Penny for your thoughts...

http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/episode/2013/02/03/apenny-for-your-thoughts-monday/

Today is the official discontinuation of the Canadian 1-cent coin. For those that haven't ever seen one, it's like the American penny, except with Queen Elizabeth II and a maple leaf.

Nowadays, the usage of the penny here is reduced to change in transactions and stuff to throw at people. So it won't be much of a loss.

I think that businesses should just round their prices off to the nearest 5 cents, and we'd be alright.

So… penny for your thoughts?

Since each city, county and state has its own tax base rounding off would not work in America. Maybe we should do away with cash and checks and use debit cards for everything. Most people already do anyway.

It's only a matter of time before the U.S. get's rid of the penny as well (possibly even the nickel at the same time...last I heard it cost the U.S. 10 cents to mint a single nickel....a coin with a face value of 5 cents).

It's happened in the U.S. before, we discontinued the half-cent coin back in 1857.

how we would do transactions then? especially interest, etc.. would be difficult without pennies.. and even harder without dimes...

and if we went all virtual money.. what stops inflation? who monitors how much american money there is an existance?

Just go electronic. We don't really need paper or metal money anyway.

unworthy wrote:

and if we went all virtual money.. what stops inflation? who monitors how much american money there is an existance?

No worries, the virtual money will be backed with virtual gold.

brokentulsa wrote:

Since each city, county and state has its own tax base rounding off would not work in America.

In Canada, we have provincial and federal sales taxes. It's generally a 12-15% tax, but some provinces have lower taxes…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_Canada

As far as I know there aren't any local sales taxes in Canada.

I'd go electronic, but I only recently even got a debit card… lol. And I don't know just how to use it yet either. Cash will do it for me, because if I'm hungry for a donut I can just hand over a dollar coin and get my donut.

Staybrite wrote:

It's only a matter of time before the U.S. get's rid of the penny as well (possibly even the nickel at the same time...last I heard it cost the U.S. 10 cents to mint a single nickel....a coin with a face value of 5 cents).

It's happened in the U.S. before, we discontinued the half-cent coin back in 1857.

There were a few others that we got rid of too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-cent_piece_%28United_States_coin%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-cent_piece_%28United_States_coin%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-cent_piece_%28United_States_coin%29

Hardkore wrote:

Staybrite wrote:

It's only a matter of time before the U.S. get's rid of the penny as well (possibly even the nickel at the same time...last I heard it cost the U.S. 10 cents to mint a single nickel....a coin with a face value of 5 cents).

It's happened in the U.S. before, we discontinued the half-cent coin back in 1857.

There were a few others that we got rid of too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-cent_piece_%28United_States_coin%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-cent_piece_%28United_States_coin%29

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-cent_piece_%28United_States_coin%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-cent_piece_%28United_States_coin%29[/quote[/url]]

Man it would be cool to have one of those old discontinued coins. I used to have an 1888 U.S. silver dollar lady (made with real silver) when I was young...but like an idiot I sold it.

danielbandfan wrote:

As far as I know there aren't any local sales taxes in Canada.

Don't the local provinces/cities get a cut of the GST or does that all go to the federal gov't?

Staybrite wrote:

Man it would be cool to have one of those old discontinued coins. I used to have an 1888 U.S. silver dollar lady (made with real silver) when I was young...but like an idiot I sold it.

I've got a 2 cent and a 3 cent piece each in my collection. I haven't got a 20 cent piece yet.

Hardkore wrote:

Staybrite wrote:

Man it would be cool to have one of those old discontinued coins. I used to have an 1888 U.S. silver dollar lady (made with real silver) when I was young...but like an idiot I sold it.

I've got a 2 cent and a 3 cent piece each in my collection. I haven't got a 20 cent piece yet.

Very cool, never even seen one of those. Come to think of it I haven't seen a buffalo head nickel in a long time either (I do have a wheat penny stuffed away somewhere though).

danielbandfan wrote:

Cash will do it for me, because if I'm hungry for a donut I can just hand over a dollar coin and get my donut.

Is that what they mean by "dollars to donuts"?

unworthy wrote:

how we would do transactions then? especially interest, etc.. would be difficult without pennies.. and even harder without dimes...

and if we went all virtual money.. what stops inflation? who monitors how much american money there is an existance?

Hey, here's an idea--let's just get rid of all these different types of money and have one type of currency for everyone. And we could all have a special card that we used for commerce. But then if that card gets stolen, we are completely messed over because we would have no access to any money. Hmm, what could we do... I know! Instead of a card, what if we have some kind of subcutaneous microchip embedded on our person. Probably most convenient to do it on our hands, although our foreheads might work too. Yeah, I think that might work.

messiaen77 wrote:

unworthy wrote:

how we would do transactions then? especially interest, etc.. would be difficult without pennies.. and even harder without dimes...

and if we went all virtual money.. what stops inflation? who monitors how much american money there is an existance?

Hey, here's an idea--let's just get rid of all these different types of money and have one type of currency for everyone. And we could all have a special card that we used for commerce. But then if that card gets stolen, we are completely messed over because we would have no access to any money. Hmm, what could we do... I know! Instead of a card, what if we have some kind of subcutaneous microchip embedded on our person. Probably most convenient to do it on our hands, although our foreheads might work too. Yeah, I think that might work.

sounds like a plan to me!

messiaen77 wrote:

unworthy wrote:

how we would do transactions then? especially interest, etc.. would be difficult without pennies.. and even harder without dimes...

and if we went all virtual money.. what stops inflation? who monitors how much american money there is an existance?

Hey, here's an idea--let's just get rid of all these different types of money and have one type of currency for everyone. And we could all have a special card that we used for commerce. But then if that card gets stolen, we are completely messed over because we would have no access to any money. Hmm, what could we do... I know! Instead of a card, what if we have some kind of subcutaneous microchip embedded on our person. Probably most convenient to do it on our hands, although our foreheads might work too. Yeah, I think that might work.

That's probably coming sooner than you know.