Does anyone still not know how I really feel about cents/pennies still being minted for circulation?
Now that we have that out of the way and getting more to the topic...
I have started to pay attention to all of the people in front of me and have noticed an interesting trend. People are starting look at the cash payers the same way we looked at the check writers not too long ago. That is, with a huff or a grunt and rolling eyes. Those paying with cash seems to take too long, although those paying exact change seem to get less hate.
Quote: And why did they start with the cent? Because it was the lowest denomination and therefore the cheapest way to start. Get rid of the cent and new collectors will start withthe lowest denomination because it is the cheapest way to start. Only now it would be nickels. Think the higher denomination will scare them off? Well do to the drop in purchasing power starting with cents from back when I did would be the same as starting with DIMES today. So starting with nickels would be no hardship.
Agreed.
The best part is that anyone can build a complete set of circulating Jefferson nickels from roll hunting alone.
Quote: I think the most lamest excuse for keeping the penny is "what about penny drives and donations"?
That is the truth. Most people who put money in donation jars near the checkout are not picking out their cents, they are dumping the whole handful of change from the transaction.
Quote: People are starting look at the cash payers the same way we looked at the check writers not too long ago. That is, with a huff or a grunt and rolling eyes. Those paying with cash seems to take too long, although those paying exact change seem to get less hate.
That's weird. I don't do in-person retail very much, so I can only observe my own experience: when I pay with cash, I hand it over and I get my change back as soon as they count it out (which is pretty fast). When I use my card, I have to press button after button, wait for a response, maybe sign something, and that's not counting the verbal exchanges and anything I have to read on the screen. And all that presumes the thing read my card correctly in the first place.
Cash is so much easier and doesn't cost anything extra -- the time spent counting the change is also the time spend waiting for the electronics to do its thing. And no one gets the 3% transaction fee, which is why the banks really want a cashless society in the first place.
I should have added that I have noticed this in big box stores and supermarkets, where the lines are typically more than annoying and I have plenty of time to observe.
I have not noticed this in smaller shops, probably because there are no real lines or there is at most only one person in front of me and they are done before I can open my wallet or unlock my phone.
With the new chip cards, paying with a card isn't any faster than cash now.... especially since many people don't know which merchants have a chip reader and which ones you just swipe so there is the confusion and having to redo the swipe/chip read, etc....
I think when you pay with exact change, the cashier has to count it is part of the rub. Sometimes, they just throw it into the drawer because if there is a line behind you, Lord forbid someone actually takes the 4 seconds to count the money. In reality, there is also the eye rolling from the cashier to deal with.
Quote: Here, the problem is inflation, and if we drop the US cent from circulation, it is only a matter of time before the process of debasement and elimination repeats with the nickel.
Too late. We are already at the point where the dime needs to be at the bottom of list.
When I buy something and the amount is uneven, I often ask "do I need to find..." however much change is in the amount (past the round number). Either I do (and next 30 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on what I have left, I'm counting out the money from my pocket), or I don't, and the cashier gets me change for the bills.
Once or twice I didn't have a lot of change in my pocket and ended up counting down to the 50 kopek coins (~= pennies), and the cashier said "we don't want any of that yellow stuff" and gave me change for the bills anyway. Some other shops, on the other hand, actively want me to use my 10 kopek coins (~0.2 cents), which is a good way to slowly use up my current surplus of them (though I'd probably still have a lot of those things by the time they go fully out of use).
A few months ago I briefly often paid with a card; it's certainly more convenient, but it's not really any faster, and a lot of places (notably most coin shops) don't accept cards (while I can't recall ever being in any shop that didn't accept cash).
Lately I've been paying with cards more for the cashback bonuses, but I do miss paying with cash and change. I try to use exact change where possible, and never have more than a dollar in change at a time. I think it's fun to figure out the best way to spend coins to get the fewest of them back, or to see how many nickels I can accumulate before spending them naturally (record is 6), or seeing which coins I've had the longest. Yep, I'm a total geek. I also spend my walks to work thinking about trigonometry...
I save all my change and even pick up pennies etc from the ground. It all adds up and my bank still has a coin cointer and I can change it over to cash for free. Heck , when I was little I would spend time with a stick and gum to ger a quarter from a store floor grate. Ill take evryones change for free.
Quote: When I buy something and the amount is uneven, I often ask "do I need to find..."
Here, it's the other way round. For example, the total to pay in a supermarket is 32.84 - the cashier will often ask "do you have 2.84? .84? Or .04?" Consequently, the stores whose cashiers actively try to relieve you from the burden of carrying too many low-value coins are those where you can go to if you actually need a larger bill changed.
Then, there is the other type, the stores which constantly say "we don't have the 0.01 change, we'll be owing you that". Obviously, nobody actually returns that, but I've never heard anyone voicing their complaint about not getting a quarter of a cent in change.
At smaller stores and vendors the situation varies greatly - from those that demand exact change down to the quarter of a cent, through those that will take as much as you've got in change - as long as you're not too far off the total, to those that will tell you to stop and give them nothing smaller than 0.10 (2 cents) when they see you're counting off the yellow stuff [just as in Russia, the lowest values are yellow-colored here].
As for cards, sometimes it is quicker but there are all those times when it turns out there are no funds on the card. Or the card is rejected - I've seen up to three cards rejected in a row. Then, the waiting time for the printout after a card payment to be ready is sometimes longer than it'd take the cashier to put the coins in the cash register. The customer asking whether they should enter the pin number or will the cashier use the payment method that doesn't require it, etc.
I routinely pick-up change from the ground. People just don't care and don't want it. Pennies are seen as an inconvenience across the board and should no longer be minted.
A couple of months ago, I placed a single penny on a rail on my front porch, right next to the trash cans that homeless/scavengers go through every week. Can't miss it. It's only one cent, but even the destitute don't want it.
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Posted 03/06/2017 2:51 pm
