04/04/2008

Cent-a-mental. Should we keep the penny around?

By Tim McAlpine

The Canadian penny just turned 100 and for its anniversary present, there is legislation on the table to kill it. This article in the Montreal Gazette, Making cents makes no sense at all goes into detail.

NDP MP Pat Martin introduced the legislation yesterday to stop production of the penny, phase it out of circulation and introduce a ''rounding'' system to adjust prices to the nearest nickel. "We believe at the same time we have a birthday party for the penny, we should have a funeral," Martin told a news conference yesterday.

Bitter sweet. My earliest memory of money is filling a jar full of pennies. Today, I am 100% debit and credit cards, so I guess I can't be all melancholy about the penny disappearing.
 

P.S. OK, maybe my cheesiest blog headline ever!

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Comments

1) Morriss Partee @ Apr 04, 2008
http://everythingcu.wordpress.com

My first experience with a rounding currency was when I spent a year in the Netherlands. Their guilder was worth about 40¢, so their pennies were worth even less. They don't use pennies, and round to the nearest nickel. No one seems to mind. I've always wondered about getting rid of U.S. pennies since then, since they are fairly worthless. Would getting rid of them cause inflation? It is very handy to continue using them in debit/check transactions for reconciliation purposes, but that's about the only value I see in it. I'd be happy to abandon the penny and go to rounding to nickels.

2) Tony Mannor @ Apr 04, 2008
http://andermahrketing.com

NEVER!

I will never give up pennies! You Canadians can, because I hate getting your little maple leaf tokens when I get change at the McDonalds. So that would be cool.

But if we get rid of pennies - what am I going to put in my loafers? I mean, who has ever heard of nickle loafers?

Sad days are those without pennies.

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