The couldn't have made it more complicated, but they did...

[goates 576]

12 hours ago, overspeed3 said:

Today, the latest push is to eliminate the penny (or one-cent coin) that used to be almost all copper.  It actually costs the government more than a penny to produce them.  But again, there is resistance by American retail establishments, i.e. 99-cent items for sale.  Plus, the public at large - there seems to be sentimental reasons in the current generation to keep them... 

Canada dropped the penny in 2013, and I don't think anyone has really missed it. Being that debit and credit card use was already very widespread it didn't affect transactions for most people. Pennies were mostly just a pain to carry and tended to pile up in people's homes, rather than being used. And in the cases where people do pay with cash, the bill total is rounded to the nearest 5 cents.

[birdguy 3,943]

If my total bill is less than 10 dollars I pay cash.  Otherwise I use a credit card.  The jars on the dresser fill up; one for pennies and one for silver.  Once a year I take them to my friend at the local coin shop and he puts them into the sorting/counting machine and gives me paper bills for the value.  

Noel

[Fielder 3,663]

21 hours ago, charliearon said:

Lucily, my speed-o-meter reads in mph and kph.  I'm sure it will cost a pretty tupance, thrupence, or farthing or a quid or two to change over the odometer reading mecanism.  I still can't call a cookie a biscuit or a truck a lorry, a hood a bonnet, or a trunk a boot, or a fender a wing!

I was sometimes confused when reading my owners manual for the MGB I purchased.

[Fielder 3,663]

19 minutes ago, goates said:

Canada dropped the penny in 2013, and I don't think anyone has really missed it. Being that debit and credit card use was already very widespread it didn't affect transactions for most people. Pennies were mostly just a pain to carry and tended to pile up in people's homes, rather than being used. And in the cases where people do pay with cash, the bill total is rounded to the nearest 5 cents.

Tightwads scream bloody murder in America when any politician starts talking about getting rid of pennies. I would like the nickel to also go away. Loaves of bread, 5 stick packs of gum, a candy bar: none of these cost a nickel any more.

[martin-w 3,235]

1 hour ago, birdguy said:

If my total bill is less than 10 dollars I pay cash.  Otherwise I use a credit card.  The jars on the dresser fill up; one for pennies and one for silver.  Once a year I take them to my friend at the local coin shop and he puts them into the sorting/counting machine and gives me paper bills for the value.  

Noel

 

Do you guys have contactless payments in the US? To be honest I rarely use cash now. Quick tap of my card on the machine and it's done.

Easy and faster than messing about with change.

To be honest, if they got rid of everything less than £1 coins I'd be happy.

Strange coming to Guernsey, we still have £1 notes here. And the notes all look very similar. 

[LHookins 3,103]

5 hours ago, birdguy said:

...knowing those lines got me promoted from PFC to Corporal and a job as the company clerk

Morning reports! 😄 

Hook

[goates 576]

2 hours ago, birdguy said:

If my total bill is less than 10 dollars I pay cash.  Otherwise I use a credit card.

Around here so few people regularly carry cash that everything goes through a card or even your phone using Apple Pay (and similar from Google and others) these days. My understanding is that the costs and liabilities were managed quite differently in Canada, which made payments using debit and credit cards far more attractive and convenient for consumers and businesses.

[Freo 83]

Here in Oz, we got rid of 1c and 2c coins years ago, so now our smallest denomination coin is the 5c piece. The biggest is the 50cent coin. Highest denomination is the $2 coin which bizarrely is smaller than our $1 coin.

[birdguy 3,943]

5 hours ago, LHookins said:

Morning reports!

And guard duty and  KP rosters I was able to keep myself off.

Noel

 

[W2DR 1,860]

Ah yes, KP. Keep Peeling.....

[Ray Proudfoot 8,947]

Being an old git my pocket money in the 50s and 60s was in LSD. That’s Pounds, Shillings and Pence, not the alternative. 😁

That currency had character. Something sadly lacking with today’s bland coinage. And as for today’s bank notes all made out of plastic it doesn’t feel like proper money.

Does the US still have the dollar bill? Does it make economic sense? And is it made out of plastic too or paper?

I amuse my friends occasionally when I feel the price of something is ridiculous. A public lavatory (sorry, rest room) 😁 at a major Manchester railway station wanted to charge 75p for access to the urinals. “Fifteen shillings!!! You must be joking!” I uttered much to their amusement. I vaulted over the barrier and got away with it. 🤣

[birdguy 3,943]

Yes, we still have paper money in the USA. 1, 5,10, 20, 50 and 100 dollar denominations.  We keep about 200 dollars in assorted bills in an envelope on the dresser in the bedroom.  If Betty or I need some pocket money we draw from that.  We use that for coffee at Starbucks or to buy a candy bar or even groceries if the tab is less than 20 dollars.  I hate to use the credit card for small purchases.  I think paper money makes economic sense but then I'm an old guy who clings to the past as much as possible.  I'm not enamored with whiz-bang new technology.

Our coinage is still as it always has been.  Our cash registers don't round to the nears 5 cents.  We still use pennies.  I can see where the government might to get rid of pennies and round up to the nearest 5 cents because it would give them more sales tax money.  

I can see where they day is coming where people will have a bar code tattooed on their foreheads so the checkout lady can just scan it.  The would save you from having to take a card out of your wallet or pocket.

Noel

 

Edited March 31, 2021 by birdguy

[martin-w 3,235]

13 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

. And as for today’s bank notes all made out of plastic it doesn’t feel like proper money.

 

 

I like the plastic money. Saves trees Ray. Although back to paper and even paper £1 notes where I am now.  

[goates 576]

3 minutes ago, birdguy said:

I can see where the government might to get rid of pennies and round up to the nearest 5 cents because it would give them more sales tax money.

If they do the rounding like Canada and elsewhere, the rounding goes up and down and is done on the final bill total (ie. after all taxes have been applied), so they don't get any more taxes out of it. A bill of $4.92 would be rounded down to $4.90, while $4.98 would go up to $5, for example. 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,947]

12 minutes ago, martin-w said:

I like the plastic money. Saves trees Ray. Although back to paper and even paper £1 notes where I am now.  

I can understand it for £5 and maybe £10 but £20 and especially £50 should be on paper.

Where are you? Not Guernsey.