Link. Apparently the Mint and the Finance Department have been talking about eliminating the Canadian one-cent coin from circulation. No decision has been announced.
Seems they’ve been talking about it for a few years now. I think the public still wants the penny, for reasons I can’t really fathom. I guess they don’t want prices to be rolled up like from $9.73 to $9.75? It’s trivial, but it does kind of add up after a while. I have a rather large penny jar like most people (though it actually also contains lots of nickels and dimes too!). I use Interac or credit almost exclusively.
The only time I carry any sort of cash is during those errands (occasional and brief) during which I am obligated to pretend to be interested in the minutia of my pot dealer’s daily life.
The last time I remember having a use for the one cent coin was in 1992, when the boyfriend of my neighbour across the street used to call for her at 6:00am and summon her by honking. Those little bastards would still have been useless in that situation, if I didn’t happen to have a slingshot handy.
I wish they’d get on with it, already.
Jeez, just get on with it. What is people’s problem with this trivial issue? You won’t miss the shrapnel, I promise you. Gawd.
You do realise that $9.72 gets rolled down to $9.70, don’t you? And so it pretty much exactly cancels out?
They’re good for scratching instant lottery tickets. However, since I don’t buy any, this will be a welcome change if indeed it does happen.
“Welcome change!” Hurr hurr hurr. See what I did there? Where’s a rimshot when you need one?
I’m all for it. I might write to the Finance Department urging them on. 
IIRC one of the Eurozone member states doesn’t use 1c or 2c coins.
I wouldn’t even miss the nickel. What the hell is 5 cents going to do for me? Especially if it’s rounded up and down to the nearest dime.
Torch the penny now, please.
That would be Finland.
This was the complaint when South Africa went to 5c being the smallest denomination. Most stores as far as I recall were pretty sensitive to the potential bad press and pretty much always rounded down to the nearest 5c.
We are the only euro-zone country to do this? Whoa, live and learn.
Can’t say I miss the little coins at all - for all I care they could round it to the nearest 10 cents.
As long as merchants always round down, I support getting rid of all denominations less than $100.
Make that $1000.
Thailand has two coins smaller than a baht, one slightly less and one slightly more than a U.S. penny in value. However I don’t know of a single place in my entire province which ever gives one of those coins in change! (The local post office sells envelopes for two-and-a-half baht, but stingy septimus always buys an even number of envelopes, since they don’t give half-baht change!)
I’ve got a jar of half-baht and quarter-baht coins from getting change at the large supermarket 55 miles away. Hmm … just for fun I think I’ll try to buy something locally with them and see what the reaction is…
Heh, here in Sweden we’re getting rid of our 50 öre coin later this year, so soon our smallest coin will be worth about 13 US cents.
'bout time.
They’ll live in on US circulation - I get Canadian pennies in my change fairly regularly here in NYC, about a couple of times a month. I also got what looked like a penny from Trinidad and Tobago once, and a 2 Eurocent piece that also looks like a US penny (worth a lot more than 0.01 USD!).
That’s about the only use for them I can see - occasional amusement like this.
The cafeteria at my university already rounds to the nearest multiple of five cents. It doesn’t seem to cause any problems.
Rounding to the nearest multiple of ten cents might pose problems, though, given the fact that we use a 25 cent coin instead of a 20 cent coin.
When I was visiting New Zealand I really liked not having to deal with pennies. Hell, I don’t even like carrying around nickels or dimes. I usually sort them out of my pocket change and set them aside every few days.
Good point. But I really hate nickels. How 'bout we drop the penny, nickel, and quarter, and go with dime, a new quarter-sized 50 cent piece (to be known colloquially as a kook, i.e. half loony), and the loonie and toonie?