Goodbye, pennies

[magid]

Yesterday was the last day the US Mint made pennies, completing a 232 year run. I understand why (the cost to produce being three times the face value), but there will always be nostalgia. Given how many transactions these days are cashless, will it actually affect pricing, or will there be an informal “rounding if you pay cash” (in whichever direction) instead? (I suppose I’ll see soon enough given my day job.)

I wonder whether this will make pennies more collectible, for the numismatists who are enthusiastic about them? I have a *lot* of pennies I’ve found in the streets in the last years, not brought to either of the financial institutions I bank at, because one doesn’t do coins (!!!), while the other switched from a free coin counting machine for customers to one that charges some percent (I’m far too cheap to pay for the privilege of having the coins counted, but haven’t yet picked up the paper sleeves needed to roll the coins myself).

Comments

[spiralsheep]

Synchronously, I picked up a "lucky" penny on my way home this afternoon. It's a 2005 QEII. I put my found cash in charity boxes, but I like to let the small coins sit on my kitchen window sill for a while first. I hope the next street penny you find is a special one. :-)

[magid]

Yay, lucky penny!

I’ve found some Euro-pennies (or whatever they’re called), but not Britain-specific coins (yet?). The most-special US coins I’ve found are bicentennial quarters (ie from 1976), which was back when having a non-standard design was Wildly Exciting!

I should put the coins into charity boxes at this point. I used to save up and bring in pounds (weight) of coins to the bank and make it an extra payment to principal when I had a mortgage (it was usually high two-digit dollar amounts).

[thevagabondexpress]

as a canadian american, i remember when canada went through this a while back. everybody went kinda crazy and freaked out about how they'd be losing money with the whole rounding thing but ultimately any losses were so negligible nobody cares anymore.

[magid]

So far, it seems to be a big nothingburger here. A couple of people have noted the end of penny production, and that’s it. Apparently there’s no plan to do anything with the ones already in circulation, and so many transactions already don’t involve cash that I wonder whether anyone will bother to come up with one.