for it.

"It's sad for collectors and history buffs. It makes you think of all those expressions — a penny for your thoughts or having a lucky penny," he said. "I was born in the mid '60's, so even in my lifetime there hasn't been a lot you can buy with a penny. And now if you walk down the street most people would be too ashamed to pick up a penny or wouldn't bother, and they probably wouldn't feel too good about handing a penny to a homeless person."

As for the U.S., however, he said: "It's hard for me to imagine the Americans saying, 'That's it, we're getting rid of the penny. It's got Lincoln's head on it.'"

The U.S. Treasury Department cited a statement from Treasurer Rosie Rios from earlier this year when asked about the Canadian decision. She said the Obama administration has looked at possibly using cheaper materials to make the penny, which is now made of zinc.

That's quite a difference from when candidate Obama was campaigning to become president.

"We have been trying to eliminate the penny for quite some time — it always comes back," Obama said at the time. "I need to find out who is lobbying to keep the penny."

Two separate bills calling for the demise of the penny, introduced in 2002 and 2006 by Republican congressman Jim Kolbe, failed to advance in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The American zinc lobby has been a major opponent to suggestions that the penny be eliminated. Another advocacy group called Americans for Common Cents passionately defends the tiny coin.

"Eliminating the penny is a losing proposition because it will result in rounding to the nearest nickel and higher prices for America's working families," a statement on the group's website reads.

"This increased cost to consumers will be felt in everything from the grocery store to the gas pump. Pennies add up to millions of dollars every year for charities across the country. Simply put, the penny plays an important role in our everyday lives and in our nation's economy."

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/...nny/53911656/1

[Professur]

We do a penny drive at church. I guess I'll be buying out the next few at bullion price instead of taking it to the bank for deposit. It might be hard to melt them down yourself ... but I'll wager a 50T press will change their form enough that nobody's going to question them as bulk metal.

Instructables has a neat little article on how to make batteries out of the zinc ones.

[Treasure Searcher]

One of my brothers works for a company, that has part of its operations in Canada. He also keeps up on coin collecting.

He told me, that when Canada announced they were going to drop the penny, the value of a penny doubled. Must be some Canadians that started to hoard them?

[Fiat Metaler]

most fast food places round for you these days, so its close to the point that the U.S. drops the penny. Doing so is basically an admission of the loss of purchasing power, so it will be delayed longer than it ought to be.

[Heads_Up]

One of my brothers works for a company, that has part of its operations in Canada. He also keeps up on coin collecting.

He told me, that when Canada announced they were going to drop the penny, the value of a penny doubled. Must be some Canadians that started to hoard them?

1996 and earlier pennies are worth 1.9 - 2.5 cents already because of the copper content.

http://www.coinflation.com/

This is were the RCM will make its money on recycling the penny.