# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2025, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/81 "2025-01-27T21:05:36Z")
When I was a kid and had a coin collection, I had a three cent piece. I used to have fantasies about taking it to a store and buying candy with it, and then winning the inevitable argument with the shopkeeper in which I prove to him that it is actually legal tender. I’m not sure exactly how I was going to prove that. I am almost positive that that coin is in this house somewhere, but damned if I know where it is. I hope that I didn’t actually spend it accidentally. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2025, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/82 "2025-01-27T21:45:47Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > An _aluminum_ fortress? Lightweight! ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/83 "2025-01-28T10:21:35Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > My wife is concerned. “So if the grocery store rounds UP to a nickel, who gets the extra money?” She doesn’t get it that you round to the nearest nickel, same as today you round to the nearest penny, not the NEXT penny. We did it in Australia, the New Zealanders did it, the Canadians did it (I think) and I’m pretty sure various other countries have also ditched their smallest coins. People made the “what if they round UP?” argument here and it got very tedious for a while, but eventually everybody even marginally rational grasped that any loss was evened out by a gain and that if you happen to “lose” a few cents a year, who cares? Most people card everything anyway, these days, and some prices are calculated to the cent, so my supermarket bill might add up to, say, $27.27, and the supermarket will charge me that much and the bank will pay them that amount, cents and all. But if I paid cash, I’d probably be charged $27.25. I’m not enough of a miser to care about saving that much. Most people aren’t. And I get rounded down as much as I get rounded up, as has been explained a bajillion times by now. I mean, I’m sure there’s still someone out there bitching about it, but at this point, no one cares. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/84 "2025-01-28T15:46:17Z")
In terms of [seigniorage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seigniorage), oftentimes the US nickel has been a bigger loser to mint than the penny. If you’re being logical you have to get rid of both. But rounding gets trickier. If it’s 1.15 you round to 1.20. If it’s 1.25 you don’t round. Same with 1.35. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/85 "2025-01-28T16:07:38Z")
One of Musk’s proposed measures is to halt penny production. It apparently costs some 170 million dollars to mint these coins every year, most of which end up in a jar on someone’s shelf. It may be the only thing that I agree with the guy on, although I suppose it could end up causing some programming headaches for those who set prices/taxes for goods. ---
**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:** [January 28, 2025, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/86 "2025-01-28T18:28:31Z")
One factor I’ve not seen mentioned that that the company making the penny planchetts, Jarden Zinc Products, spends $160,000 to $200,000 a year lobbying to keep making pennies and contributes to the campaigns of quite a few senators and representatives, on both sides if the aisle. > **[It's Not Big Zinc Behind The Campaign To Keep The Penny](https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/01/03/its-not-big-zinc-behind-the-campaign-to-keep-the-penny/)** > > Given that the US penny, the one cent coin, is of pretty much use to no one at all, other than those looking to fill a sock with something heavy to go and "earn" some money, why does the coin itself persist? Scott Sumner tells us that most bad public... ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/87 "2025-01-28T21:51:22Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Now I find out it’s really “Jingle Massive” as in “Weighted down with scads of noisy coins.” Right the first guess, it’s jungle. Though I also do weigh stuff a lot and enjoy coins. Whenever I go out, The people always shout _yahdah dah something_ jungle massive splits. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/88 "2025-01-28T23:17:53Z")
I use pennies to pay odd amounts. Like 9.67. I would probably give either 2 or 7 pennies to the cashier. Plus 2 quarters and a dime. I only carry about a dollars worth of change in my pocket. 2 quarters, a few dimes and nickels. Usually a few pennies. There’s no need for more change. Any extra goes in a jar in the kitchen when I go to bed. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/89 "2025-01-28T23:43:58Z")
Most of the time if I give a cashier 20.17 (say) for a 15.17 total, I will get back four one dollar bills and a dollar’s worth of coins. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/90 "2025-01-29T00:18:57Z")
I have better results with self-scan. It will usually return bills unless it’s run out. It’s troubling that counting change is a lost art for younger people. I hope digital pennies will remain. A debit card should be charged 19.67. Not 19.70. Rounding up on every purchase would accumulate quickly over a year. Merchants certainly wouldn’t round down. LOL They have thousands of sales every day. ---
**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:** [January 29, 2025, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/91 "2025-01-29T00:22:18Z")
Do you think it’s troubling that most kids can’t put a saddle on a horse? Hell, neither can most adults. Certainly including me. It used to be a nigh universal skill. Coins and change-making is just pure stupid waste and at least 50 years out of date. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/92 "2025-01-29T02:36:25Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It’s troubling that counting change is a lost art for younger people. Most of the time they are NOT counting change. They punch in $20 into the cash register and 83 cents in change is dispensed. They have to count change to punch in 20.17 into the register. The can’t be arsed because there are twenty people in the queue. It’s quicker to give the old guy his 17 cents, plus the 83 cents and the four dollars bills the register is telling them to give him. People need to understand that to many young people coins themselves are an anachronism. Their purchasing power is so small, they don’t even seem like real money. My daughter, when she did spend cash (in middle school years) would leave the change because she had no place to put it. She carried any currency notes and her debit card in a little sleeve on the back of her phone. Many of her outfits had no pockets. The young people I work with are paying $3000 a month in rent. They have extreme math skills. But they probably have never counted change since Kindergarten or First Grade when it was used as an arithmetic teaching tool. 83 cents in change is just litter to them. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/93 "2025-01-29T03:44:12Z")
