Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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New way to phase out the penny

 Just quit producing them and let the chips (pennies) fall where they may
  (+2, -1)
(+2, -1) 		  [vote for,
against]

Don't pass any laws phasing out the penny or requiring stores to only charge in 5 cent increment, just quit producing them (and tell everyone what is being done). Eventually pennies will start to become rare. Stores that have prices not in 5 cent increments will need to have pennies on hand to make change, so they will pay a slight premium to get the pennies they need. The value of the penny might rise to something like 1.01 cents, encouraging everyone with jars of pennies laying around to trade them in. As the cost of pennies increases, more stores will consider it economically beneficial to avoid paying premiums for pennies so they will voluntarily switch to 5 cent increments when it seems most beneficial to them. Depending on how long the supply of pennies lasts, this transition could end up taking many years, but it would be very gradual and hopefully cause very little upset to the economy.

I guess there would need to be some laws passed to only collect sales tax in 5 cent increments.

—scad mientist, Aug 12 2004

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       I'd vote for this but I only have the one half-croissant.   

       (Actually I just think my idea is better :-P )
—Loris, Aug 12 2004
   

       Your way is definately more fun...   

       This idea just occured to while reading yours and I was interested in what people thought the consequences would be.   

       I suspect we'll never get rid of the penny (or pence), but that the cost of producing the physical currency will go down as more and more of our transactions become electronic.
—scad mientist, Aug 12 2004
   

       I hate pennies, nickels, and dimes for this matter. I just give 'em to little kids, makes my life easier. But + for a plan.
—swimr, Aug 12 2004
   

       + for a plan to not really have a plan.   

       People could still pay in penny increments electronically.
—yabba do yabba dabba, Aug 12 2004
   

       [+] I say take it further, stop producing physical cash entirely. There's only a few things that require real cash to purchase (drugs, underage booze, illegal fireworks, stuff at flea markets) and these transactions can be handled by PayPal on a cell now, if only bandwidth didn't cost so much.   

       I've always wished everyone had a personal debit terminal ("hey, you owe me $5.63 - yeah, here you go *swipe*")   

       Then slowly, everyone would start having to accept either credit, debit, both and/or paypal (or other online money transfer)
—eulachon, Aug 12 2004
   

       The 1c & 2c coins in use in Australia were dropped almost 20 years ago. The world did not stop turning; No-one died of shock... the coins just ceased to be legal tender. Banks would accept them for a year after the abolition. After that they became curiosities.   

       Taxes here are calculated to the nearest cent, but remitted periodically in the nearest whole dollar, rounded down.   

       Prices are rounded down, to the nearest 5 cents, or up to the nearest 5 cents. No-one minds whether it's up or down, as it evens out in the end.   

       Electronic transactions still allow payment in discrete, unrounded amounts.
—UnaBubba, Aug 13 2004
   

       Same sing in Sweden.
—FarmerJohn, Aug 13 2004
   

       The US needs pennies because the way variable sales tax is added onto the price makes it harder to price things in 5¢ or 10¢ increments.
—hippo, Aug 13 2004
   


 

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