# Do you use pennies (USA one cent coin)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 26, 2025, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421 "2025-01-26T08:11:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/221 "2025-02-12T19:00:51Z")
Of course it would “work” in the functional sense of the word. The entire issue everyone is messing around with is the large number of profoundly ignorant profoundly entitled whiners in the USA. The military folks overseas can be told to sit down and shut up about absent pennies. And they do. The stateside civilian Karens of either gender are much less tractable. I have no doubt that if pennies were actively withdrawn from circulation starting tomorrow, where no retail / commercial bank was able to give / sell one to anyone, and were instead required to return any they get directly to the Feds, the USA would trundle along just fine. Net of a lot of stupid people doing stupid screaming at various cash registers for 3 months. The whole serious question here is how much we want to hold the country hostage to those three months times that many stupid screamers. For 50 years now the answer has been “screamers win hands down”. Speaking solely for myself, I would actually enjoy watching them lose for once. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/222 "2025-02-12T20:29:14Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Why would people harass cashiers about not receiving coins that are literally not money anymore? Have you _met_ people? Of course there will be some small set of people that get worked up about this. But both you and @Shakester seem to have missed my point that this is a tiny, ignorable class of people that would exist whether the transition is handled via bill or by simply discontinuing the penny. The penny isn’t going to become “not money,” regardless. You just won’t get them as change, and some places might not bother accepting them. You can still collect them in a jar and turn them at the bank. As best I can tell, this is exactly how it already worked out in Canada. The penny is still legal tender there, but since they stopped being produced, you don’t get them as change. Businesses are encouraged but not required to accept them. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/223 "2025-02-12T20:46:44Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > While of course occasionally the results didn’t match I worked for a couple years as a manager at a coffee house working at least five days a week, and it was exceedingly rare for the till to exactly match the receipts. They were pretty much always off a few cents up to a dollar or two in either direction. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/224 "2025-02-12T22:19:30Z")
I worked one school year as cashier in my high school snack bar. One day the two registers were only 10¢ off between them. The manager congratulated us. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/225 "2025-02-12T23:01:10Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Yes, let’s make a million business owners deal with this rather than pass one bill through Congress. After doing some more reading, it looks to me like the way Canada ended use of the penny is primarily by ceasing production. They didn’t pass a law–it happened instead through an “Economic Action Plan,” which is through the executive branch. They released a set of guidelines as to rounding, but they don’t appear to have any actual legal power. And as I mentioned, the penny is still legal tender there. Australia is similar. Pennies are still legal tender, but were just withdrawn from circulation. There are rounding guidelines but no specific legislation. New Zealand is different only in that they actually did demonetize their small coins–though they can still be exchanged at the bank. So as far as I’m concerned, any claims that the US must handle this via legislation are just another dumb version of American Exceptionalism. Other countries worked just fine by eliminating production and releasing some non-legally-binding guidelines. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/226 "2025-02-14T01:46:53Z")
Haven’t we all been rounding the price of gasoline for 100 years? And, seriously, with only 13% of the population unbanked, I think only stingy Walmart is going to give anyone grief over rounding down if they’re using obsolete cash. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/227 "2025-02-14T04:21:45Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Pennies are still legal tender, but were just withdrawn from circulation. Kind of like currency larger than $100 in the US. They’re legal tender but once one is deposited into a bank it’s collected and sent to the FRB. When I was a slot mechanic in Nevada it meant large jackpots had to be paid with a lotta bills. Largest I personally paid was $13,000 and it was a royal PITA. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/228 "2025-02-14T04:36:10Z")
Yeah, I think there’s this misapprehension that if a coin is taken out of circulation, it is no longer legal tender, or somehow becomes “not money.” But every bill or coin ever issued by the US is legal tender by the Coinage Act of 1963. Even those half-cents that haven’t been produced since 1857. There is zero chance that ending the penny will change that. It will just stop being circulated. Whether we need a law that mandates a rounding method, etc. is a separate question. But Canada and Australia don’t seem to have needed one. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/229 "2025-02-14T04:46:00Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Whether we need a law that mandates a rounding method, etc. is a separate question. But Canada and Australia don’t seem to have needed one. Do stores post what their policy is? Or does no one care? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/230 "2025-02-14T05:06:30Z")
I don’t live there so I don’t know. But I’m 99% certain they all do the obvious thing, which is the same as the guidelines that the Mint gives, which is that if the cents ends in 1, 2, 6, or 7, you round down, and if it ends in 3, 4, 8, or 9 it rounds up. Probably no one bothers posting anything if they just do the normal thing. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/231 "2025-02-14T06:59:26Z")
The Canadian elimination of the penny was preceded by a specific government plan, not just the prime minister deciding one day to stop manufacture of the penny: > **[theme2-eng.pdf](https://www.budget.canada.ca/2012/themes/theme2-eng.pdf)** > > 2.37 MB ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/232 "2025-02-14T07:05:31Z")
Again: guidelines, not law. We can point people to the Canadian guidelines if they’re really confused. They’re equally applicable to the US. No need to waste further resources. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/233 "2025-02-14T12:55:27Z")
I use pennies all the time – I try to make correct change so I don’t end up with a lot of pennies. When I get too many pennies, I pack them into rolls (I’ve got a LOT of empty rols in my closet) and take them to the bank. I do it with my other change, too. Except quarters. I keep those in a container in my car, because a lot of parking meters around me still eat quarters, and I’d rather use them than a credit card or parking app. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/234 "2025-02-24T20:12:08Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > You mean taking an item that is displayed as being priced at $1, adding 6% tax then charging me $1.10 for it? Then repeating that for the next 100 of those items I buy? > > There’s a word for that, and it’s not “legal”. It’s been a while since I worked in retail, but back in say the 1990s in California, it was legal to charge as much as you wanted for sales tax. The only provisos were, you needed to pay the California Board of Equalization every cent that you collected under the name sales tax and of course you had to pay them at least the sales tax rate for your locality. In other words, rounding up the sales tax was A-OK, but you couldn’t keep that money for yourself. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/235 "2025-02-26T01:43:25Z")
but how long would it take (and cost) to recalibrate vending machines? 1 AND 2 $ coins? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/236 "2025-02-26T01:48:54Z")
My understanding is that the Susan B Anthony dollar coin was designed with the involvement of the vending machine industry. I _think_ that may be why it’s roughly the same size as the quarter. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/237 "2025-02-26T18:11:28Z")
> [@fedman1](#): > > but how long would it take (and cost) to recalibrate vending machines? 1 AND 2 $ coins? You just have to change out the bill and coin validator. It is made to be easy to remove. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/238 "2025-11-12T19:55:27Z")
The last penny has been minted: [https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/12/business/last-penny-minted](https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/12/business/last-penny-minted) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/239 "2025-11-12T20:08:54Z")
I don’t particularly _want_ pennies to still be produced but it really wasn’t up to Trump to make the decision. It’s Congress that directs the Treasury how many of each coin to be produced. This is one step of many on the decline of our formerly co-equal three branches of government in favor of a single executive with absolute power. Where will it end? No idea, though I entertain the fantasy of a Democratic president getting the same level of authority. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/240 "2025-11-12T20:13:14Z")
Will the Mint start making [mill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_(currency)) coins? 10 mills to the cent. You’d finally be able to pay that $4.199 for that gallon of gasoline in cash. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421.md?page=13)