Dylan got it right in 1964. Every aspect of my life has significantly changed since college. That includes paying for purchases. 😉 Come gather ‘round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You’ll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you Is worth savin’ Then you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/94 "2025-01-29T04:15:36Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Merchants certainly wouldn’t round down. LOL They have thousands of sales every day. Merchants will do what the law requires them to do. Every time this subject comes up here, people from various countries that got rid of low value coins decades ago explain how it works, and Americans just do what Americans always do and assume everything’s different in the USA and that other countries’ experience of doing the thing have no relevance to the USA because of reasons. No. Just observe what many other developed western countries have done. We worked out all the bugs decades ago. The USA is not a special case. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/95 "2025-01-29T05:15:56Z")
I do not use cash. At this point, I can’t even remember the last time I _did_ use cash. ---
**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:** [January 29, 2025, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/96 "2025-01-29T13:40:34Z")
Agree with all this: > [@Shakester](#): > > Merchants will do what the law requires them to do. > > Every time this subject comes up here, people from various countries that got rid of low value coins decades ago explain how it works, and Americans just do what Americans always do and assume everything’s different in the USA and that other countries’ experience of doing the thing have no relevance to the USA because of reasons. > > No. Just observe what many other developed western countries have done. We worked out all the bugs decades ago. > > The USA is not a special case. The only problem, and it was at least somewhat true in your country too, is overcoming the cynicism that the political power of the merchants is such that the fair rounding rule _won’t_ make it into the law. And / or that government won’t bother to enforce the law even if fair rounding is required. Here in the USA we do have quite a track record of the consumer-friendly features of any bit of legislation somehow falling onto the floor before passage while the business-friendly features sail through easily. And also quite a track record of consumer protection laws on the books with zero enforcement effort put towards them. Leaving buccaneering lawyers and opportunistic class action lawsuits as the only means of consumer influence against big business’ institutionalized ~~cheating~~ law-breaking. So perhaps we have some legit reason for exceptional cynicism about this kind of stuff. But overall, this _is_ a solved problem. _If_ the USA can be persuaded to adopt all of the solution, not just the easy / business-advantageous parts of it. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/97 "2025-01-29T13:50:41Z")
Just recently, while on a road trip, I happened to stop at a QT (QuikTrip) gas station. I bought a Coke or something like that, and paid with a 10 dollar bill. The clerk, who was college age, actually counted my change back to me. In the old-fashioned way, you know: “That’s 23 cents which makes 3. Here’s 4, 5, and another 5 makes 10.” I commented on how unusual it was to see someone making change like that these days, and he said, “At QT, we always do.” Now, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I can’t think of any reason he would have lied about that. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/98 "2025-01-29T13:56:23Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The only problem, and it was at least somewhat true in your country too, is overcoming the cynicism that the political power of the merchants is such that the fair rounding rule _won’t_ make it into the law. And / or that government won’t bother to enforce the law even if fair rounding is required. We solved this part by waiting so long to do anything that the money lost to “unfair” rounding is itself totally worthless. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/99 "2025-01-29T14:10:54Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The only problem, and it was at least somewhat true in your country too, is overcoming the cynicism that the political power of the merchants is such that the fair rounding rule _won’t_ make it into the law. And / or that government won’t bother to enforce the law even if fair rounding is required. Okay someone is going to have to explain this to me. Let’s say we get rid of pennies. Why would anything be rounded ( by which I mean your purchases total $10.03 so you get charged $10.05 ) rather than set the prices so they end in a 5 or a 0? It can be done and it happens all the time at amusement parks , sports and concert venues etc. ( where tax-included prices often end in in .25, .50,.75 or 00) Instead of a soda being priced at $2 plus .16 tax for a total of $2.16 , it gets priced so that the total comes to $2.15 or $2.20 tax included. You can still show the tax separately if that’s a legal requirement - $1.99 plus .16 tax - total $2.15. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421/100 "2025-01-29T14:11:42Z")
The penny can be eliminated. But there’s no problem in charging a debit card or credit card the exact amount of a purchase. You can have a bank balance of 5,250.43. It’s just a fluctuating number in the account. If the account was closed the amount would be digitally transferred to another bank account. Unless they wanted cash and then it would be be rounded. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-pennies-usa-one-cent-coin/1013421.md?page=6)