Argie
February 4, 2013 / 11:48

I'm glad Canada finally rid itself of the penny. It was costing the govt more to produce than it was worth.

Apparently Australia got rid of theirs years ago. Mind you, we're always behind the Aussies so that shouldn't surprise anyone.

Speysidephil
February 4, 2013 / 11:53

Next to go should be the nickel.

Dan
February 4, 2013 / 12:12

Australia took the penny out of circulation in 1991. When I moved from there to Toronto a few years ago, seeing the bronze-coloured coin brought back all kinds of memories, good and bad.

Nice of you guys to finally catch up. I doubt we'll ever see the US ditch their penny though.

Blind Dave
February 4, 2013 / 12:28

Good riddance!

Does anyone know how long we will be allowed to take penny rollies to the bank?

Sweden has only one coin for cents. It's called 50 ore. So the rounding is 00-49 (down to the lower crown, and 50-99 (up to the next crown). I found it all evens out in the end.

Donna Vitan
February 4, 2013 / 12:35

Amazing! I was in Australia for about a year and enjoyed the no-penny experience. It wasn't a dramatic change at all.

As of now, I feel like I want everyone to donate the rest of their pennies to charity or something, so that someone benefits from this shedding of weight -- instead of, god forbid, throwing them out or some other nonsense.

Money is still money, and we shouldn't let that go to waste!

Lorne
February 4, 2013 / 13:21

Just before Christmas, I finally bought a bag of penny-rolls from the Dollar Store. I was going to roll them on my own-- never liked the idea of spending money to count money-- but there were just too many of them.

Rounded up the entire collection-- about 2500 pennies. Took them to the bank, and got a couple pieces of paper. That was that.

I don't think I'll miss the coin. I almost never pay cash, or when I do it's dropping a $20 into the office lotto pool, or into the Salvation Army cauldron around Christmas. Everything else is on my PCMC, too. Just checked-- earned and spent over 1.5 Million PC points. =)

It's not the first time this has happened, and won't be the last. It's been pointed out-- as the value of currency rises, the lowest denomination unit becomes obsolete and should be discontinued. Who here still uses the half-penny?

Glen
February 4, 2013 / 13:31

@Lorne

You could have saved yourself a couple of bucks at the dollar store. The banks provide coin rolls for free. Just ask the teller next time your there. My local CIBC has given me all the different domination rolls whenever I've asked.

I'm always finding pennies on my daily walks. Last summer I found 59 pennies in one spot.

Here they are:

http://goo.gl/jqQhp

Matt
February 4, 2013 / 13:48

Mike that sounds terrible! How did you survive?

Blind Dave
February 4, 2013 / 14:17

I'm 11 years older than Mike. Everything he said above is true for me too. I will add a black and white tv with THREE channels available !!!

Jacob
February 4, 2013 / 14:44

I'm happy that the penny's going away. For too long it's clogged up my pockets. I always hated having a total that ended in "1" or "6" if I didn't have a penny to put down.

Also, did you really have to name-drop "President's Choice MasterCard?" Couldn't you just say "credit card"? Overly-specific stuff like that pops up here from time to time and feels... paid.

elvis
February 4, 2013 / 15:13

Kudos to the Home Depot for indicating they will always round down your bill when paying cash.

Andrew
February 4, 2013 / 15:24

@ Mike & @ Blind Dave

I can remember the day we got Super Channel at home. I think I was 11 (1983) and my brother and I woke up at 6:00am to watch the very first movie it played - of course it was Star Wars!!

Then, in my older years, we watched a lot of scrambled porn ;) Or maybe I was the only one.

I won't miss the penny. I won't miss the $5.00 bill when that will eventually get deleted too.

Cheers!
Andrew

Blind Dave
February 4, 2013 / 16:34

@Andrew

My old brain says there were three -- Super Channel, First Choice, and C-Channel? Does that ring a bell?

@Mike and @Jacob

I love PC Mastercard. Those grocery points are the best deal out there for me amongst all the card promos.

And yes, Mike is very upfront about what's a freebie and what is paid to/by him.

Andrew
February 4, 2013 / 17:03

@Blind Dave,

Yes, I believe that is correct. Super Channel was a western and ontario deal and First Choice was BC and Manitoba, i think. I remember you couldn't get both in Ontario at first. I kinda remember C-Channel but never watched that.

Ah... good ole days of scrambled porn or really, cheesy R rated boobie movies. Good times... good times.

Cheers,
Andrew

Mike from Lowville
February 4, 2013 / 17:54

I've been collecting pennies for years knowing they would be discontinued. I have about 400lbs. in cans and jars. Still collecting so if you don't want them.....I'll take them.

