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Canada To Stop Making Pennies
New submitter butilikethecookie writes with news that the 2012 federal budget for Canada calls for the Royal Canadian Mint to stop producing pennies. "The budget calls the lowly penny a 'burden to the economy.' 'It costs the government 1.6 cents to produce each new penny,' the budget says, adding the government will save about $11 million a year with its elimination (PDF). Some Canadians, it says, consider the penny more of a nuisance than a useful coin. ... Rounding prices will become the norm as the penny is gradually removed from circulation, the budget says. If consumers find themselves without pennies, cash transactions should be rounded to the nearest five-cent increment 'in a fair and transparent manner,' it says. Noncash payments such as checks and credit cards will continue to be settled by the cent, however."
Value of one hundred pennies - $1.00
Value of one sock - $1.98
The look on the guy's face when you hit him in the head with a sock full of pennies - priceless
Phase II of our descent into a cashless society: the elimination of physical currency, starting with the lowest denominations and working up from there.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to my secret bunker, as I believe I hear the Hyperbole Police coming up the stairs. *dons tinfoil hat* Excelsior!!!
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
That's OK. We'll just continue to use American pennies. Thanks, guys!
www.clarke.ca
Are they still copper in the US?
No, they are Zinc. But even the Zinc is worth more than the face value of a penny.
If you believe daylight savings time is the only thing keeping the US from looking silly, you're sadly mistaken.
> Here in Switzerland this is already implemented.
I'm not surprised -- most countries already don't produce Canadian pennies.
2*3*3*3*3*11*251
Here in Norway we been doing this for years:
- The 1 øre and 2 øre coins disappeared in '74
- The 5 øre and 25 øre coins were withdrawn in '84
- The 10 øre coin ended being legal tender in '92
- The 50 øre coin will be withdrawn may 1st this year.
So in a little over a month there will be no coins circulating that is worth less than 1 Norwegian krone... but you know what? The wast majority of Norwegians pay by card anyhow, and the prices has not changed with the smaller coins going away. If you pay by card, you pay the exact amount. If you pay cash, it is rounded up or down to the nearest coin-value.
For those curious; after the retirement of the 50 øre coin, a purchase of 9.49 kroner will be rounded down to 9.00 while a purchase of 9.50 kroner will be rounded up to 10.00 - unless you pay by card, in which case you pay the exact sum owed.
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
You linked an article in a newspaper. I'm referencing the actual law. btw, did you bother to READ the rest of the comments on the /. post you referenced? They pretty much nullified the post.
The last line is most relevant. DOUBLE WRONG!
Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States. This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.
Fun trick:
1. Place a US penny on some pavement (gotta be a somewhat new one, mind you--don't try this with a steel wheat penny or something, obviously)
2. Heat it with a butane lighter--the kind with the little blue flame that shoots straight out, 'cuz you gotta be able to point it down.
2a. Maybe wear a glove on the lighter-holding hand; optional, and I've never seen it matter, but I've only seen it done a couple times so...
3. Watch as the lower-melting-point zinc busts through the still-solid copper in liquid form!
Hasn't been explosive when I've seen it--it just tears the copper and flows out a bit--but if there's an air bubble or something, who knows; be careful!