Ban the Penny

Is a movement starting to build? Is common sense starting to prevail? Is Canada finally on the track to getting rid of a useless device? Will we finally ban the penny?

Here's hoping. A press release I read today: here

A recent survey shows that only 37% of Canadians still pay with pennies and a study by Desjardins Group economists suggests that it may be time to retire the coin...

...one in four young people (24%) between the ages of 18 and 25 use nickels; this proportion grows to 75% for
people aged 66 to 75. However, only 13.6% of young people use pennies to make purchases, while 55% of older respondents do...

According to Desjardins economists, there are about 20 billion pennies in circulation - close to 600 per Canadian. Regardless of this fact, between 2001 and 2005, the Canadian government has issued an average of approximately 816 million pennies per year. This would prove that, although the coin has lost the vast majority of its purchasing power, consumers tend to hoard pennies or even throw them away, rather than depositing them and putting them back into circulation - thereby demonstrating further proof of the coin's
uselessness. Furthermore, the penny is now worth only 5% of its initial value (or 20 times less), whereas workers earn 100 times more than they did a hundred years ago when the penny was first introduced. Based on various analyses, the economists estimate that keeping pennies in circulation when it appears people are no longer interested in receiving orusing them, costs Canadians approximately $130 million per year in production, storage, transportation and various costs.

Removing the penny from circulation would not result in increased prices. "Cash transaction amounts would be rounded symmetrically to the nearest five cents. For example, transactions where the final price would be $9.98, $9.99, $10.01 or $10.02 would go for $10.00. Those of $10.03, $10.04 or even $10.06, would go for $10.05."

Ban the penny! Actually get rid of the nickel too. Useless!