Canada May Ditch The 1 Cent Coin.

I heard this weekend of someone who is hoarding all pre-1997 pennies solely for what they are worth in copper content. I may be relatively new to coins but isn't this a bit pointless because it would be illegal to melt them down for use as copper anyway? Then I got thinking about the fact that Canada may be ditching the penny and I began wondering if that's what the guy is waiting for? If the penny were demonetized would it then become legal to do this?

Interesting discussion. A lot of what I read here I agree with. I see hhbkiddo's point, and I feel the same way about collecting only circulation coins. I also collect only circulation coins, since to me it defeats the purpose of collecting to buy coins that were produced solely for the purpose of selling to collectors. (Especially with the volume of these collector sets that are produced nowadays!) But on the other hand I don't really care if some collectors buy the non-circulation coins. And if there is a market for it, I don't have a problem with the mint making some extra revenue. Whether you realize it or not, we all pay for the mint's operating costs with our tax dollars. So any revenue they can generate to help their bottom line means less taxes (at the expense of those buying the special collections, who are getting something that they value in return for their money). It's a win-win as far as I'm concerned.

As for the penny, I agree that its time has long passed. I will be sad to see it go from a collecting standpoint (no more roll searching!), but its usefulness ended years ago. I also entertained the thought of abolishing the nickel as well, from a practicality standpoint, although this would almost necessitate getting rid of the dime too, which to me seems a bit excessive. And while I like the idea of introducing a 20-cent coin, I think that has a snowball's chance in heck of happening.

I've seen and heard a lot of comments from people who don't know any better (not here or other coin forums obviously, but on news sites) about how the proposed swedish rounding system will be a chance for retailers to hose consumers. It's amusing to read some of the comments, which make it clear that some people just don't understand how it works. They're missing some important facts: 1) rounding will only occur on cash transactions - debit and credit will still charge to the cent. 2) rounding will only occur on the final transaction total after taxes, not on individual items, which means the discrepancy cannot exceed 2 cents on a single transaction. 3) totals ending in 1 and 2 will be rounded down, and totals ending in 3 and 4 will be rounded up. Thus the rounding will average out in the long run, favoring neither the retailer nor the consumer.

Of course this is all assuming that the senate's recommendations are adopted, which I think is fairly likely. Swedish rounding is a system that has already been adopted in several other countries and has worked quite well.

As for those of you who will mourn demise of the penny, you don't have to worry just yet... I read in the latest edition of CCN that it will take a couple years at least to completely eliminate the penny.

kniceone,

I wasn't aware that parking meters could take pennies!

That's one reason to keep the penny.