@Andrew, I would rather have a five dollar bill than 5 loonies in my pocket, or a shitload of quarters!

Anon&on
February 4, 2013 / 18:01

A penny saved is a waste of time.

I remember when a pack of O-Pee-Chee hockey cards was 10 cents- with gum, which we chewed. 1 cent would get you 5 jawbreakers.

dale
February 4, 2013 / 18:35

@Mike from Lowville

I'm with you as I have 5 large coffee containers full of rolled pennies. Over $200.00 worth.

I'll sell them to you for $225.00 - LOL

Have many others also from early 1900's which my deceased parents kept in good shape & may be worth more.

If you look after your pennies - the dollars will look after themselves.

@ Andrew
February 4, 2013 / 20:19

As an almost-official Canadian government spokesperson, I am declaring deleted the $5.00 bill. Please forward them all to my P.O. box and I'll be sure to get back to you with a reimbursement.

Andrew
February 4, 2013 / 22:19

@ Mike,

I don't know. For me personally, I'd rather have the coin. I'd just toss it in the coin holder I have at home. I travel in the US and I can't stand coming back with assloads of $1 bills. You think you're loaded and then count it to realize you have $20. I saved all my loonies and toonies for a year and had close to $1000 - just imagine if those had been $5 coins :)

@Andrew
hmmm... you weren't the same person who tried to start a Skype conversation with me this afternoon telling me if I helped him move $20,000,000 US dollars out of Ethiopia he would give me 10% of the profits. All I had to do was send him my banking information to complete the transaction.

Apparently the Cook Islands is the only other place that has $5 coins, but I'm sure our government and the BOC will do their best to rectify the situation.

Cheers!
Andrew

Jason from Sudbury
February 4, 2013 / 23:26

\I've got mixed feelings about it. I mostly tend to carry cash cause I find it easier and not really digging having my bill rounded up when buying something.

Cheryl
February 5, 2013 / 08:04

Oh yes, I remember those hockey cards. I used to buy lots of them. I glued them to cardboard and made all kinds of pictures of my Habs and put them all over the walls in my residence room. People used to tease me about it and call me Froggy. I don't care. I live in toronto and I am a Habs fan and am proud of it. Now back to the penny stuff, I hate pennies. They get in the way of things. Thhey're not worth much, but sure take up a lot of weight. God thing they're gone.

Douglas
February 5, 2013 / 10:33

I'm with the Aussies, having been there, and agree with them and those who have posted above - getting rid of our penny and rounding cash transactions is the way to go. After my last trip to Oz, I found that I had developed a real distaste for the penny. What I hate today is the amazing amount of stupid Canadians, who say that prices will only be rounded up. We do have competition in retail, taxes, multiple items, etc. As Mike notes, only cash transactions are affected. 40% will round down, 20% won't change, 40% will round up. Australia's largest retailer traced rounding for the first year it was in effect. On billions of dollars of sales, they were out by less than a dollar - in the consumer's favour.

This effect will also happen (from KPMG via the National Post): “In Ontario, for example, if an item is offered for sale at $1.08 and the business rounds to the nearest nickel, the total including HST will be $1.22 before rounding and $1.20 after rounding. After accounting for $0.14 in HST remitted to the government, the vendor will actually keep $1.06 from the sale.”

Mississauga Phil
February 5, 2013 / 11:55

@ BLind Dave - My bank emailed me today and said that they will be accepting pennies for deposits "indefinatly" so...for the forseeable future. .01 will still be used in electronic trasactions, just the pysical penny is gone.

@ Mike - I'm probably 5-6 years younger than you( born in '81) and I remember doing all those things...my first nintendo was hooked up to a black and white TV in my room that had a screen about the size of a cereal box.....Super Mario Bros was cutting edge and I didn't know what I was missing....oh and remember trying to watch porn through the blurryness on your tv....I swaer I saw a green boob :)

Mike from Lowville
February 5, 2013 / 17:46

@dale "If you look after your pennies - the dollars will look after themselves."

My thoughts exactly!

Mike from Lowville
February 5, 2013 / 17:59

I almost forgot to mention, all those times I went over $20.00, $10.00, $50.00 or what ever at the gas pumps by 1 or 2 cents. Now I will pay cash and they will have to round it down. So many times I've stopped at a round off amount only to put the nozzle back and to my dismay the pump clicks another penny. Now I will get my revenge!!!

Speysidephil
February 5, 2013 / 19:18

Good one mike, I like that.
Revenge is sweet!

FedUp
February 28, 2013 / 16:35

These Toronto stores love rounding up, but they sure as hell wont round down #CityofCrooks