Thursday, March 29, 2012

Canada finally gets rid of pennies

About time! Keeping the damn thing alive cost way more than it was worth, and it's really welcome in an era where cutting spending is all the rage. As long as those cuts are applied in the right places, and banning pennies definitely qualifies as such. 130 million dollars were wasted every year on the production of coins people tended to keep, or outright throw away.

So, what's the impact of prices ending in a five or a zero on pricing? According to research done in America (which can't be that far off from what we're about to experience in Canada), almost none, with consumers gaining a measly cent every 40 transactions on average. All in all, GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE. I'm not going to suddenly start voting Conservative because of that, but it's still awesome.

As an added bonus, the composition of $1 and $2 coins will be revised to decrease their production costs.

Edit: Thanks to SuperNerd137 for pointing me to this. QFT.

7 comments:

  1. Now only if the United States would do the same thing. I'm far past the point of embracing those dumb little coins that cost almost twice as much to actually make than they are worth. And this is coming from a person who can actually subtract (I was a cashier as part of a summer job). I just hope the government here follows Canada's lead.

    I think CGPGrey said it best in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5UT04p5f7U

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  2. That's cool I wish the United States would do the same. It really would help with cutting costs for us. I really wonder how many pennies are lost never to be spent in the US. I see people throw them away or if someone drops one on the ground they just leave it there.

    In other news sorry to break away from the topic of your post Slowflake but what do you think of the firing of Pierre Gauthier? From what I remember you are a Montreal fan. You think they can get someone in there and end the Stanley Cup drought Canada has been experiencing?

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    1. I'm the polar opposite of a Montreal fan (Nordiques all the way!), but it had to be done. When you start seeing empty seats in the Bell Center and ticket resellers have to take losses, you know something's horribly wrong. The way this guy ran his business was paranoid, disconnected and overall horrendous.

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    2. Nordiques were a pretty cool team I liked their Jersey's and Mats Sundin was one of my favorite players. I liked them until they became the Avalanche becoming a big rival of the Red Wings.

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  3. Wow. Quoted for truth, indeed. Of course, knowing my country, America may not get to getting rid of the penny. Maybe...

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    1. I'm under the impression the American government will be keeping a very close eye on what happens here. According to what we saw in the video, the Lincoln excuse may be the best reason of them all to keep the penny, which makes for an incredibly weak cause. I don't think Lincoln would want to be associated with uselessness and blatant waste of money.

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  4. Alright, this will erase one of the most difficult decision I had to take usually in my everyday life : "Where the hell do I put those things ??"

    I'm sure you'll be proud of me now. I just deleted two whole entirely pointless paragraphs, but I couldn't resist to waste at least a little bit of your time by writing this one. :D

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