Lincoln Cents

I don't know guys, maybe markn will have some good input, but wouldn't getting rid of the cent cause inflation, i.e. prices rounded up. More importantly, isn't this a vote for a tax increase? Lets see, a state sales tax of 6% will have to calculated in 10ths, duhhhh, so a $1 purchase with a 6% sales tax is $1.06 but oh my gosh, we have no cents! No problem, we will just round it up to $1.10. Markn, were you around when they made the change and what affect did it have? Jim


Actually your $1.06 purchase would be rounded DOWN to $1.05. Totals ending with 1,2,6,7 would be rounded down to the closest nickel. 3,4,7 & 8 would round up to the next nickel. 0 & 5 would need no rounding. The results would be a statistical wash.

well thinking as a Tax payer I would agree with Andrew289 but as a coin collector I hate to see them go

Dsking, unfortunately you still get that annoying 99 cent pricing. The shop I work in has every item ending in 99 cents.

Jim1953,Rounding is only applied to the final total. If you go to a grocery store and buy 20 items and the total is $47.98 then the total is rounded up to $48.00. The most you will ever pay is 2 cents extra, which you might save on the next transaction anyway.
Believe me you will survive without 1 cent pieces. We have not had 1 or 2 cent pieces for many years and to be honest I am glad I don't have to handle them anymore.

Steve

How about this: Stop production of circulating Lincoln cents, but continue minting some for collectors.

As far as a different design -- I hope not. Almost every Presidential poll has Lincoln as our greatest President. That's one face I think needs to stay on the coin!!

Does anyone actually use pennies anymore? I say ditch them and maybe make a circulated 50 cent piece.

quote Scoutjim99: "well thinking as a Tax payer I would agree with Andrew289 but as a coin collector I hate to see them go"

Scoutjim, I would miss them too, but when you consider the buying power of the denomination when it was originally issued (200+) years ago, vs. what it can purchase today, I don't think there's much to decide. Keeping the cent and the nickel in 2007 would be the equivalent of issued coins valued at 1/100 of a cent or a nickel back in 1800. Sure I'm using round figures for purposes of illustration, but our currency denominations clearly need to be revamped to catch up with the times.

The rounding works out both ways 0.06 and 0.07 are rounded down, and 0.07 and 0.09 are rounded up, so statistically you should end up paying the same. Also, the rounding is applied to the total, so the most you ever end up paying extra here is $0.02, on the flipside you can end up paying $0.02 less.

So much of the rest of the world has gone through this process that it takes just a few hours to figure out that the next effect on the economy is zero. Given that you accept this argument the next argument raised is always:

'but there will be profiteering, if given the choice a retailer will change an old $0.96 price to $1.00 to get a few cents more'

Well in this case market forces will sort it out. If retailer A just changes his $0.96 price point to $1.00 then the free market dictates that someone will either leave it at 0.96 or go down to 0.95 to try to win more business.

The other thing to consider here is that the USA used to have 1/2cents, the UK used to have 1/2 penny (even 1/4 pennies). All these denoms were dropped, and guess what? No economic collapse, the countries still exist.

When I hear stories of people in the USA throwing cents away because it's just too much trouble I cringe. Getting rid of the cent is the only sensible thing to do. People who have considered all the factors rationally and then still say it will cause economic collapse are clearly in the tin foil hat brigade and shouldn't be listened to.