RIP pennies

[dixiehack]

Last one being struck in Philadelphia today.

US Mint in Philadelphia to press final penny as the 1-cent coin gets canceled

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Everything Trump touches is ruined, part the infinite.

 

[Batman]

From the "What the hell are you talking about!?" file, this quote from a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores:

US Mint in Philadelphia presses final pennies as the 1-cent coin gets canceled

“We have been advocating abolition of the penny for 30 years. But this is not the way we wanted it to go,” Jeff Lenard of the National Association of Convenience Stores said last month.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

My guess is he means he would have liked it phased out instead of dumb **** just grinding it to a halt, as he is wont to do.

 

[FileNotFound]

It stuck around a few centuries longer than the half-cent coin.

Half cent (United States coin) - Wikipedia.

 

[Batman]

My guess is he means he would have liked it phased out instead of dumb **** just grinding it to a halt, as he is wont to do.

They are effectively phasing them out, aren't they?
They aren't pulling them from circulation, they're just stopping production. There ought to be plenty of them circulating for a while yet. I don't think Treasury agents are going to swarm on convenience stores in force nationwide to seize the take a penny, leave a penny trays.

 

[dixiehack]

I don’t mind ending physical pennies but to BYH’s point there should have been a more thought-out process than flipping the kill switch and walking away. Of note, the nickel is even more upside down on production costs than the penny.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Everything Trump touches is ruined, part the infinite.

C'mon, he only touches hundred-dollar bills!

 

[tea and ease]

I seem to remember when Canada phased out their pennies and then eventually wanted them out of circulation they offered a nickel for 4 pennies or something like that.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Grocery chain around here gave a deal last week -- bring in your pennies, get twice as much back in a store gift card. People brought in 100 million pennies.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Grocery chain around here gave a deal last week -- bring in your pennies, get twice as much back in a store gift card. People brought in 100 million pennies.

The economy is FINE, people!

 

[playthrough]

Grocery chain around here gave a deal last week -- bring in your pennies, get twice as much back in a store gift card. People brought in 100 million pennies.

Damn, that's insane. Surely some enterprising folks cleaned out a few banks on their way to the grocery store.

I have always played golf with three shiny pennies in my pocket, I read that Jack Nicklaus always did that (and yes I'm ignoring the MAGA-ness of his older years). So I guess I gotta find a few rolls and put them aside.

 

[Driftwood]

I don't disagree with getting rid of pennies.

Buuuuuut.

The single manufacturer of penny blanks is a company where I was born and raised.
Pennies aren't going out of circulation. They are just stopping production.
Sooooo, the only result of way this was handled was an industry will shutter, and I guarantee you the majority the people working there voted for Cheeto Jesus.

Again, I wouldn't agree with keeping the penny alive just for the sake of the jobs of some people I know, but dang if the irony bell isn't tolling on this one.

 

[MisterCreosote]

In my youth, I was a huge fan of the classic, “pay off bets with pennies” asshole move.

 

[Dyno]

There’s a giant jar of pennies at my mom’s that I was going to dump into a coinstar machine. Maybe they’ll become collector’s items. ETA: I just saw the two for one deal upthread. Damn - I missed out.

 

[Gym Beam]

I have a few hundred dollars worth of rolled pennies in the hall closet. I'll wait until there's a three-for-one deal...

 

[Here me roar]

We should only have quarters. Everything's either an even dollar or on the 50. We don't need all these f****** coins. But you are correct in saying it needs to be phased out in a thoughtful manner and not just shut down. Just more job losses under another Republican president

 

[Deskgrunt50]

There goes the entire penny loafer industry. More job losses under trump.

 

[Driftwood]

I got quarters in my loafers trying to fight inflation when it only used to take a cent. - Jimmy Buffett

 

[dixiehack]

We should only have quarters. Everything's either an even dollar or on the 50. We don't need all these f****** coins. But you are correct in saying it needs to be phased out in a thoughtful manner and not just shut down. Just more job losses under another Republican president

Sales tax is what snafus the whole thing. But so much of commerce is pixels flying through the ether now that I guess they can take the hit in the physical world.

I did learn from Wikipedia today that the mill (a tenth of a cent) is still recognized as a unit of currency, although there is obviously no physical coin. That’s where the term millage comes from in property taxes and is presumably how gas stations get away with pricing gas at $x.xx9 per gallon.