I don’t usually leave the house with any change in my pocket, unless I know I’ll have a specific need for it (such as the $1.50 in quarters to park my car at the commuter train station).
I do still sometimes use cash, typically for small purchases at convenience stores and carryout places; if I get pennies back in change, they wind up in my pocket, and if I make a subsequent purchase that day, and the pennies I’m carrying will make it so I don’t get more pennies back in change, I’ll spend them as part of my payment.
At the end of the day, any change that’s still in my pocket winds up in one of two cups on my dresser: one just for pennies, the other for nickels, dimes, and quarters. Once those get full, I take them to my bank, and cash them in.
Maybe the half penny, which was discontinued in 1857? Based on different sources for inflation rates since then, that coin was worth somewhere between $1.25 and $1.80. I’m not sure how relevant the comparison is as I don’t know how a half penny would have been used day to day.
I agree with the sentiment, though. Get rid of all current coinage below the dollar, bring out new $2 and $5 coins, and get rid of paper money smaller than the $20. I don’t think that would compell me to start using cash again but it’d be a lot closer to reality.
Eta: for the OP, when I get pennies, I tend to throw them out.
I use pennies, but at the end of the day if I have any in my pocket, I check to see if any are valuable. If not, I put 'em in a jar, and when that’s full, take 'em to the bank.
I’m all for getting rid of them, and getting rid of the dollar bill too and using a $1 and $2 coin.
I also endorse the idea of carrying 4 pennies around, just to prevent being loaded down with more pennies. I just don’t practice that.
I get change every time I hit the drive-thru for breakfast (ie every work day morning.) I always pay cash and the change goes into a plastic cup on my console. Since there usually isn’t any line at that hour of the morning, I pay with exact change if easily done. The window people know my routine and are cool with it. I know because I’ve asked. The place is family-run, so they prefer cash so they don’t get hit with fees (for which they charge $.50/transaction.) If the cup gets too full I just dump it in the “Tip” bucket and start over. Or empty it into some kids hands if they are out selling lemonade on the street corner (Yes, that still happens on hot Summer days around here!) I’ll make sure the coins get back into circulation somehow.
The reason for carrying 4 pennies is because I don’t know what the final bill is
going to be. It could be $17.76 or $17.77 or $17.78 or $17.79. By having
four pennies I can cover any of these scenarios and not get any pennies back
in change.
Great idea! I usually wait until I have enough to get an Amazon gift credit (face value, no fee) at a Coinstar machine, but the nearest one that does Amazon credit is now 30 minutes away. And it takes a long time nowadays to accumulate a sizeable amount of coins. So I’m using your method from now on.
Every day. I tend to pay cash for any small personal transactions, trying for exact change - coffee, snacks, etc. - my filling station has 5 cent gallon discount for cash on Saturdays - and I pick up pennies on the sidewalk*. I’m bemused by the scatter of small change I see on the ground where the coffee-shop drive-thru window adjoins the street - about 50’ from where the guy with a cardboard sign is begging, but won’t pick up the change that others have simply dropped.
*and any other coin I see. I actually found $100 bill once!
That’s the difference between where you live and where I live. You live in a modern progressive place where people use the self-service lines. I live in a place where the one or two lines serviced by cashiers have long lines of customers while of the dozen or so self-service stations maybe a third have a customer at them–so there is no customer behind you at the self-service lines who would make a ruckus.
Never use pennies. Years ago I’d save them up and roll them once in a blue moon, now I just throw them in the trash. Keeping up with them is just more trouble than it’s worth, and they have next to zero monetary or numismatic value anymore.
Maybe it seems wasteful, but it’s offset by the satisfaction of doing my part to fight inflation by reducing the supply of money.
I wouldn’t call where I live as progressive, at all.
The self checkouts that work(or are still there) opposed to the live checker lines is equal in crowd size and line length.
And there are a slew of rednecks in Walmart all the time.
Red state. Loud mouths. Uncouth minds. And ol’beck is keeping her head down. Don’t poke the lion, real or just in their imagination, it’s all the same ruckus.
